Open Access

The dissertation consists of three scientific papers and a synopsis. The synopsis addresses the relevance of the dissertation and lists the key factors for the sustainability transition in the electricity system as a common denominator of the three papers. The relevance of the dissertation results, on the one hand, from the urgency of the sustainability transition in the electricity system and an insufficient transition willingness of the eastern European Member States. On the other hand, the Multi-Level-Perspective as one of the most important scientific frameworks to grasp transitions does not provide a sufficient explanation of its mechanisms. Moreover, Demand Response aggregators as new enterprises on the European electricity market and potential reform initiators are still under researched. The following key factors for the sustainability transition of the electricity system have been identified: supply security concerns, Europeanisation, policy making and the dominance of short-term oriented economic evaluation. Paper 1 The underlying factors in the uptake of electricity demand response: The case of Poland Author: Katarzyna Ewa Rollert Published: Utilities Policy, Volume 54, October 2018, 11-21, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2018.07.002 Demand response (DR) is considered crucial for a more reliable, sustainable, and efficient electricity system. Nevertheless, DR’s potential still remains largely untapped in Europe. This study sheds light on the roots of this problem in the context of Poland. It suggests that unfavorable regulation is symptomatic of the real, underlying barriers. In Poland, these barriers are coal dependence and political influence on energy enterprises. As main drivers, supply security concerns, EU regulatory pressure, and a positive cost-benefit profile of DR in comparison to alternatives, are revealed. A conceptual model of DR uptake in electricity systems is proposed. Paper 2 Gaining legitimacy for sustainability transition: A social mechanisms approach Authors: Ursula Weisenfeld and Katarzyna Ewa Rollert Review and re-submit: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions / August 2021 Applying a social mechanisms approach to the Multi-Level Perspective, we conceptualize mechanisms of socio-technical transitions and of gaining legitimacy for transitions as co-evolutionary drivers and outcomes. Situational, action-formational, and transformational mechanisms that operate as drivers of change in a socio-technical transition require corresponding framing and framing contests to achieve legitimacy for that transition. We illustrate our conceptual insight with the case of the coal dependent Polish electricity system. Paper 3 Demand response aggregators as institutional entrepreneurs in the European electricity market Author: Katarzyna Ewa Rollert Under review: Journal of Cleaner Production / August 2021 Demand Response (DR) aggregators act as intermediaries between electricity customers and network operators to tap the potential of the demand-based flexibility. This qualitative study reveals DR aggregators as institutional entrepreneurs that struggle to reform the still largely supply-oriented European electricity market. Unfavourable regulation, low value of flexibility, resource constraints, complexity, and customer acquisition are the key challenges DR aggregators face. To overcome them they apply a combination of strategies: lobbying, market education, technological proficiency, and upscaling the business. The study highlights DR aggregation as an architectural innovation that alters the interplay between key actors of the electricity system and provides policy recommendations including the necessity to assess the real value of DR in comparison to other flexibility sources by taking all externalities into account, a technology-neutral approach to market design and the need for simplification of DR programmes, and common standards to reduce complexity and uncertainty for DR providers.

Personally meaningful tourist experiences foster subjective mental wellbeing. Modern, human-centred technologies such as gamified technology have been recognised as a promising means to support tourists in their co-creation of meaningful tourist experiences. However, a deeper understanding and conceptualisation of tourists’ engagement with gamified technologies in the tourist experience has remained absent so far. This study draws on positive psychology as the guiding theoretical lens to conceptualise and explore tourists’ underlying motives for engaging with gamified technology, as well as the gratifications thereof for the tourist experience. In doing so, this thesis identifies how tourists generate meaning through interacting with gamified technology in the tourist experience, thereby fostering the co-creation of meaningful tourist experiences and contributing to subjective mental wellbeing. Being among the first studies to link the concepts of positive psychology, gamified technology, and tourist experiences, the results of this thesis provide rich findings on the underlying motives for tourists to engage with gamified technology during vacation, as well as the gratifications of gamified technology for the creation of meaning in the tourist experience. Using the theoretical lens of positive psychology and achievement motivation theory as the main theoretical underpinning, this study is positioned at the intersection of social psychology, human-computer interaction, and tourism as the field of application. Conceptually, this thesis provides an in-depth understanding of tourists’ engagement with gamified technology, including the socio-psychological motivators for engagement and the outcomes thereof for the tourist experience. This thesis contributes to the theoretical advancement of two principal streams: a) tourists’ motives for engaging with gamified technologies and the gratifications thereof in the vacation context and b) the understanding of motivational affordances of gamified technology in general. The substantial theoretical contribution of this study is the advancement of knowledge as it demonstrates the value of gamified technologies in the tourist experience. The findings eventually provide tourism destinations with nuanced insights into the feature-specific values of gamified technology to contribute to the co-creation of meaningful tourist experiences.

This doctoral thesis examines how Sustainability-Oriented Innovations (SOIs) are emerging at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and how they can be managed. SOIs in the form of new products that lessen negative environmental impact, or even create a positive impact can play an important role, particularly at established SMEs who see business opportunities in sustainable development and consider a possible diversification into new sustainability markets. Whereas the extant literature discusses what SOIs are and why firms develop them, little is known about how they are developed. To enable firms to innovate for sustainability, it is essential to know more about the processes underlying SOI development, which are considered as very difficult, with many firms failing. Drawing on several academic papers and relying on qualitative research methods, the thesis uses the Fireworks model to examine how innovation processes unfold at established SMEs. The main contribution of the thesis is to advance the Fireworks model to the context of SOIs unfolding at SMEs. The findings reveal that SOIs unfold in an emergent, somewhat chaotic way, that duration and outcome are uncertain, that the overall journey is composed of multiple intertwined innovation paths, of which several will likely lead to setbacks. To manage this complex process, the thesis suggests to set four management foci: first, to create a dedicated organizational unit for exploration, second to create conditions allowing intelligent learning for efficient exploration, third to carry out in-depth investigation of the related technological innovation systems, and fourth to plan carefully the re-integration of the innovation into the core business for commercialization. This research contributes to the SOI literature by advancing the Fireworks model and thereby proposing a meta-model of how SOIs may dynamically unfold. Being both holistic and detailed, the model opens several avenues for future research. Finally, the research contributes to management practice by providing a heuristic to manage SOI development at SMEs.

In this work, I contribute to a social constructionist research agenda by investigating how managers/consultants (practitioners) of different ranks are engaged in patterns of behavior (practices) in socially situated contexts (practice) attempting to shape preferred shared interpretations of reality to achieve their goals. Following this line of inquiry, the work aims at (1) advancing our understanding of the role of practitioners in shaping managerial realities and (2) investigating how practitioners actually shape managerial realities, particularly focusing on ´reality-shaping´ practices and their content. The dissertation comprises a set of four complementary articles investigating these research questions empirically based on in-depth, empirical case studies and theoretically within various managerial contexts (client-consultant relationship, CEO post-succession strategic change process, evolutionary initiative development) and considering different actor perspectives (top managers, middle managers, consultants and clients). Resulting from this variety, the articles rely on and contribute to different, at times distant, research fields and therewith scholarly discussions. However, the literature on sensemaking and sensegiving offers a suitable overarching theoretical frame which I use in this work to synthesize the key contributions of the four articles.

A characteristic of the German health care market is the high complexity, amongst others due to the plurality of actors and interest groups. With so many players involved, health care reforms necessarily are the outcome of a quest for influence reflecting the relative power of interest groups. However, in much of the health economics literature, this fact is neglected, with the consequence that public regulation fails to have the intended effect. The treatment of social (interest) groups is central to understand political economic processes. Basic models in this area are the models of Olson (1965), Peltzman (1976) and Becker (1983). The objective of such model considerations in the health care market is to maximize efficiency and quality of care and thereby reduce expenditures. The section “The German health care market and its players: An overview from an economic perspective” analyses the structure of the health care market in Germany together with selected health challenges of the last decade. It questions to which extent the new political economy in contrast to welfare economy is able to explain health economic aspects. The section “Drug Prices and Pressure Group Activities in the German Health Care Market: An Application of the Becker Model” analyses the shift of power and influence among the pharmaceutical industry, the pharmacies and the social health insurers (SHI). Since the health care reform in 2004, these interest groups have been negotiating the structure of surcharges and discounts among each other without any intervention from the government. This reflects the assumption of a passive government in the Becker (1983) model and makes this model to a good choice for application. The negotiations and the resulting amendments of this ordinance express the shift of power and influence among the involved interest groups in the German health care market after 2004. The first assumption is a closed system based on the theoretical work by Becker. The amount of total budget and the amount of total influence is constant and defined as 10. In such a standardized system, the influence by producers and pharmacies decreases about 0.007 units of political pressure to the value 9.989, whereas the influence by SHI increases about 0.007 units to the value 0.011 between 2008 and 2010. More realistic is the second assumption, the assumption of an open system where the amount of total budget and the amount of total influence can change over the years. With this assumption a trend becomes apparent which shows an increase in political pressure by SHI about 0.015 units to the value 0.036 and a decrease of political pressure by pharmacies and producers about 18.326 units to the value 34.022 between 2008 and 2010. This reflects the cost control trend in combination with the empowerment incentives for SHI. Noteworthy is the high pressure level of producers compared to the other interest groups. As a conclusion one can say that the last years show a movement to more competition between the interest groups. This leads to more balanced power relations. But nevertheless, the most powerful group is still the producer group and the influence of the SHI is still very low. However, the government does not always behave passively. On sensitive issues for voters such as co-payments, the government tries to maximize votes. So, in the section “Drug Prices, Rents, and Votes in the German Health Care Market: An Application of the Peltzman Model”, the reaction of consumers (insured persons) and producers (pharmaceutical industry) based on electoral behavior and relating to drug prices and co-payments imposed on drugs is analyzed, using the health care reform of 2004 as an experience. The changes in prices and medications after this reform make it to a natural choice. For the analysis, the interest group model by Peltzman (1976) is applied to the German health care market. The vote-maximizing government has to find the optimal combination of rent and price of regulation. For the optimum solution, the variation of votes on the part of pharmaceutical industry has to equal the variation of votes on the part of consumers. Reflecting different power structures leads to drug prices ranging from 5 to 50 Euros, associated with a co-payment of 5 Euros. Prices between 50 and 100 Euros are possible as well, reflecting a balance of power facing the pharmaceutical industry. These prices are associated with a co-payment of 10% of the selling price. Concerning the transition from 1989 reference price regime to the 2004 reform one can say that producers who had accepted the reference price had an incentive to increase their price while lowering their sales volume.