System building for sociotechnical change: A sociological analysis of the efforts of energy-efficiency advocates in the United State residential housing system

Alternative technology advocates lack effective hands-on theories of technological change. This study presents a new, sociological, organization-based theory of system building and also provides the results of empirical, field-based research of efforts to encourage energy efficiency in the United States' residential housing industry from the early 1980s to 2005. Advocates can facilitate technological change by being situated within dominant economic institutions and having a full set of organizational capacities for system building, instead of merely politically advocating from the periphery of an industry. Technological change occurs when organizations shape sociotechnical systems of institutions, organizations, culture, and technologies to support certain technologies over others. Organizations are successful at this when they have the capacity to collect information, control, coordinate, flexibly finance, and strategically plan system building. This capacity is used to invent new technologies, new organizational routines and institutions, and then integrate all of these parts into the sociotechnical systems to support certain technologies. Further theory is inductively developed through reviewing the success that historical corporations have attained at system building. For corporations, organizational capacities have manifested as strategic central offices, multiple divisions, R&D units, and marketing departments allowing corporations to facilitate fast-paced, highly dynamic technological change. The thesis that advocates of alternative technology have lacked the organizational capacities for effective system building is evaluated through a case study of Home Energy Ratings System (HERS) and Energy Efficient Mortgages (EEMs). Research findings mostly support this thesis, and caveats are stated. Additional sociological theory is offered about networks of small organizations engaging in system building. Also, large, complex, centralized organizations and/or other large structures are crucial for shaping system-wide transformations. However, size is probably not the only factor, and small organizations can play a role. Policy recommendations assume that the same or analogous organizational structures used by corporations for system building can also be used by other types of organizations for system building, such as by progressive advocates of alternative technology.