Legitimation, institutions and regional path creation: a cross-national study of offshore wind

ABSTRACT

This paper assesses legitimation as a crucial dimension of industry emergence, addressing the neglect of institutional and political aspects of path creation in economic geography. It investigates how the legitimacy of emerging industries is built up over time and examines differences in legitimation across space. The paper focuses on the evolution of legitimation narratives in the context of national and regional differences in institutions, actors and assets. Based on a cross-national study of the offshore wind industry, the paper argues that cost reduction and value creation have made important contributions to legitimation in addition to climate change and energy security.

KEYWORDS:

• legitimation
• narratives
• multi-scalar institutions
• evolutionary economic geography
• path creation

JEL:

• D83
• Q42
• R11
• R58

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are grateful to three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on earlier versions of this paper, and to all the respondents for sharing their time and knowledge. The usual disclaimers apply.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The research was made possible by a grant from the Norges Forskningsråd (Norwegian Research Council) through the ENERGIX programme [grant number 255400: InNOWiC – Internationalisation of Norwegian Offshore Wind Capabilities].