Industry Institutions and Their Effects on Indirect Emissions in the Norwegian Architectural, Engineering and Construction Industry : A comparative case study of institutional aspects in state-owned and private firms

Abstract

In our master’s thesis, we examine which industry institutions affect actors’ measures to reduce their indirect CO2 emissions in the Norwegian architectural, engineering and construction industry. The industry is characterized by having some of the highest levels of CO2 emissions in the world, thus making it an important field to explore. Through a comparative multiple case study, we examine institutional differences between one state-owned enterprise and two private firms, all three being high performers in terms of environmental development. However, general environmental development within the industry is slow, and the industry at large is defined by transactional and traditional methods of value creation. As such, we use the institutional theory of the firm to improve our understanding of how change happens in institutionalized fields. Through semi-structured interviews with highly knowledgeable informants and secondary sources of data such as environmental reports and contracts, empirical data was collected to enable a rigorous examination of the industry. Our findings suggest that factors such as differences in business models, financing, laws and regulations, norms and an overall transactional focus are the most important elements to understand how the field may change and reduce their indirect emissions. We finally suggest a model that informs our current understanding of how the industry may move toward the emission-free construction site.