Why Innovation Happens: Structured Actors and Emergent Outcomes in the Commercial Buildings Sector

Thomas D. Beamish, University of California-Davis
Rick Kunkle and Loren Lutzenhiser, Washington State University
Nicole W. Biggart, University of California

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Abstract

Why are contemporary commercial office buildings not dramatically more efficient than those constructed twenty years ago? Although this has generally been a question for engineers and architects, we are investigating from a social-organizational perspective the (non-)integration of green designs and technologies into commercial and institutional building projects. We focus on the socioeconomic and socioenvironmental factors associated with current practices at each stage of the development process from planning through construction. To the discussion of “performance,” we hope to make suggestions concerning the organizational features of commercial building markets that facilitate and inhibit energy efficiency innovation and the subsequent incorporation of energy efficient designs/technologies into commercial building projects. In this paper we report some initial findings from our field studies and offer a preliminary account of where strategic interventionto promote energy efficiency may be the most productive.