Becoming sustainable? Analyzing industry and government responses to climate change and the energy transition

Alternative ways of measuring the success of managers and projects within organizations are essential for identifying and implementing more meaningful sustainability responses, as has been shown in this dissertation. This conclusion is based on the outcomes of four studies that explore how organizations and individuals understand and respond to climate change. The first study sets the foundations for the dissertation by looking more broadly at the literature on learning for sustainability across disciplines, presenting future avenues for business and management research. The second study signals the narrowing of the research focus to the energy transition and seeks to understand how energy companies have understood and responded to climate change over time. The final two studies capture the experiences of individuals participating in the energy transition themselves. Study 3 focuses on the ways in which actors explain and justify organizational climate inaction, and Study 4 explores how radical changes in organizational identity influences members’ perceptions of themselves, relationships with others, and the organizations’ ability to achieve radical change.