This paper examines the long-term evolution of biomethane in Sweden as a case of a multi-system transition, involving interactions across several sociotechnical systems over more than three decades. Biomethane is conceptualized as a linkage system that connects different systems through a new value chain configuration. The analysis shows that additional systems were gradually incorporated, leading to a continuous expansion of the value chain. While the overall transition is characterized by cross-system reconfiguration, the individual systems exhibit distinct yet complementary transition pathways, including new system emergence, transformation, and substitution. The paper argues that the niche accumulation associated with substitution in downstream systems must be accompanied by cumulative processes in upstream systems to meet increasing demand. This expansion has important implications for sustainability assessments. The paper concludes that cumulative growth in expanding value chains raises critical questions regarding resource availability and limits to growth for sustainable alternatives. © 2026 The Author(s).

This paper combines literature on program management and the multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions to analyze how a firm within the petrochemical industry negotiates across niches and regimes in its transition-oriented program. The analysis shows that this strategic change program comprises three types of projects—exploitation, exploration, and hybrid. In the context of the firms’ ambition to attain net-zero emissions, individual projects of all three types play distinctive roles. In exploitation projects, negotiations stay at the regime level, which reinforces existing institutions but also enables a transfer of certain emission-reducing technologies. In contrast, exploration and hybrid projects entail negotiations that cut across niche and regime levels. For hybrid projects, we find that niche-regime negotiations remain predominantly internal, while they are externalized in exploration projects. Clarifying the relationship between internal and external negotiations, our work suggests that strategic project sequencing could facilitate transition-oriented programs. Run in sequence, exploration projects may help mobilize external support and resources, hybrid projects can safeguard internal support, and exploitation projects can enable companywide diffusion of practices that support the net-zero objectives. Copyright © 2026. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

This paper analyses how incumbent actors with established positions in various sectors and systems engage in the formation of inter-system linkages to combine different systems in new ways. We refer to such recombination of systems as a multi-system transition. Grounded in evolutionary economics, the paper introduces a recursive model with interrelated learning cycles that account for both transitions in individual systems and interactions to establish new linkages between systems. A case analysis of the ongoing electrification of goods transportation in Sweden – a multi-system transition that combines electricity and goods transportation in new ways – illustrates how interactions across systems often are asymmetric, with some systems undergoing more substantial changes than others. This asymmetry helps explain why incumbent actors from different systems and sectors favor different kinds of inter-system linkages. Asymmetries across systems reveal a more complex sequentiality of a multi-system transition compared to a single-system transition, with different systems situated in different transition phases. This necessitates mixes of supporting policies tailored to stimulate a variety of transition phases. By introducing a model that highlights actor-system coevolution, the paper provides insights into the possibilities to engage incumbent actors from different systems and sectors to drive multi-system transitions. © 2025 The Authors

This conceptual paper argues that there are unrealized benefits from a cross-fertilization between research on sustainable tourism and sustainability transitions studies. With the aim to stimulate such cross-fertilization, the paper identifies three contemporary streams in sustainability transitions studies that are particularly relevant for sustainable tourism: deep transitions, transitions in practice, and the geography of transitions. These three streams present complementary perspectives, which can help reach a more nuanced understanding of transition processes in the tourism sector. The paper concludes that while research on sustainable tourism can benefit from theories, concepts, and frameworks from research on sustainability transitions, research on sustainable tourism can support further conceptual developments in sustainability transitions studies.

Following the tradition of using opposing concepts as a basis for organisational analysis, this article advances a theory-based understanding of incumbent firms in sustainability transitions. Building on seminal transition studies, we propose innovating/defending and collaborating/competing as two useful spectra to describe organisational behaviours in transitions. Presenting the automotive industry as an explanatory case, we show results from a systematic literature review that reveal motives for diverging behaviours. Combining the spectra into a 2 × 2 matrix, we then introduce four conceptualisations to explain the observed motives and behaviours. The conceptualisations are associated with different streams of organisation theory: dynamic capabilities and the resource-based view, resource-dependence theory, neo-institutional theory and theories on organisational learning and path dependence. Referring to organisational ambidexterity, value configurations and political arenas, we conclude that transitions research can reach a more multifaceted understanding by challenging the prevailing notion of the firm as a coherent actor. © 2022 The Authors. Business Strategy and The Environment published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The transition to a circular economy relies on systems that facilitate waste recovery and recirculation of resources. These systems are based on certain enabling technologies. The aim of this paper is to explain how socio-economic structures influence the diffusion of such technologies. It applies a framework built on societal embedding and varieties of capitalism to compare the diffusion of anaerobic digestion (AD) in Sweden in northern Europe and Paraná in southern Brazil. Both Sweden and Paraná have experienced accelerated diffusion of AD, but there are significant differences in the respective diffusion patterns. The comparative analysis points to a tradeoff between system complexity and speed of diffusion. It illustrates how AD can be presented as a solution to various problems, and it further shows how the specific problems that gain attention shape diffusion patterns. By showing how socio-economic structures influence the appointment of problem owners, their agency, and legitimate forms of institutional support, the analysis demonstrates how economic systems condition technology diffusion. © 2021 The Authors

If sustainability transitions research is to be relevant for upscaled diffusion of radical innovations and wide systemic socio-technical changes, then markets remain critical to account for. Founding frameworks in transition studies regard markets and market formation as important. Yet, the conceptualization of markets has so far not been elaborate: markets are mostly pictured as target areas for sustainable innovation and emphasis is on diffusion and user involvement. This special issue aims to unpack the notion of markets and market formation in sustainability transitions. The special issue contains in total 13 papers, which draw on theory from various scientific disciplines, use diverse research approaches, and cover a multitude of contexts. Altogether, the collection of papers stimulates broader theorizing of markets in sustainability transitions and the formulation of an agenda for future studies on markets in sustainability transitions. This editorial paper proposes relevant topics for such a research agenda. © 2022 The Author(s)

Policy mixes are needed to overcome the different barriers hindering sustainability transitions. This creates the need for policy coherence. Policy coherence studies in sustainability transitions literature are dominated by European cases, limiting their generalizability. This article analyzes policy mixes related to biogas systems and their related coherence issues, and, how that influences biogas production and use in Brazil. We identified policy coherence within and between biogas related sectors and over time, showing how the pre-conditions for biogas production, distribution and use differ considerably between the Brazilian states. This points to a need for decentralized governance structures to enable policy differentiation, as a complement to policy coherence. The article concludes that the characteristics of biogas systems as being locally embedded constitutes a challenge in hierarchical market economies such as Brazil, where policy development, resource mobilization and allocation are highly centralized. © 2021 The Authors

This paper analyzes how incumbent firms act to shape markets for new technology alternatives. It introduces a framework that highlights important linkages between the dynamic market-shaping capabilities of individual firms and market-shaping processes on a system level. The framework is used to analyze the endeavors of two large heavy vehicle manufacturers to introduce two technology platforms—electrified trucks and trucks fueled by liquefied gas—as alternatives to traditional diesel-fueled trucks. The analysis shows how incumbent firms deploy market-shaping capabilities to claim legitimate positions in envisioned future markets. The paper concludes by pointing to the dynamism of market interactions in sustainability transitions, showing how firms induce system-level reconfigurations and how such reconfigurations induce changes at the level of the firm. © 2021 The Author(s)