How many admirals does it take to change a light bulb? Organizational innovation, energy efficiency, and the United States Navy's battle over LED lighting
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Authors
Dew, Nicholas
Aten, Kathryn
Ferrer, Geraldo
Subjects
Justification
Energy culture
Technology adoption
U.S. Navy
Energy culture
Technology adoption
U.S. Navy
Advisors
Date of Issue
2017
Date
Publisher
Elsevier
Language
Abstract
Energy policy research has highlighted systematic shortfalls in the adoption of new energy technologies
owing to market failures and behavioral factors. However, less research has examined how organizational
processes may block energy innovations. In this paper, we propose that a key organizational obstacle in
the adoption of innovations may be the lack of a good justification for implementing a technology. In situations
where there is no obviously correct answer regarding the adoption of an innovation, organizations
put a premium on developing a justification that may be favorably received in the context of an organization’s
energy culture. Absent a favorable justification an organization may abandon a new technology,
or delay implementing it until a suitable justification becomes available. We draw our insights about the
role of justifications in organizations from a study of the U.S. Navy’s decade-long attempt to justify LED
lighting on its ships. LED lighting proponents in the Navy cycled through several justifications for the
technology with little success. We conclude that a better appreciation of the organizational processes
involved in justifying new energy investments is essential for the development of more effective energy
policy.
Type
Article
Description
The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2017.02.009
Series/Report No
Department
Graduate School of Business and Public Policy (GSBPP)
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
11 p.
Citation
N. Dew, K. Aten, G. Ferrer, "How many admirals does it take to change a light bulb? Organizational innovation, energy efficiency, and the United States Navy's battle over LED lighting," Energy Research & Social Science, v.27, (2017), pp. 57-67.
Distribution Statement
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.