Strategic response to institutional pressures of climate change: an exploration among gas sector companies

Climate change has become one of the dominant themes of our time, and the way how companies respond to it may have major implications for their success in the future. This paper aims to better understand the response of companies in a highly exposed sector, i.e. the gas sector, to institutional pressures of climate change. To do so, it adopts a qualitative research design that builds on 29 expert interviews with senior managers of Austrian gas sector companies. Based on an existing typology, we argue that most companies exhibit one of the following responses: ‘minimalist,’ ‘regulation shaper,’ ‘pressure manager’ or ‘emission avoider.’ Additionally, we develop and extend the typology with a fifth response type: ‘trade-off seeker.’ This ensures a thorough classification of all responses observed and acknowledges the increasing relevance of hybrid organizations. Thus, we manage to categorize the strategic responses of companies that have to address climate change while being exposed to complex institutional fields with plural institutional logics. To better understand decoupling in the context of strategic responses to climate change, the paper also explores whether, how, and to which extent the observed responses deviate from the theoretical ideal of conformity with institutional pressures and show indications of decoupling. We find that decoupling is inherent to most strategic responses to climate change. However, the purpose and intensity of decoupling differ for every response type.