Towards a model of wind energy industry development in industrial and emerging economies

Through the development and analysis of four in-depth case studies of the emergence of wind power industries in two industrialised and two emerging economies, the authors develop a model of sustainable energy industry development. The model demonstrates that fundamental economic indicators are insufficient for explaining new industry development. Environmental, institutional and cultural factors idiosyncratic to individual jurisdictions play important roles in the emergence of renewable energy industries in both industrialised and emerging economies. The model makes contributions to institutional and strategic change theories and has implications for policy makers and managers.