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Abstract
Because of their unique potential for social change, industries that address grand challenges are often supported by broader social movements. Research has shown, for example, that social movements stimulate firms’ entry into markets consistent with their goals, such as renewable energy, green buildings, or organic food. But are there synergies in having movements, new entrants, and incumbents operating in the same market, or are their contributions to market formation substitutable? And how do social movements and industry combine to shape market adoption in different national contexts? In this study, we treat market adoption as a configurational phenomenon, and argue that the influence of social movements on market adoption rests on the configuration of industry, political, and cultural opportunities that they face in a given country. Using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fs-QCA) and Sequence Analysis, we uncover three main pathways for high adoption of solar photovoltaics across European countries during industry emergence—each relying on a different combination of conditions. We discuss contributions to research on social movements and markets, and to the broader literature on collective action and market formation.
