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This research examines whether study of the controversial evolution of energy systems and emerging energy technologies can contribute to the debates in energy policy and STS, especially those concerning the ongoing search for solutions to energy and environmental problems through the promotion of low-carbon technologies. The focus of this study is on the emergence and growth of a technological project in the renewable energy sector, Wave Hub in Cornwall, UK. The analysis, informed by actor-network theory, helps to explore the emergence of Wave Hub as a complex socio-technical system and a macro-actor. The case study reveals that the project is associated with various controversies and problematic temporalities. The construction of credibility and viability of the technological project is explored, including the 'public face’ of the project, various meanings attributed to Wave Hub and its symbolic capital. The discourse around Wave Hub is critically reviewed, as regards stakeholder assumptions about the technological feasibility of the project. Consideration is also given to the political dimensions of credibility, including the promissory role of policy discourse. An actor-network theory approach helps questioning the idea of policy as ‘macro context’; the utility of an analytical approach to policy as an actant is thus investigated. I ask to what extent, and in what sense, policy can be understood as an element of an actor-network, not merely a context. Furthermore, this helps to build a critical discussion around the evolution of the actor-network with policy as its active element and critically assess to what extent this approach might help to understand the destiny of a technological project. The politics of expertise in the case of Wave Hub is shown to play a critical role for the ‘credibility-economy’ of the project. Exploring how the expertise is understood and performed in the case of Wave Hub, I consider the question of the self-representation of experts and how the expert knowledge and the expert status are constituted. Studying the contestation of expertise and its categorisation helps to analyse various forms of collaboration formed around Wave Hub, but also antagonism which was revealed between different groups of experts.

This thesis aims to generate insights into factors that influence CSR understanding and practices in Malaysian SMEs. The research addresses the limited studies of CSR in SMEs by focusing on owner-managers in the construction and catering sectors as the subject of analysis. The thesis adopts the two most influential theories in CSR studies: stakeholder theory and institutional logics to visualise CSR logic among owner-managers. These two theories are embedded in the 3-level CSR classification analysis, where low-level CSR concerns the legal aspects of the firm, mid-level CSR concerns the primary discretions and high-level CSR concerns non-primary discretions of SMEs owner-managers. The classification demonstrates the key stakeholders and the combination of CSR practices that firms can undertake; the results indicate that a 'one fits all' CSR approach needs to be reconsidered. This thesis adopts a qualitative approach and collected primary evidence through face-to-face audio-recorded interviews with 48 owner-managers of SMEs in the construction and catering sectors. The construction firms were chosen using snowball sampling and the catering firms were chosen using convenient sampling. The researcher adopts social constructionist and thematic analysis approaches in investigating multiple perspectives and experiences of owner-managers in relation to CSR. The primary evidence is analysed with computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software NVivo 12 and classifies key themes into 3-level CSR classifications concerning legal, primary and non-primary discretions of owner-managers. The findings reveal that some owner-managers are aware of the term CSR through their higher education. However, the legal, business, and national cultures are stronger factors that influence CSR behaviour. The legal aspects involve the state and industrial logics where local authorities and clients, especially in the construction sector, influence the compliance of SMEs (low-level CSR). The business and national culture involve the karma and corporate logics where primary stakeholders (e.g., customers, employees and suppliers) influence the primary discretion (mid-level CSR operations, e.g., employee benefit) and non-primary stakeholders (e.g., local community, suppliers and charitable organisations) influence the non-primary discretion (high-level CSR operations, e.g., donation) of owner-managers. The differences in practices are highlighted in this thesis and showcase sector-specific CSR practices. There are several contributions of this thesis. First, it addresses the limited studies of CSR in SMEs by providing primary evidence in the Malaysian context. Second, this research is the first sector-specific CSR in the SMEs comparison study between the construction and catering sectors in Malaysia. Third is the development of 3-level CSR classification in order to reveal the firm's different aspects of CSR practices and associated key stakeholders. Overall, the thesis contributes to the knowledge of CSR as well as CSR in developing countries. Furthermore, the development of the 3-level CSR classification approach provides an alternative approach to analyse CSR.

Historically, energy systems have contributed significantly to global carbon emissions. To address this concern, countries such as the United Kingdom (UK) have embraced technologies such as renewable energy to try and reduce their carbon footprints. In the case of the UK, this led to the renewable energy subfield becoming partially institutionalised under the enabling role of actors, which suggests that this type of institutional change warrants being examined through the lens of institutional entrepreneurship theory. This doctoral thesis rises to the challenge by conducting institutional entrepreneurship research to investigate the institutionalisation of the renewable energy subfield in the UK during the period 1986-2016. Such an investigation is of social significance because the institutionalisation of the renewable energy subfield is likely to contribute to deinstitutionalising polluting technologies such as fossil fuels, thus contributing to the UK’s transition to a low carbon economy. The thesis is an exploratory, qualitative case study that combines thirty-nine semi-structured interviews of respondents connected to the field of energy provision in the UK with an analysis of archival documents. It finds that multiple actors practised as institutional entrepreneurs during the period, these being the state and its various agencies; renewable energy practitioners/activists; incumbent energy practitioners; the European Union and the United Nations. These institutional entrepreneurs played significant roles in shaping the renewable energy subfield by either creating new institutions and/or reforming existing ones, however, this had little impact on reshaping the field of energy provision in which it is embedded. This thesis makes three major contributions to knowledge: (1) it proposes the construct of a subfield; (2) it shows that institutionalised structural myths may serve as enabling conditions; and (3) it offers partial institutionalisation as a novel account of the state of the renewable energy subfield in the UK. The idea of an organisational subfield contributes to knowledge by showing that this sub-community has its own unique features. For example, a subfield is embedded within an overarching organisational field, consequently, it is constrained by factors such as subordinacy and competing institutional logics. The thesis also shows that institutionalised structural myths, such as energy policy (un)certainty, (de)motivated some actors from practising as institutional entrepreneurs during the study period. The partial institutionalisation of the renewable energy subfield in the UK has caused it to be relatively vulnerable to any major environmental shocks it may face and less widely accepted than the fossil fuels subfield. Being partially institutionalised also has three major implications: (1) business-as-usual for energy provision in the UK; (2) renewable energy deployment being patchy, and (3) most renewable energy practitioners remaining constrained as embedded agents. The conclusions of this thesis inform and deepen understanding of the role of actors’ agency in facilitating or hindering the institutionalisation of renewable energy in the UK.