A Heroic Vision of Sustainability Transition: Adaptive Construction Business Network toward Electrification

Licentiatavhandling, 2025

Transport and excavation activities within the construction sector contribute approximately 4 –5 percent of Sweden’s total CO₂ emissions. To meet the national climate targets for 2030 and 2045, the electrification of construction machinery and vehicles is gaining momentum. While several pilot projects have been carried out, large-scale implementation and integration into standard practice remain limited. This thesis embarked on an exploration of the phenomenon, acknowledging the uncertainties encountered along the way, therefore sustainability transition was adopted as the guiding theoretical lens. Based in Sweden, empirical data were collected through expert interviews and a two-round Delphi survey, with 34 participants from government, academia, construction firms, OEMs, energy companies, consultancy firms, and NGOs. By integrating Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) perspective and the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP), this thesis proproses an adaptive cycle-inspired theoretical framework—Adaptive Business Network for Sustainability Transition. Beyond the individual papers,  Chapter 5 Conclusion and Discussion depicts a more integrated “heroic vision” of sustainability transition, where the development of resource ties and actor bonds are conceptualized as the driving mechanisms leading to future alternative scenarios. Building on these insights, future study will employ simulation and optimization modelling to further generate managerial and policy-relevant implications, while remaining attentive to the inherent data limitations.