@jhasselbalch
Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School // Political economy, climate change, sustainability, plastics, circular economy, experts and expertise // https://www.cbs.dk/en/research/departments-and-centres/department-of-organization/staff/jhaioa
We use a case of competition between incumbent dairy company Arla and the oat milk innovator Oatly to give examples of four ideal typical varieties of niche construction.
The theory lets us connect changes in organizational fields and populations to changes in the environment. Niche constructors intervene directly in the environment to improve selection pressures, thereby also strategically changing field-population dynamics.
We contrast the Niche Construction Perspective with the cultural and demographic schools of organizational sociology.
Niche Construction Theory endogenizes the environment to organizational analysis, offering new ways of understanding selection pressures, interaction, and variation.
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New article out with @lenseabrooke.bsky.social, Kevin L. Young and SΓΈren Lund Frandsen in @degruyterbrill.bsky.social Journal of Organizational Sociology. We adapt niche construction theory to study interactions between organizations and environments.
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
We contrast the Niche Construction Perspective with the cultural and demographic schools of organizational sociology.
Niche Construction Theory endogenizes the environment to organizational analysis, offering new ways of understanding selection pressures, interaction, and variation.
I have a new review paper out in @environmentalpol.bsky.social! β¨
What would it actually take for states to pursue green transformations? I identify 5 capacities β planning, disciplinary, strategic, legitimation and adaptive β and their respective policy elements, capabilities and institutions
New op-ed out in @prospectmagazine.co.uk with @jhasselbalch.bsky.social: "Green growth versus degrowth is a false choice: The growth split in the climate movement only benefits the far right"
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/econom...
check our network and submit a paper for Bordeaux 2026!
Our core message: the environmental state is not a monolith. Its differentiated apparatuses (from central banks to energy planners) hold untapped potential for Paris-aligned, state-led #decarbonization.
3οΈβ£ The βlame duckβ critique sees bureaucracies as inert or status-quo forces. But in practice, capable and well-coordinated agencies often drive decarbonization through planning, innovation, and risk-taking.
2οΈβ£ The βoverburdeningβ critique claims states are too overwhelmed by crises to govern effectively. Yet many states have quietly expanded their economic and bureaucratic capacities β especially through green industrial and investment policies.
Quick summary of the three critiques and our responses:
1οΈβ£ The βglass ceilingβ critique says states canβt transform capitalist systems. We argue that while deep systemic change is tough, sequencing and targeting decarbonization first is both realistic and necessary.
Tagging the rest of the authorship team on the 'decarbonization state' article: Daniel Hausknost, @alinabrad.bsky.social, Gabriel Eyselein, @mathiaskrams.bsky.social, Danyal Maneka, @melaniepichler.bsky.social and @etienneschneider.bsky.social
Might be a useful companion piece to @ulrichbrand.bsky.social and co-authors recent, excellent article in Nature Climate Change: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... I think we largely agree, but we see more scope for bureaucratic agency to overcome the structural limitations of the #environmentalstate.
With Caroline Ahler Christesen and @jhasselbalch.bsky.social, we asked: what can the environmental state actually do?
The answer is out now with @gepjournal.bsky.social π
If you ever wondered about this, check our paper and let us know what you think: direct.mit.edu/glep/article...
Great new work from SΓΈren Lund Frandsen on the microfoundations of #industrialpolicy: "the effectiveness and direction of #greenindustrialpolicy cannot be understood by investment volumes alone but must be traced through its organisational microfoundations": www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Tag yourself. I'm a coalition based, green industrial policy ecosocialist, rooting for high integration democracy, green growth everywhere with surgical degrowth, defending international solidarity, a mostly optimistic we-have-the-technology-we-need approach and a dynamic understanding of history.
Who doesn't love a massive table?!
In our new Ecological Economics paper (with @mathiaslarsen.bsky.social), we map where green growth and degrowth diverge β and where they converge β across politics, world order, and technology.
Time to move past the binary and imagine a plurality of growth futures.
Weβre stuck in a false choice between green growth and degrowth.
One promises to fix the planet by growing the economy, the other by shrinking it.
But when you look closer, neither is a coherent political project. And thereβs more overlap than most debates admit.
New article out in Ecological Economics with @jhasselbalch.bsky.social: 'Reimagining growth futures: Overcoming the false binary between green growth and degrowth'
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
"BYDβs ascent thus forces a question that goes beyond industry: Can Europe still make things at scale in a world where power lies in the ability to integrate finance, technology, and policy faster than anyone else?"- @cornelban.bsky.social's new #geoeconomics substack (substack.com/home/post/p-...)
What happens when transformative innovation policy meets organizational realities? Organization theory can help address some key gaps of scholarship on transformative innovation policy while opening new directions for policymaking and research in this area.
New article out! Outcome of a collaborative effort with Jane BjΓΈrn Vedel, Susana BorrΓ‘s, Alan Irwin and Vera Simoneit, funded by a local strategic initiative at Copenhagen Business School. #innovation #innovationpolicy #organization #grandchallenges
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@mattkranke.bsky.social @cornelban.bsky.social @mathiaslarsen.bsky.social
1/7
Our new article is out in Globalizations: Toward a post-growth industrial policy for Europe: navigating emerging tensions and long-term goals.
With @jasonhickel.bsky.social & @sebmang.bsky.social
@envleeds.bsky.social
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
4 NEW pieces, with @cornelban.bsky.social + @jhasselbalch.bsky.social on state planning, @rosiecollington.bsky.social on planet-critical sectors, @shayaksengupta.bsky.social + Abhinav Jindal on multilateralism, and @brusselermel.bsky.social + @chrismwhayes.bsky.social on derisking
(Links below)
"The green state must rise from the ashes of the derisking state... plan for a future of resilience or resign ourselves to chaos and the perils of climate adaptation under authoritarianism." www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/ind.... @cornelban.bsky.social #decarbonization #planning #ClimateSky
Application deadline: April 15, 2025
The MPIfG is seeking a research group leader (tenure track) with a focus on the socioeconomic and political impacts of technological change to set up a new research group at the intersection of #economy, #society, and #technology.
π’Please share widely!
s.gwdg.de/SULoAf
Now out with New Political Economy: What's going on in the legal back-end of 'innovative' climate finance constructs? I provide some additional clues to why it's so hard to de-risk private climate finance by public means. Open access, too! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....