Underestimating institutional stance persistence in geothermal market stagnation and market-making

Markets can create solutions to some of the world's most challenging issues. Grand challenges such as land-system change, pollution, biogeochemical cycles and climate change have been on political and policy agendas for decades. Yet, despite considerable awareness of the problems humanity faces, some sustainable implementable technology-led market solutions remain persistently stagnant. In this study, we explore this stagnant market problem, addressing the geothermal energy transition from the viewpoint of an internal institutional cognitive approach. Drawing upon the experiences of market actors, our findings identify two interacting and reinforcing institutional stances: (i) a problem-preserving stance and (ii) a problem persistence stance and relatedly, how these contribute to market stagnation. In the face of market stagnation, we further show how market stenting efforts occur via the three mechanisms of tempering, catalyzing and boot-clustering. To countenance the interactive institutional stances, the Shirky effect upholds and preserves the ‘institutional link’ and thus the market stagnant problem. Finally, we outline areas for future market studies and suggest both managerial and policy implications.