The Inclusion of Aviation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme: Temporal Conditions for Institutional Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Recent literature on institutional entrepreneurship has examined the enabling conditions under which actors may influence institutional arrangements. Whereas conditions at field level and among actors have been highlighted, scholars have paid little attention to how and why the field is amenable to change at certain times and how actors act upon these conditions in a timely fashion. This paper examines the temporal conditions for institutional entrepreneurship. I propose that a collective of time-aware institutional entrepreneurs opens a window of opportunity for policy breakthrough by relating its activities to temporally favorable conditions of the multidimensional institutional process. These theoretical propositions are illustrated through an empirical case study of how aviation was targeted for its climate change impact by inclusion in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. © The Author(s) 2012.