The Policy SET Model - Wind Power: Politics and Policy - page 67

Relevance aside, adopting complexity theory as, what Joseph Schumpter
has termed, a “pre-analytic vision” 8 gives rise to a key challenge associated
with the notion of emergent landscapes—how does one identify the forces
which actuate emergent landscapes? If one is to have any hope of predict-
ing emerging landscapes, one needs to begin to map out the variables and
interdependencies which most inluence market evolution. 9 his is as true
for developing wind power policy as it is for strategic management.
As the case studies in this text will demonstrate, there are numerous
variables which inluence the evolution of wind power in a given nation.
Considering a few of the objections to wind power raised in academic jour-
nals supports the verity of this observation. here have been claims made
that wind power is simply not commercially competitive. 10 If this is true,
there are economic factors that inluence the evolution of wind power.
here have been claims that one of the reasons why wind power is not
commercially competitive stems from the stochastic nature of wind power
lows—sometimes the wind blows and sometimes it does not. 11 If this is
true, there are technological factors that inluence the evolution of wind
power. Recently, in many industrialized nations, there have been reports
that wind turbines deile the aesthetics of a community; and this plays a
role in blocking wind power difusion. 12 If this is true, there are social factors
that inluence the evolution of wind power. Finally, there have been conten-
tions that the structure of wind power development policy in a given nation
plays a major role in facilitating wind power difusion. 13 If this is true, there
are political and policy-speciic factors that inluence the fortunes of wind
power. In order to efectively analyze wind power development policy in
any given nation, a host of diverse yet inluential variables must be docu-
mented, interdependencies must be highlighted and general trends must be
extrapolated from this analysis. Addressing these challenges represents the
key steps for applying complexity theory to wind power politics and policy
analysis. he question is, how does one develop an analytical framework
that is comprehensive enough to ensure key variables are not omitted from
the analysis? he next section addresses this challenge.
3.4 STEP ANALYSIS
Once again, the ield of strategic management has a contribution to make
in terms of guiding the development of an analytical framework for com-
prehensively rooting out inluential variables—the STEP analysis. STEP
is an acronym that stands for s ocial, t echnological, e conomic, and p oliti-
cal. In strategic management, when a irm wishes to analyze the strengths,