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This inter-disciplinary theory-building paper is motivated by the debate on grand societal challenges and by calls in the innovation studies literature for frameworks that offer a better understanding of the co-evolution of industries and their economic, political, cultural, and social environments. In response to these debates, the paper develops a new triple embeddedness framework (TEF), which conceptualizes firms-in-industries as embedded in two external (economic and socio-political) environments and in an industry regime which mediates strategic actions towards the external environments. The TEF's theoretical logic draws on the adaptation-selection debate, which suggests that the co-evolution phenomenon can be approached from two angles. With regard to (population-level) selection theories, which highlight pressures on industries from external environments, the TEF accommodates insights from evolutionary economics, neo-institutional theory, and economic sociology. With regard to (firm-level) adaptation theories, the TEF accommodates insights from externally-oriented strategy schools (economic positioning strategy, innovation strategy, corporate political strategy, discursive strategy, issue management) and internally-oriented strategy approaches (linked to knowledge/capabilities and cognition/sensemaking). The combination of insights produces a multi-dimensional framework with bi-directional interactions between firms-in-industries and their environments. Implications for the grand challenge agenda are discussed in a separate section and illustrated with examples. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

© The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.While most studies of low-carbon transitions focus on green niche-innovations, this paper shifts attention to the resistance by incumbent regime actors to fundamental change. Drawing on insights from political economy, the paper introduces politics and power into the multi-level perspective. Instrumental, discursive, material and institutional forms of power and resistance are distinguished and illustrated with examples from the UK electricity system. The paper concludes that the resistance and resilience of coal, gas and nuclear production regimes currently negates the benefits from increasing renewables deployment. It further suggests that policymakers and many transition-scholars have too high hopes that 'green' innovation will be sufficient to bring about low-carbon transitions. Future agendas in research and policy should therefore pay much more attention to the destabilization and decline of existing fossil fuel regimes.

The paper distinguishes four views on the impact of the financial-economic crisis on sustainability transitions (operationalized as diffusion of green niche-innovations). The first three views highlight the possibility of positive impacts of the financial-economic crisis on sustainability transitions and joint solutions: a) a comprehensive transformation of the capitalist system, b) a green Industrial Revolution, linked to a sixth green Kondratieff wave, c) green growth. The fourth view perceives the impact as mainly negative, because the financialeconomic crisis weakens public, political and business attention for environmental problems. The paper confronts these views with secondary data on three analytical categories: 1) financial investment, 2) policy and governance, 3) public opinion and civil society. Data focus on renewable energy and climate policy in the UK, Europe and the world. The paper concludes that the early crisis years (2008-2010) created a window of opportunity for positive solutions. But since 2010-2011 this window appears to be shrinking, with the financial-economic crisis having negative influences on sustainability transitions that may cause some slow-down.

The paper distinguishes four views on the impact of the financial-economic crisis on sustainability transitions (operationalized as diffusion of green niche-innovations). The first three views highlight the possibility of positive impacts of the financial-economic crisis on sustainability transitions and joint solutions: (a) a comprehensive transformation of the capitalist system, (b) a green Industrial Revolution, linked to a sixth green Kondratieff wave, and (c) green growth. The fourth view perceives the impact as mainly negative, because the financial-economic crisis weakens public, political and business attention for environmental problems. The paper confronts these views with secondary data on three analytical categories: (1) financial investment, (2) policy and governance, and (3) public opinion and civil society. Data focus on renewable energy and climate policy in the UK, Europe and the world. The paper concludes that the early crisis years (2008-2010) created a window of opportunity for positive solutions. But since 2010-2011 this window appears to be shrinking, with the financial-economic crisis having negative influences on sustainability transitions that may cause some slow-down. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.