Offshore oil and gas firms' involvement in offshore wind: Technological frames and undercurrents

It is commonly acknowledged that the actions and strategies of energy incumbents are important to understand sustainable energytransitions, but few studies have focused on why incumbent firmsdiversify into emerging sustainable energy sectors. This paper, which is based on a substantial empirical material, contributes tounderstand the dynamics between mature and emerging industry sectors by analysing the motivation of offshore oil and gas( O& G) sector firms' to engage in offshore wind (OW). At the surface, we find that O& G sector firms frame OW as an opportunity toexploit and develop existing resources in a new market, which theyexpect will grow significantly over the coming decades. Furthermore, we find that the frame O& G managers apply when assessingOW is influenced by something we term `undercurrents', as a significant motivation behind some investments in OW is to attractand develop human resources for use in the O& G sector. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.