Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Genesis of Organizational Forms in Virgin Niches

1978年，为了应对石油价格从每桶10美元上涨到50美元，美国国会通过了《公用事业监管政策法案》（PURPA），鼓励非公用事业使用替代能源和技术发电。几乎在一夜之间，PURPA创建了一个新的部门的电力行业，要求现有的公用事业公司购买电力从合格的设施（QFs），到1992年，产生了10%的电力在美国这个博士论文研究项目建议分析随后的发展，这个新创建的利基使用定性方法和实证分析的大型数据库。相对较少的研究集中在其初始阶段的资源空间（壁龛）。本研究探讨了微观（个人）和宏观（监管和技术结构）变量的相互影响，以及它们如何塑造生态位的发展。这些概念是可操作的，通过检查1980年至1992年之间的QFs的成立和各种微观（企业家价值观，社交网络，和专业背景）和宏观（不断发展的规范和监管）的QFs成立的数量和组织形式的影响。

In 1978, in response to a rise in petroleum costs from $10 to $50 a barrel, the U.S. Congress passed the Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA) to encourage power production by non-utilities using alternative energy sources and technology. Virtually overnight, PURPA created a new sector of the power industry by requiring existing utilities to buy electricity from qualifying facilities (QFs) which, by 1992, generated 10 percent of the electricity in the U.S. This doctoral dissertation research project proposes to analyze the ensuing development of this newly created niche using both qualitative methods and empirical analyses of a large database. Relatively few studies focus on resource spaces (niches) in their initial stages. This study explores the reciprocal effects of micro (individual) and macro (regulative and technological structures) variables and how they shape niche development. These concepts are operationalized by an examination of foundings of QFs between 1980 and 1992 and the various micro (entrepreneurial values, social networks, and professional background) and macro (evolving norms and regulation) influences on both the number and organizational form of QFs founded.