New technology and organizational innovation: Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation and nuclear power
Questions with regard to organization behavior and decision theory are explored in relation to the decision-making process of a major private electric utility, Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., that chose to innovate with nuclear power. The character of the firm is such, relative to size, service area, organizational structure, and socio-political environment, that its experience is important for the further development of theories of organizational innovation. The research attempts to understand the political, economic, and social constraints that limited the set of solutions available to the utility in its search for a suitable electricity-generating mode from the early 1950's to the early 1960's. Two contrasting models of organizational decision-making behavior are used to interpret case-study findings. The initial model is from the electric-utility literature and consists essentially of an economic or benefit/cost model of organizational decision making. The second model is developed from the organizational theory literature and is more complex in the sense that factors other than economics such as organizational inertia, the corporate structure of the utility, fuel-supply history and fuel diversification, electricity-demand-growth expectations, the financial environment, and the psychological appeal of the new technology had important influences on Niagara Mohawk's decision to build Nine Mile Point One. Findings of the case study tend to support the second model in that economics was a necessary but not sufficient reason for Niagara Mohawk to have innovated with nuclear power plants.
- OSTI ID:
- 6757666
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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