Purpose This study examines how Türkiye’s renewable energy transition evolved between 2016 and 2024 under the combined influence of technological change, institutional pressures and external sustainability demands. This study aims to explain how niche, regime and landscape dynamics interacted over time and how coercive, normative and mimetic pressures shaped this process in an emerging economy context. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a longitudinal qualitative design based on 45 semistructured interviews conducted in three waves between 2016 and 2024. Participants included industrialists, public officials and academics involved in Türkiye’s renewable energy sector. The data were analyzed thematically using an inductive-deductive strategy supported by NVivo. The analysis was structured through the multilevel perspective (MLP) and institutional theory. Findings The findings identify three transition phases: niche emergence under regulatory ambiguity (2016–2018), regime reconfiguration through state-led incentives (2019–2021) and landscape-driven institutional isomorphism under external sustainability pressures (2022–2024). Türkiye’s transition did not follow a purely market-led or bottom-up pathway. Instead, it reflected a hybrid pattern shaped by state coordination, export-market pressures and institutional voids. This study shows that technological deployment alone was insufficient; transition outcomes depended on the coevolution of institutional frameworks, policy capacity, financing conditions and legitimacy pressures. Research limitations/implications This study is based on stakeholder perceptions drawn primarily from firms, regulators and academics and does not fully capture the perspectives of grassroots actors or rural communities. Nevertheless, it extends transition research by showing that MLP gains explanatory depth when combined with institutional theory in emerging economy settings marked by uneven regulatory capacity and external compliance pressures. Practical implications The findings suggest the need for streamlined digital licensing, broader domestic access to green finance, stronger academia–industry transition mechanisms and targeted Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism readiness support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). They also indicate that municipalities can play a more active role in local renewable energy experimentation and community-based transition initiatives. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by integrating the MLP with institutional theory to explain renewable energy transition in a non-Western emerging economy. It shows how state coordination, export-oriented compliance pressure and institutional gaps jointly shape transition pathways and offers a longitudinal account of how these dynamics reconfigure niche, regime and landscape interactions over time.
Arslan et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: