Despite the challenges of decarbonisation faced by the shipping sector, this topic has rarely been addressed in sustainability transitions studies. This paper questions common views of established firms as agents resisting change and broadens discussions on the role of incumbents and strategic reorientation. Using the dynamic capabilities approach, we provide a deeper understanding of firms’ strategic reorientation over time. Qualitative content analysis is applied to data from interviews, companies’ reports and observations to address questions on how and why incumbent shipping firms in the Baltic Sea region reoriented towards decarbonisation in 2007−2018. We demonstrate that the engagement in decarbonisation has been a gradual process, characterised by a shift from reactive strategies to a mixed portfolio of integrated active and proactive innovation strategies. Although firms experiment with decarbonisation through alternative energy solutions, they simultaneously continue to devote considerable attention to less radical innovations such as increased energy efficiency.

尽管航运业面临脱碳的挑战，但在可持续性转型研究中很少解决这个话题。本文质疑建立的公司作为抵制变革的代理商的普遍观点，并扩大了关于现任者的角色和战略调整的讨论。使用动态能力方法，我们可以更深入地了解企业随着时间的推移而进行的战略调整。定性内容分析应用于访谈，公司报告和观察中的数据，以解决有关波罗的海地区现有船运公司如何以及为什么在2007-2018年转向脱碳的问题。我们证明了参与脱碳是一个渐进的过程，其特点是从被动策略转变为主动和主动创新战略的混合组合。尽管公司通过替代能源解决方案进行脱碳实验，但他们同时继续将注意力集中在不太根本的创新上，例如提高能源效率。