A morphological analysis of energy policy analysis research—emerging issues and concerns

Abstract

Abstract Morphological analysis (MA) is a reliable technique for identifying research opportunities in policy analysis. This article presents a MA of the energy policy analysis literature of over four decades of research to enable structured understanding of the field. A three-stage research method has been adopted to identify and review journal articles and research publications. The MA affirms that energy policy analysis research literature points to energy–economy–sustainability–policy interactions. These interactions are studied from the issues and concerns perspective. The MA framework (MAF) representation of energy policy issues and concerns comprises 4 dimensions, 11 sub-dimensions and 50 variants. This MAF representation of the energy policy analysis literature can be useful for researchers to systematically study the domain and identify significant research opportunities, emerging themes and priorities in energy policy analysis research. The article also suggests immediate and promising research opportunities in the domain using the MAF. MA is also a reliable method for researchers who study other public policy domains.