ABSTRACT

Upstream oil and gas production is just one of many sectors of the global economy that merits analysis and research on stranded assets. Enhancing our understanding of societal environment-related risks is a priority and one that the topic of stranded assets has taken on directly – after all, the topic emerged from a concern with such risks. Stranded assets have been appropriated in unexpected ways too. For example, it has been used as a catalyst to help reconceive protected areas as productive spatial assets. Non-physical assets – such as brands, relationships, intellectual property, organisational capital, research pipelines, software, and human capital – require a much more substantial treatment in the stranded assets literature. The sub-discipline can both contribute to the development of stranded assets as a scholarly endeavour and itself benefit from interacting with a topic that intersects with some of the most pressing contemporary issues related to environmental sustainability.