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Start-ups developing business relationships in the Swedish energy system
Abstract
This paper focuses on the process of starting up in the Swedish energy system and in particular how existing resource structures both facilitate and hinder commercialization of new innovations that may contribute to renewable energy solutions. The Swedish energy system is an outcome of many years of investments being made in both public and private infrastructures that can be seen as a ‘heavy resource structure’. However, the current ‘heavy resource structure’ containing for example refineries that generate products from fossil fuels is now subject to huge challenges and must open up for new actors and resources to meet the new demands. By using a case methodology this paper aims to explore how to capture the starting up process in the Swedish energy system and specifically the interplay between organizational and technical resources as a way to embed new technical solutions in already established resource structures. The theoretical starting point is the Industrial Network Approach and especially the concepts of resource interaction and resource interfaces.
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This licentiate thesis deals with start-ups’ processes of relating to existing components in the business network in order to develop their innovations and become embedded in it. Previous research has shown that technology-based start-ups rely on external resources through collaborative business partners in order to create innovation. However, how this is done and what effects these collaborations have on the innovation and network itself is an area that needs further study. This licentiate thesis therefore aims to contribute to extending the knowledge of the interactive innovation process for technology-based start-ups by taking the starting point in the start-ups’ resources and how they are combined in the business network.
The theoretical starting point is taken in the Industrial Network Approach to industrial markets and, more specifically, the process of resource development through interaction in the business network by seeing the innovations as a result of a number of resource combinations taking place in it. The method used is a case study of three cases that illustrate three different innovation processes for technology-based start-ups to capture resource development in business networks over time.
This study shows that these start-ups are in great need of adapting their resource features to fit into the existing resource constellations in the developing, producing and using settings in order to innovate. It is also relevant to approach collaboration partners that are willing to adapt their own resource collections to allow the start-up’s resources to fit into their existing resource structures. Furthermore, the adaptations made in one resource interface impacts other connected resource interfaces, causing friction. Specifically, and as this study reveals, relating in business networks is a way of handling friction, which is a continuous interplay between triggers and changes in the resource interfaces. As a result, the important part lies in creating an understanding of how a specific change in one specific resource interface triggers a new change in a connected resource interface over time.
From a managerial point of view, the start-up needs to be aware of the importance of working with proximity of the three settings of developing, producing and using to allow it to embed its resources into the business network. Furthermore, it is relevant to find collaboration partners that are willing to make adaptations to their own resource collections. From a theoretical point of view, this study contributes additional knowledge to the study of resource development as a process by exhibiting the underlying mechanisms of why changes in resource interfaces take place and their consequences.
Energy has come to be known as a ‘strategic commodity’ and any uncertainty about its supply can threaten the functioning of the economy, particularly in developing economies. Every society requires energy to meet the basic needs. A sustainable socioeconomic development needs secure energy supplies in an affordable rate which have low environmental impacts and low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However 85% of primary energy demand is met by conventional fossil fuel combustion, which is responsible for 56.6% of anthropogenic GHG emissions. Renewable energy (RE) forms play an important role in providing sustainable and clean energy mitigating climate change. In a present scenario, with technological advancements, broaden understanding of renewable energy knowledge and positive support from governments with favorable promoting policies, RE forms are developing meeting energy demands in a cleaner way. This paper focuses on the opportunities, barriers and related issues with the RE developments. These, if taken cared positively, will lead to a sustainable social and economic development
In this paper we present a literature review of studies that have analysed the troublesome trajectory of different renewable energy technologies (RETs) development and diffusion in different, mainly European countries. We present an overview of typical systemic problems in the development of innovation systems around RETs. We make use of the literature on innovation system failures to develop a categorisation of typical systemic problems that hamper the development and diffusion of RETs. Based on this categorisation the paper suggests several policy recommendations to overcome the systemic problems and accelerate the diffusion and implementation of RETs.
This paper analyses the development and diffusion of technologies that utilize renewable energy sources in Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. The analysis enlarges the life cycle model of industry evolution to one where the focus is on the formation and evolution of new technological systems. Particular focus is on explaining success and failures in shifting from a formative phase into one characterized by positive feedbacks. A set of challenges is identified for policy makers attempting to influence the process of transforming the energy sector. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.
This paper offers a framework to illuminate the role of universities in systems of innovation. The framework attempts to incorporate economic, social, and political influences that affect the ability of universities to both create new knowledge and deploy that knowledge in economically useful ways and thereby contribute to economic growth and prosperity. The objective of this paper is to build a more general understanding of university–industry relationships and their role in knowledge-based innovation systems. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006
New business ventures have rather limited resources, generally suffer from liabilities of smallness and newness and rely on external business relationships, typically with suppliers, for developing and acquiring necessary resources. Yet, to date, research on how new ventures develop initial relationships with suppliers and how these affect the nascent business has been limited. Taking the business network perspective and relating it to studies of supply chain and supplier involvement in product development, our study contributes to the rather limited body of knowledge on new ventures' supplier relationships. Empirically, we draw on a longitudinal, in-depth single-case study of the first two years of operation of a start-up. Our study shows that the development of the key initial supplier relationships starts from open-ended expectations of mutual future relational benefits and involves a stepwise 'inter-definition' of solutions in interaction between the parties. We observe that interdependences arise between the new venture and its key suppliers and these enable but also limit, the development paths of both partners. We argue that the key initial supplier relationships extend a new venture's resource and capability base and are an integral part of a new venture's business model.
Relying on an in-depth case study of the incubator related to the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institute's (KI), this paper identifies new analytical and strategic dimensions of incubation. Departing from the current literature's prevalent focus on incubators as organizations performing a predefined set of activities for incubatees (facility renting, coaching, training and connecting), we perform a multilevel analysis embracing, next to the organizational and the project-specific levels, also the broader institutional and inter-organizational level. Our analysis relies on seven key components of incubation, namely its time, place, sources, resources, control/governance, activities/services and outcomes. Further, we view incubators as strategic actors engaged in value creation on a broader arena than the strict incubation context, even an international arena, where incubators' choices and interactions can be analyzed with the help of concepts from various streams in the business strategy literature. The specific strategic drivers of business incubation that we identify in the KI incubator's case are six: positioning in the value chain, risk taking/time perspective, revenue model, governance/control, internationalization, and cooperation/competition. The paper concludes with managerial implications urging incubators to take more of a strategic perspective rather than focussing only on the established components of their operations.
The focus of this article is on discussing the foundations, conceptual development, and implications of resource interaction in inter-organizational networks. The article conceptualizes and classifies resources before discussing how resource interfaces enable to utilize, manage, and change resources. In doing so it provides a set of basic principles as to how resources interact at a network level, or how firms combine, develop, mobilize, and manage resources over time. This is in strong contrast to a focus on the acquisition, accumulation, and exchange of resources by the firm. The article further provides a comparison with two other research streams, the Resource-Based view (RBV) and the Service-Dominant logic (S-D logic), in order to better position this perspective on inter-organizational resource interaction. It concludes by discussing an agenda for further research.
Sweden has a long-standing political commitment to the development of renewable energy, although the driving forces have changed over time. The focus has shifted from reducing dependence on oil to phasing out nuclear power, and, in the past 10 years, to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In this article we review Swedish renewable energy policy since 1975, focusing on how it has influenced the development of wind power and the use of biomass for heat and electricity production. Sweden is endowed with rich renewable energy sources. The wind and bioenergy potential alone, about 100-200 TWh and 700 PJ, respectively, each correspond to more than one-third of present primary energy use. In 2001, about 500 GWh of wind power was produced and 336 PJ of biomass for energy was used. Renewable energy policy during the 1970s and 1980s was mainly expressed as strong efforts in technology research, development and demonstration. This supply-led attempt to transform the energy system had little impact on the Swedish energy balance. Market development took off mainly during the 1990s when taxes and subsidies created favourable economic conditions for new investments and fuel-switching. This underlines the importance of creating demand-pull policies. In the case of wind, Sweden still has only about one-fifth as much installed capacity as Denmark. The relatively slow development of wind power can be ascribed to the lack of strong commitment, continuity, and a clear strategy and approach in Swedish government efforts for the establishment and expansion of wind power – a situation that has been exacerbated by relatively low electricity prices. In contrast, the use of biomass for energy increased substantially during the 1990s, specifically wood fuels for district-heating which increased from 13 PJ in 1990 to 65 PJ in 2001. A system with high carbon dioxide taxes, 28 euro/t CO2 in 1991 and 84 euro/t CO2 in 2003, for fuels for heating but no taxes on fuels for electricity production created strong incentives for fuel-switching in district-heating, albeit not for biomass-based cogeneration. The development was facilitated by existing infrastructures in the forestry and energy sectors, notably the district-heating systems. Professional actors in these sectors were able to respond constructively to changes in relative fuel prices. A quota-based renewable electricity certificates system was introduced in 2003 to replace earlier subsidy schemes. In the next few years it is expected to stimulate mainly the development of biomass-based cogeneration.
Case studies are frequently used in industrial network research. In this article, we discuss the difficulties and opportunities characterizing the case study approach. In particular, we deal with single case research aiming at theory development. For this purpose, we suggest an approach based on ‘systematic combining’ grounded in an ‘abductive’ logic.
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