University of Twente Student Theses
Incorporating business model innovation in technology roadmapping for energy storage solutions: a case study
Soetekouw, Bastian (2019) Incorporating business model innovation in technology roadmapping for energy storage solutions: a case study.
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| Abstract: | The attention concerning the storage of energy is accelerating globally. For that reason, it is important to carefully plan and forecast the wants, needs and demands for energy (generation, consumption, storage). To achieve this, roadmapping is believed to be a valuable approach to better understand the expectations of a specific field. The strength of this framework involves the overview of technologies, products and markets resulting in a technique that aligns technology to the development of products and services, business strategy and market opportunities. This study was conducted within a case company: lithium-ion battery and energy storage producer Super B Lithium Power B.V. The goal of this study was to discover the extent to which technology roadmapping (TRM) is improved if it integrates the concept of business model innovation (BMI). The focus within this lies on containerized energy storage solutions. To investigate this, the central question of this study was: ‘To what extent is technology roadmapping improved if it integrates business model innovation?’ The sub questions supporting this main question are: ‘To what extent does the current literature incorporates BMI literature and TRM literature?’, and ‘What are the most important factors to integrate in a strategic marketing model that incorporates BMI with TRM?’ Studying the connection between TRM and BMI builds on the highly cited study by Phaal, Farrukh and Probert (2004). With this framework, Phaal et al. connect important factors (technology, product and market) in the roadmapping procedure over time. The strength of this framework concerns the overview of multiple technologies, products and market what results in a methodology that supports alignment of the three important factors. By means of an explorative review of scientific literature, insight is gained in current literature and corresponding models. The results of this literature review led to a first proposition of the strategic marketing model. These results were questioned during qualitative analysis in the form of semi-structured interviews with experts in the energy sector within the case company. Regarding the interviews, the proposed marketing model is modified to fit roadmapping in the energy storage market. In order to validate the findings from the interviews, an additional iteration is conducted by means of a case study: containerized energy storage solutions (ESS). The results of the semi-structured interviews and case study showed several valuable subjects to consider while roadmapping, namely strategy, technology and market developments, market segmentation, customer wants and needs, value proposition, business case and business model, prototyping and testing, and market implementation. Following this, an advanced strategic marketing model is presented, translating these subjects into six building blocks to focus on when roadmapping: ‘Strategy’, ‘Market trends’, ‘Technology’, ‘Product’, ‘Business model’, and ‘Market’. The proposed model supports organizations in the energy sector with roadmapping and marketing products, and the determination of value creation and capturing for specific customer segments. The addition of these subjects shows that it can be concluded that the inclusion of BMI in TRM causes that customer demands, value propositions, unique selling points and competitive advantages are dealt with in roadmapping. Examples of alternative inclusions would be the connection with business model ontology (Osterwalder, 2004) or balanced scorecard (Norton & Kaplan, 1992). With the incorporation of the subject value in such models, this gap to fail to meet customer demands can be diminished. Meaning that TRM can be improved when incorporating BMI what will support product development towards a more customer-based focus. Recommendations for future research are, first, generalizing this approach further, making it possible to apply to multiple sectors (e.g. healthcare). Second, long-term digital developments need to be considered, as they might be overlooked in roadmapping. Third, studying the practical realization of advanced roadmaps can support adequate implementation in organisations. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Clients: | Super B Lithium Power, Hengelo, Netherlands |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 85 business administration, organizational science |
| Programme: | Business Administration MSc (60644) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/79273 |
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