IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v15y2022i7p2705-d788305.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Servitization of Energy Sector: Emerging Service Business Models and Startup’s Participation

Author

Listed:
  • Mahendra Singh

    (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Breslauer Str. 48, 76139 Karlsruhe, Germany)

  • Jiao Jiao

    (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Breslauer Str. 48, 76139 Karlsruhe, Germany)

  • Marian Klobasa

    (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Breslauer Str. 48, 76139 Karlsruhe, Germany)

  • Rainer Frietsch

    (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Breslauer Str. 48, 76139 Karlsruhe, Germany)

Abstract

Changing asset ownership models in the energy sector is spurring established companies and startups to implement customer-centric smart services. In this sense, startups are pioneers of innovative business models, and unbundle the energy value chain to provide various services to final customers. Although service business models have received large attention in the energy sector, the role of startups in service business model innovation (S-BMI) is not fully understood in the literature. To put this into perspective, the proposed work analyzes the six most practiced energy service categories, specifically, Comfort and Heating, Flexibility and Trading, Energy Efficiency and Management, Solar and Microgrid, Charging and Battery, and Energy Software Solutions are taken into account, accompanying service business model archetypes in the energy sector. Data from two different company databases are combined, and a list of 432 startups dealing with energy services are analyzed. The operating revenue, stakeholders, investors, and funding are considered as the main indicators to compare the service categories. The top two categories in terms of the number of startups are Solar and Microgrid (38.1%) alongside Energy Efficiency and Management (20.1%). The analysis suggests that X-as-a-service (XaaS) and platform-based business models are becoming the center-of-attention for investors and shareholders. Digital marketplaces are also evolving in the energy sector. In fact, the current study found that startups associated with XaaS, platforms, and marketplace activities are attracting the majority of investors and funding programs. From a theoretical point of view, the study has provided the main motivations and enablers behind the energy sector servitization. The findings could serve as an initial methodological framework to analyze services in the energy sector, putting service business models and startups into focus.

Suggested Citation

  • Mahendra Singh & Jiao Jiao & Marian Klobasa & Rainer Frietsch, 2022. "Servitization of Energy Sector: Emerging Service Business Models and Startup’s Participation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-20, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:7:p:2705-:d:788305
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/7/2705/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/7/2705/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shanjun Li & Lang Tong & Jianwei Xing & Yiyi Zhou, 2017. "The Market for Electric Vehicles: Indirect Network Effects and Policy Design," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(1), pages 89-133.
    2. Orlando Valarezo & Tomás Gómez & José Pablo Chaves-Avila & Leandro Lind & Mauricio Correa & David Ulrich Ziegler & Rodrigo Escobar, 2021. "Analysis of New Flexibility Market Models in Europe," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-24, June.
    3. Kohtamäki, Marko & Parida, Vinit & Oghazi, Pejvak & Gebauer, Heiko & Baines, Tim, 2019. "Digital servitization business models in ecosystems: A theory of the firm," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 380-392.
    4. Küfeoğlu, S. & Liu, G. & Anaya, K. & Pollitt, M., 2019. "Digitalisation and New Business Models in Energy Sector," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1956, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    5. Krzysztof Bartczak, 2021. "Digital Technology Platforms as an Innovative Tool for the Implementation of Renewable Energy Sources," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-18, November.
    6. Inês, Campos & Guilherme, Pontes Luz & Esther, Marín-González & Swantje, Gährs & Stephen, Hall & Lars, Holstenkamp, 2020. "Regulatory challenges and opportunities for collective renewable energy prosumers in the EU," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    7. Burger, Scott P. & Luke, Max, 2017. "Business models for distributed energy resources: A review and empirical analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 230-248.
    8. Chankook Park, 2022. "Expansion of servitization in the energy sector and its implications," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(4), July.
    9. JinHyo Joseph Yun, 2017. "Engineer Open Innovation-Based Business Model Developing Circle," Management for Professionals, in: Business Model Design Compass, chapter 13, pages 199-216, Springer.
    10. Khanra, Sayantan & Dhir, Amandeep & Parida, Vinit & Kohtamäki, Marko, 2021. "Servitization research: A review and bibliometric analysis of past achievements and future promises," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 151-166.
    11. JinHyo Joseph Yun, 2017. "User Open Innovation-Based Business Model Developing Circle," Management for Professionals, in: Business Model Design Compass, chapter 12, pages 179-198, Springer.
    12. Duch-Brown, Néstor & Rossetti, Fiammetta, 2020. "Digital platforms across the European regional energy markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    13. Paiola, Marco & Schiavone, Francesco & Grandinetti, Roberto & Chen, Junsong, 2021. "Digital servitization and sustainability through networking: Some evidences from IoT-based business models," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 507-516.
    14. Juan Gómez-Romero & Miguel Molina-Solana & María Ros & M. Dolores Ruiz & M. J. Martin-Bautista, 2018. "Comfort as a Service: A New Paradigm for Residential Environmental Quality Control," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-15, August.
    15. Thomas Morstyn & Niall Farrell & Sarah J. Darby & Malcolm D. McCulloch, 2018. "Using peer-to-peer energy-trading platforms to incentivize prosumers to form federated power plants," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(2), pages 94-101, February.
    16. Richter, Mario, 2013. "Business model innovation for sustainable energy: German utilities and renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1226-1237.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lazar Gitelman & Mikhail Kozhevnikov, 2023. "New Business Models in the Energy Sector in the Context of Revolutionary Transformations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-21, February.
    2. Cezar-Petre Simion & Cătălin-Alexandru Verdeș & Alexandra-Andreea Mironescu & Florin-Gabriel Anghel, 2023. "Digitalization in Energy Production, Distribution, and Consumption: A Systematic Literature Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-30, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chun Xia-Bauer & Florin Vondung & Stefan Thomas & Raphael Moser, 2022. "Business Model Innovations for Renewable Energy Prosumer Development in Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-17, June.
    2. Shen, Lei & Sun, Wanqin & Parida, Vinit, 2023. "Consolidating digital servitization research: A systematic review, integrative framework, and future research directions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    3. Teresa Pakulska & Małgorzata Poniatowska-Jaksch, 2022. "Digitalization in the Renewable Energy Sector—New Market Players," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-21, June.
    4. Karim L. Anaya & Michael G. Pollitt, 2021. "How to Procure Flexibility Services within the Electricity Distribution System: Lessons from an International Review of Innovation Projects," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-26, July.
    5. Ancillai, Chiara & Sabatini, Andrea & Gatti, Marco & Perna, Andrea, 2023. "Digital technology and business model innovation: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    6. Duch-Brown, Néstor & Rossetti, Fiammetta, 2020. "Digital platforms across the European regional energy markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    7. Daxing Chen & Helian Xu & Guangya Zhou, 2024. "Has Artificial Intelligence Promoted Manufacturing Servitization: Evidence from Chinese Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-19, March.
    8. Botelho, D.F. & de Oliveira, L.W. & Dias, B.H. & Soares, T.A. & Moraes, C.A., 2022. "Prosumer integration into the Brazilian energy sector: An overview of innovative business models and regulatory challenges," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    9. Marie-Anne Le-Dain & Lamiae Benhayoun & Judy Matthews & Marine Liard, 2023. "Barriers and opportunities of digital servitization for SMEs: the effect of smart Product-Service System business models," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 17(1), pages 359-393, March.
    10. Moritz Ehrtmann & Lars Holstenkamp & Timon Becker, 2021. "Regional Electricity Models for Community Energy in Germany: The Role of Governance Structures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-24, February.
    11. Kyriaki Psara & Christina Papadimitriou & Marily Efstratiadi & Sotiris Tsakanikas & Panos Papadopoulos & Paul Tobin, 2022. "European Energy Regulatory, Socioeconomic, and Organizational Aspects: An Analysis of Barriers Related to Data-Driven Services across Electricity Sectors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-25, March.
    12. Schwidtal, Jan Marc & Agostini, Marco & Coppo, Massimiliano & Bignucolo, Fabio & Lorenzoni, Arturo, 2023. "Optimized operation of distributed energy resources: The opportunities of value stacking for Power-to-Gas aggregated with PV," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    13. Chankook Park, 2022. "Expansion of servitization in the energy sector and its implications," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(4), July.
    14. Yong Chen & Zhengjie Wu & Wenchao Yi & Bingjia Wang & Jianhua Yao & Zhi Pei & Jiaoliao Chen, 2022. "Bibliometric Method for Manufacturing Servitization: A Review and Future Research Directions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-26, July.
    15. Hiteva, Ralitsa & Foxon, Timothy J., 2021. "Beware the value gap: Creating value for users and for the system through innovation in digital energy services business models," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    16. Sophie Adams & Donal Brown & Juan Pablo Cárdenas Álvarez & Ruzanna Chitchyan & Michael J. Fell & Ulf J. J. Hahnel & Kristina Hojckova & Charlotte Johnson & Lurian Klein & Mehdi Montakhabi & Kelvin Say, 2021. "Social and Economic Value in Emerging Decentralized Energy Business Models: A Critical Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-29, November.
    17. Heymann, Fabian & Milojevic, Tatjana & Covatariu, Andrei & Verma, Piyush, 2023. "Digitalization in decarbonizing electricity systems – Phenomena, regional aspects, stakeholders, use cases, challenges and policy options," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(PB).
    18. Wim Coreynen & Arjen van Witteloostuijn & Johanna Vanderstraeten, 2021. "Toward Servitized Research: An Integrated Approach for Sustainable Product-Service Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-21, July.
    19. Naimeh Mohammadi, 2023. "Investigation of Community Energy Business Models from an Institutional Perspective: Intermediaries and Policy Instruments in Selected Cases of Developing and Developed Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-24, May.
    20. Barjak, F. & Lindeque, J. & Koch, J. & Soland, M., 2022. "Segmenting household electricity customers with quantitative and qualitative approaches," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:7:p:2705-:d:788305. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.