Lessons Learned from Establishing the Energy-Informatics Business Model: Case of a German Energy Company

Grosse, Matti; Send, Hendrik; Schildhauer, Thomas

doi:10.3390/su11030857

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Answering questions on how and why, i.e., questions that have a more explanatory character, case studies are considered to be a particularly suitable research strategy [70]. For example, case studies have been used successfully to analyze sustainability issues like transitions of family firms towards a circular economy model [71], or transitions of established energy and utility firms towards energy informatics business models [72]. The German software manufacturer SAP was selected as the object of investigation for this case study.…”

Section: Methodology and Case Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internal Open Innovation—Lessons Learned from Internal Crowdsourcing at SAP

Pohlisch¹

2020

Sustainability

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Crowdsourcing provides companies with access to widespread knowledge pools and constitutes a well-established inbound open innovation practice. More recently, some companies have introduced the approach of open innovation within their company boundaries. Using internal crowdsourcing (IC), companies can apply open innovation principles to overcome information silos. Multinational corporations often have thousands of employees around the globe, embedded in divisions and virtually separated from each other. Although a large proportion of companies nowadays use social IT to mitigate problems of distance, only a few companies can access their employees’ wisdom effectively—let alone efficiently. With almost 100,000 employees worldwide, SAP possesses significant resources, which IC can help to unlock and develop. In this business case study, we report the findings of our investigation of five IC implementations at SAP. Based on interviews and secondary data, we analyze the process and related governance tasks of the different IC approaches. The applications for IC range from the search for new and sustainable business models to an approach that uses crowdsourcing for the competence development of SAP’s employees. Our paper contributes to our understanding of open innovation and crowdsourcing by conceptualizing IC as a form of internal open innovation. Further, from our observations, we derive six lessons learned to support managers in implementing and executing IC initiatives successfully. Our findings will subsequently help managers to increase the innovation capabilities of their companies, create more sustainable business models, further the entrepreneurial mindset of their employees and thus provide a competitive advantage.

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Section: Methodology and Case Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internal Open Innovation—Lessons Learned from Internal Crowdsourcing at SAP

Pohlisch¹

2020

Sustainability

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“…Energy economics is another signi cant theme that has been driving research and investment in EI. In addition, the nature of the energy business is also changing, forcing energy companies to innovate new business models to maintain a steady revenue stream in a uctuating energy market [49]. The energy economics theme spans both the demand and supply sides, and similarly, the application of EI spans both the demand and supply sides [48] [50].…”

Section: Energy Economicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the energy informatics and energy citizenship domains: A Systematic Literature Review

Kumar

Naqvi

Wolff

2023

Preprint

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To effectively address the challenges posed by the increasing share of the energy sector in global greenhouse effects, the domains of energy informatics and energy citizenship are of prime importance. Energy informatics aims at using information systems and channels to reduce energy consumption. However, there is a realization that the challenges posed by global greenhouse effects cannot be catered to alone by the energy information systems. Therefore, there is a need for engaging human inhabitants to actively engage toward more sustainable means (i.e., energy citizenship) thus reducing the energy sector’s share in the global greenhouse effect. This paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) after analysis of (n = 115) articles on the topic to identify (i) the themes considered in energy informatics and energy citizenship domains, and (ii) the interconnection between energy informatics and energy citizenship domains. The paper summarizes the gaps in the state of the art by mentioning the open research questions.

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“…Environmental, economic, and societal sustainability can be achieved thanks to the interdisciplinary approach provided by energy informatics [ 54 ] because ICT allows environmental and energy efficiency issues to be handled effectively [ 55 ]. Indeed, energy informatics offers promising opportunities for energy and utilities companies to experiment with new business models for addressing energy efficiency and climate-protection goals, and thus encourages their customers to save energy [ 56 ]. From this point of view, the concept of “eco-cities” arises as the most environmentally sound model of sustainable urbanism.…”

Section: Research Trends In Energy Informaticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is one important final point to make concerning new business models affected by the energy informatics concept. Energy service companies (ESCOs) find themselves in a paradoxical situation in which their traditional business models are losing profitability when they have to consider energy efficiency and climate-protection goals, and thus encourage their customers to save energy [ 56 ]. From this perspective, three types of technology can create an intelligent energy-management system including flow networks, sensor networks, and sensitized objects [ 29 , 56 ].…”

Section: Industrial Innovation Driven By Energy Informaticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educating the energy informatics specialist: opportunities and challenges in light of research and industrial trends

et al. 2021

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Contemporary energy research is becoming more interdisciplinary through the involvement of technical, economic, and social aspects that must be addressed simultaneously. Within such interdisciplinary energy research, the novel domain of energy informatics plays an important role, as it involves different disciplines addressing the socio-techno-economic challenges of sustainable energy and power systems in a holistic manner. The objective of this paper is to draw an overview of the novel domain of energy informatics by addressing the educational opportunities as well as related challenges in light of current trends and the future direction of research and industrial innovation. In this study we discuss the energy informatics domain in a way that goes beyond a purely scientific research perspective. This paper widens the analyses by including reflections on current and future didactic approaches with industrial innovation and research as a background. This paper provides key recommendations for the content of a foundational introductory energy informatics course, as well as suggestions on distinguishing features to be addressed through more specialized courses in the field. The importance of this work is based on the need for better guidelines for a more appropriate education of a new generation of experts who can take on the novel interdisciplinary challenges present in future integrated, sustainable energy systems. Article highlights Didactic approaches in the energy informatics domain are discussed based on research and industrial trends. Research trends and industrial innovation driven by energy informatics are investigated. A fundamental framework for an energy informatics course is defined together with specialized distinguishing features.

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Lessons Learned from Establishing the Energy-Informatics Business Model: Case of a German Energy Company

Cited by 11 publications

References 52 publications

Internal Open Innovation—Lessons Learned from Internal Crowdsourcing at SAP

Internal Open Innovation—Lessons Learned from Internal Crowdsourcing at SAP

Exploring the energy informatics and energy citizenship domains: A Systematic Literature Review

Educating the energy informatics specialist: opportunities and challenges in light of research and industrial trends

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