مدل های کسب و کار نوآورانه می توانند بر مقاومت در برابر وسایل نقلیه الکتریکی غلبه کنند ؟ محل بهتر و اتومبیل های باتری برقی در دانمارک

This paper explores the geographical and policy context for an emergent business model from Better Place to deliver battery electric car mobility in Denmark. It argues that the combination of radically different technologies and a highly complex multi-agency operating environment theoretically provide the conditions and requirements for such an emergent business model. While focused on battery electric cars, renewable energy generation and smart grids, the paper has wider applicability to an understanding of the interplay between place, innovation and sustainability which suggests that diverse solutions are likely to be the characteristic solution rather than ubiquity and standardization. The paper argues, however, that the innovative business model, the deployment of electric vehicles, and the use of renewable energy systems, in this case largely based on wind power, while mutually supportive and contributing to wider policy aims with respect to the reduction of carbon emissions, may still fail in the face of entrenched practices. At the theoretical level it is concluded that theorization of business models needs a broader perspective beyond the typical ‘value creation, value capture’ rubric to better understand the wider role such models have in meeting societal goals, and to understand the structural impediments to organizational and technical innovation.

Research into innovative business models has highlighted the ways in which competitive advantage may be secured by creating new businesses premised on novel structures and approaches, or by re-engineering the architecture of existing businesses. In broad terms, the two primary conditions to allow or promote business model innovation are technological innovations (in the product/service offered or in the underlying business processes) or economic distress under which existing business models are losing their competitive power. Research in this area tends to focus on the innovative cases and on the success stories. In contrast, the ability of entrenched business models or other forces for inertia to resist change tends to be neglected. As this paper argues, the instance of electric vehicles would appear to offer theoretically good reasons to expect that profound technological changes in the nature of the product, allied to repeated economic distress evident in the existing dominant business model for vehicle manufacturing, would yield the perfect opportunity for business model innovation to flourish. Indeed, such innovations in business organization have been claimed to be a pre-requisite for the successful electrification of automobility (Berger, 2011 and Wells, 2010a). According to the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) global emissions of CO2 must be reduced by 50%–85% by 2050 in order to avoid global warming exceeding the 2 °C threshold temperature for catastrophic climate change (UNFCC, 2011). This reduction target means that the developed countries need to reduce their emissions by 80%–95% by 2050 to counter-balance growing emissions in developing countries (EU, 2011). Two of the main contributors of CO2 emissions are energy conversion and transport activities. A potential route to climate change mitigation is via the phased substitution of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and hydro power. These renewable energy sources all share the same challenge of reconciling fluctuating energy conversion against variable current consumption patterns. Climate change mitigation in the transport sector has been more challenging as CO2 emissions caused by transport activities in most countries more or less follow continuing economic growth (EEA, 2010). Private car use is one of the main contributors to CO2 emissions from the transport sector (EEA, 2010). Incremental achievements in the CO2 performance of new cars have been achieved in Europe via voluntary action and, more recently, by the direct regulation of CO2 emissions (EU, 2009a), but more radical solutions are needed (EEA, 2010). One of the most promising radical solutions is that of battery electric vehicles (BEVs; in this paper taken to include plug-in hybrid vehicles as well). BEVs are more energy-efficient than conventional diesel or petrol fuelled combustion engine vehicles and allow the introduction of renewable energy sources in the transport sector if parallel transition is taking place in the energy sector. There are many potential strategies to reduce the CO2 emissions from transport, ranging from advanced public transport systems to substitution via increased use of information and communications technologies. However, the combined introduction of electric cars in the transport sector and renewable energy sources in the energy sector via innovative business models is particularly interesting due to the fact that fluctuations in electricity production via renewable energy sources can potentially be managed by so-called intelligent charging of BEVs whereby vehicle charging is controlled and performed according to the actual production patterns in the energy sector in a ‘smart grid’. Intelligent charging requires a completely new way of organizing the interface between the transport sector and the energy sector. While much research has identified the technological challenges in terms of vehicle and infrastructure design to achieve the transition to low-carbon mobility (Sperling and Gordon, 2009), rather less attention has been given to the implications for business structure and organization (Wells, 2010b). There is recognition that in broad terms new business models are likely to be a feature of the emergent automotive corporate landscape (Kley and Lerch, 2011, Berger, 2011 and Wolfson et al., 2011), and that the technological and business solutions for sustainable mobility are likely to be highly diverse and context-dependent, but in the absence of actual cases there is little understanding of how those innovative business models might be characterized, or how they will relate to and compete against entrenched practices. This article explores the creation of such a business model by looking at the implementation of BEVs in Denmark by Better Place, a new ‘intermediary’ interface between BEVs and renewable electric power. We have chosen Better Place Denmark because it is at the forefront of these intertwined technological and corporate changes (Wolfson et al., 2011). Denmark has a high proportion of installed wind power capacity and supportive policy context such that electric cars are expected to penetrate the vehicle fleet faster than elsewhere. The article first reviews the significance of innovative business models in theory, along with the material circumstances of the nascent BEV segment that may allow or even compel organizational innovation. Thereafter, the specific case of Better Place in Denmark is considered. The article concludes with an exploration of the implications of the case study within the wider theme of the quest for sustainable mobility and the potential contribution of business model innovation.

The research has shown firstly that Denmark does indeed offer an incredibly supportive setting in which to establish an innovative business model and thereby establish a more sustainable form of automobility. Indeed, few other locations could offer such an opportunity, particularly as it is combined with a broadly supportive cultural setting (Denmark has often taken the lead on a wide range of environmental issues), a broadly supportive economic setting, and a firm commitment from government to pursue the low-carbon agenda in all areas including transport. The research has also shown that Better Place has created a business model and product-service offering that is indeed innovative and which attempts to address perceived problematic aspects of electric vehicle ownership. Yet, as of spring 2012, Better Place has been vanishingly insignificant compared to volume of cars provided by the established mainstream automotive industry and the culturally embedded approach to personal automobility. It might be thought that innovative business models would allow the conventional auto-industry business model to be circumvented, but to date that does not seem to have happened. Business model innovation is likely to be easier for new entrants than for incumbent entities that have deeply established practices, procedures and operational norms. Indeed, the literature on business models is often concerned with the difficulty of significant transformations in existing businesses with existing models (Chesbrough., 2010). If Better Place is successful with this business model, it is going to be extremely difficult for other businesses such as vehicle manufacturers or electricity suppliers to compete. From the perspective of sustainability, however, the survival of the new business model in competition is but one consideration. Such survival is a necessary but insufficient condition of meeting the test: is personal mobility more sustainable as a result of this business model? If the model remains small, with just a few hundred BEVs in circulation, then it is likely to fail as a business but also will be insignificant as a contribution to more sustainable mobility. At this stage it is not possible to calculate the CO2 emissions reductions that could arise from the widespread adoption of BEVs in Denmark using a high proportion of renewable energy to generate the electricity. However, the case does illustrate that business models need to embrace the internal and external relations of the business, and that such models are not just narrowly about how value is created and captured by the firm, so much as how the interlinked network of firms and other agencies benefit. Hence, the long-run evaluation of the success or otherwise of the Better Place business model needs to account for, say, the extent to which BEV’s are implemented without having to increase capacity (insofar as the increased capacity can be attributed to BEV charging). In some respects, therefore, a full evaluation would require tools and data more akin to those developed in industrial ecology than the traditional metrics of business evaluation. Around the world there are a great many initiatives under way with government support to encourage the adoption of BEVs (Williams, 2009, Procter, 2011 and IEA, 2011). The major economies have declared that they aim at reaching an annual sales target on 7 million BEV’s by 2020 (IEA, 2011). However, many of initiatives appear premised on a largely unchanged automotive industry and without the intervention of new intermediaries such as Better Place. It is perhaps significant that the locations chosen by Better Place are rather conspicuous for their lack of a significant incumbent vehicle manufacturer, for their small scale, and for the opportunity to use renewable energy to generate the electricity required. This all suggests that the Better Place solution may remain a niche rather than mainstream business, and hence, that its contribution to sustainable mobility, while valuable on a local scale, may not be replicated more generally. Either way, on the evidence to date it would appear that an innovative business model allied to novel technology and a supportive context are still insufficient to make a substantial difference to the entrenched practice. In turn, this means that some of the more optimistic expectations for business model innovation may need to be tempered by an understanding of how, in particular sectors or areas of activity, the barriers to change are truly formidable.