Players in the Danish energy sector must overcome key challenges before they can truly exploit the great potential within user-friendly, high-technology products. This is the result of a collaborative research project between Aarhus University and the University of Southern Denmark.

2011.02.01 | Linea Søgaard-Lidell

Players in the energy sector need to improve their understanding of how to use open networks, communicate with users and cooperate with other lines of business if they want to make their high-technology products suitable for everyday consumption.

These are some of the key findings of a collaborative research project carried out by PhD Carsten Bergenholtz from Business and Social Sciences at Aarhus University, Rene Chester Goduscheit, Assistant Professor at the University of Southern Denmark, and PhD Jacob Høj Jørgensen from Delendorff Advisory.

The research team has studied the processes within an innovation network consisting of 15 to 20 companies, all major players in the energy and telecommunications sectors. The aim of the network has been to develop user-friendly and high-technology products for the energy sector through open innovation with the companies in the network. The network draws on user data from a very large percentage of the Danish population.

- The process basically failed because the participants in the network have not been able to pursue open innovation with the users and with each other. As a result, the participants don't have the necessary knowledge of user needs and the opportunities of cooperating with other industries and areas of technology to make advanced technologies relevant to ordinary Danish households, says Carsten Bergenholtz.

At the same time, he stresses that it is not easy to cooperate within the energy sector because it requires the participation of a large number of players in order to develop products that can be applied to all energy-consuming areas of the household and, ultimately, allow users to reduce their total energy consumption.

Technology should be linked to social value

To give an example, technology per se has proven insufficient in making users change their behaviour. In concrete terms, an in-home display showing the exact power consumption has not had the intended effect on consumer behaviour in the form of reduced energy consumption.

The display and the high-tech engineering solution are still prerequisites for such a behavioural change, but users are also highly controlled by the opportunity of communicating their behaviour to the world around them, for instance through social networks, in order to showcase their green behaviour. This is the conclusion from an extensive study on "lead user behaviour".      

This means that, apart from engineering solutions, there is a need for other qualifications, such as an insight into social networks and the ability to tackle specific managerial challenges in terms of uniting players in an inter-organisational energy setting.

Problems with management

Carsten Bergenholtz explains that the problems with open innovation in the energy sector are mainly of a managerial nature. Specifically, it is a matter of how the different players, i.e. the company representatives in the innovation network, handle the task, and how the network has been managed.

- There is a major difference between managing employees who receive a monthly payslip and volunteers in an open innovation network who often possess knowledge of the latest technological developments within their company, which they only share if they want to and believe that they will benefit from it, says Carsten Bergenholtz and elaborates:

- Roughly speaking, the network has been managed as if the players were wage earners in an ordinary company, but open innovation requires very narrow, external guidelines.

- At the same time, our studies suggest that the company representatives have been unwilling to share their ideas at the innovation meetings, and this has altogether drained the innovation in the voluntary network, which has been lacking a more open, flexible and trustworthy management group. This would have made them keener on sharing knowledge and ideas with each other, Carsten Bergenholtz concludes.

For further information, please contact:

PhD Carsten Bergenholtz
Aarhus University
Business and Social Sciences
Department of Business Administration
Tel.:  +45 8948 6702
Mobile: +45 28588322
E-mail: cabe@asb.dk
Web: www.asb.dk/staff/cabe

Or

Jacob Høj Jørgensen
Senior Consultant, PhD
Delendorff Advisory
Mobile: +45 51 24 45 44
E-mail: jacob.hoj@gmail.com
Web: www.delendorff.com