Business model innovation consists of new ways of defining, creating, and capturing value including non-monetary value, and is an indicator of crossing traditional sector boundaries, thereby providing the necessary agency to achieve significant new market opportunities around technological innovation. Individual businesses may lack the scope or depth of competencies required, especially in the case of entrenched industrial structures, framings, regulatory provision, and consumer attitudes. Business models are thus potentially ossified within highly structured socio-technical systems. This article analyses innovation in business models arising from the confluence of two mature and stable industries under conditions of external pressure, deregulation, privatization, and the emergence of a new, shared interest. We illustrate the paper with examples of vehicle manufacturers developing business concepts for vehicle-to-grid, domestic energy, second life, and industrial electricity provision from renewable energy. We find that in the period 2012 to 2020, 17 vehicle manufacturers used 38 electric models to test a diverse menu of options established from four applications with changes in boundary conditions that have influenced business model innovation. This process created space for energy policy and mobility policy to become increasingly intertwined as battery electric vehicles enter the mass market, raising questions over the future of automobility as well as electricity generation and distribution.
Evaldo Costa is an interdisciplinary researcher. He has experience in Environmental Sciences and Environmental Engineering. His background includes a Ph.D. in Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies from NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal, and a Ph.D. in Business Economics at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium. His research focuses on sustainable transition pathways. He has been exploring various theories and mobilized a wide range of methods and techniques, and tools covering quantitative, qualitative studies. He has relevant international experience in research; publishing articles in top/peer-reviewed journals; experiencing presentations at international conferences. He has acted as a reviewer for top/indexed journals, become a member of a Ph.D. supervisory board, and keeps a wide and active international relationship network. Before shifting his career to the research field, he worked several years as a university professor, and as an international industry consultant. He hopes contributing to a more sustainable and a better world.
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