Paper info

Exploring Business Opportunities - New Network Configurations for Sustainable Energy Systems

Rumy Narayan, Petra Berg and Arto Rajala

The paper was published at the 34th IMP-conference in Marseille, France in 2018.

Understanding and developing new frameworks for addressing issues related to climate change, inequality and the current model of economic growth is gaining momentum. These issues are often thought of as discrete ones. However, recent research shows that they are connected and addressing them requires the ability to understand their holistic and systemic nature comprising of both societal, technological and even economical aspects. Especially, energy systems offer a compelling platform to study the systemic approach as energy production and consumption lie at the heart of our global economy. We propose that multi-partner networks conceptualized from the perspective of energy systems uncover the underlying ideas and paradigm(s) that imperil change yet in these revelations also offer opportunities for intervention. This working-inprogress study examines an energy transition process to map the focal networks and make sense of the on-going interactions in order to build insights into the network characteristics and capabilities that could then help identify and trigger new sustainable business opportunities and models. Accordingly, the study fills a gap in research in networks by extending the idea of sense making to capture narratives during socio-technical transitions.