Unlocking the value of digitalization for the European energy transition: A typology of innovative business models

Many researchers and practitioners in the energy domain look at business model innovation to find novel ways of creating and capturing value from digital technology. A key concern is to address problems and inefficiencies in the energy transition. In entrepreneurship such inefficiencies are referred to as bottlenecks. However, the profound potential that digital technology and business model innovation have to address bottlenecks in the energy transition is surprisingly under-researched. This paper contributes to this gap. It appears that digital technologies facilitate business model innovation that either tackle bottlenecks of integrating sustainable energy technology into incumbent structures or bottlenecks that relate to the independence of sustainable energy technology from incumbent structures. Further, business model innovation to address these bottlenecks are either incremental or transformative. As a result, digitalization-based business model innovation appears in four types. Each type stimulates novel prescriptions for business model innovation research and practice and the governance of sustainable energy transitions.