Agriculture and Energy Industry in the Setting of an Emerging Bioeconomy: Are There any Signs of Convergence on the Horizon?

Shrinking fossil fuel resources and growing global energy demand lead to a strong interest in renewable resources, particularly in the energy industry, where electricity, heat and fuel are increasingly produced by using bio-based feedstock. Agricultural companies with direct access to renewable raw materials enter energy markets and gain increasing influence on their competitive environment. These developments at the interface between the energy and the agriculture industry seem to reflect the formation of a new bioeconomy. The fading boundaries between the so far distinct agricultural and energy industry can indicate an industry convergence process. In a setting of convergence, a firm's flexible response and dynamic capabilities represent to be the key for its future success. Based on the well-accepted notion that convergence of research-intensive industries follows convergence of scientific fields and technologies, we use patent analyses to identify potential patterns of convergence. Our work focuses on examining a potential technological convergence with regard to German bioenergy applications, whereby a potential new industry segment could not be confirmed at this point in time. For now, a bioenergy value chain can be described as being integrated in the energy value chain as a complementary sub-segment.