Sourcing energy services in business-to-business contexts: practices among end-customers

Facing increased pressure to use renewable energy and achieve energy efficiency, organisations have the complex task of sourcing energy services from energy providers in business-to-business (B2B) contexts. We aimed to explore how customers in such contexts approach the sourcing of energy services. Our theoretical and empirical approach linked energy as a service offering and customer–provider interfaces used in sourcing energy services to elucidate the practices adopted in such sourcing by customers in B2B contexts. To that end, we employed a qualitative research approach using the Gioia methodology and conducted 18 semi-structured interviews with representatives of 18 firms in the B2B market for energy services in Sweden. Our results revealed two central categories of how energy services are sourced: basic and advanced. The theorising of those categories as forms of direct and indirect energy efficiency, combined with four types of energy services—information-, analysis-, improvement- and contract-oriented services, which include a description of energy services exchanged, where the customer uses the energy service, the customer’s sourcing practices and characteristics of sourcing practices—provides important contributions to the literature on energy services. In turn, we propose a four-part typology of interfaces used by providers and customers of energy services that considers the type of services sourced.