Nathalie Sick

TECHNOLOGICAL DISTANCE IN ACADEMIC COLLABORATIONS: EVIDENCE FROM BATTERY RESEARCH

Technological distance is one important factor within research projects to enhance or prevent successful knowledge transfer for innovation. To get a better understanding of bridging mechanisms of diverging technological distances, we compare publication-based and individually perceived technological distances of collaboration partners in a multi-disciplinary battery research project. Differences hint at already bridged or non-bridged technological distances. Further information, given during expert interviews, present reasons for different knowledge transfer and recombination mechanisms in different dyadic collaborations. We generally find evidence that technological distance can be bridged by reducing geographical or social distances. When research activities are really complementary and collaboration partners have a common (technical) language, there is less need of decreasing other distances. Integrating research along the traditional battery value chain needs more social or geographical proximity to decrease and not just bridge technological distance at least in a practical way.

Economic and technological forecasting competencies of German energy companies

Purpose – This paper aims to extend the small body of literature on energy industry transitions on firm level. A growing number of articles shed light on paradigm shifts in the energy industry and the influence of renewable energies on industry structures. In the majority of cases, the authors analyze changes on a global or national level. Design/methodology/approach – Energy companies’ forecasting capabilities are particularly important to enable them to react in time to upcoming changes in industry structures. In this context, we analyze annual reports of German energy companies to evaluate their economic and technological forecasting competencies. Findings – Big energy providers offer high economic forecasting quality, but seem to be less able to derive valid forecasts in terms of renewable energies from the currently unstable political frameworks. On the contrary, renewable energy companies do not seem to suffer from these difficulties and provide good foresting accuracy in terms of renewable energy development, but show less accurate economic forecasting quality. Practical implications – Big energy providers need to find the means of responding to the challenges and integrate changing political guidelines and support into their forecasting system. Renewable energy companies, in contrast, should focus on company-level profitability and the respective economic forecasting competencies. Originality/value – This paper makes a significant contribution to the literature on the subject of energy industry transitions by providing insights from publicly available data on firm level. The findings are highly relevant for managers of the energy industry and policy makers in this field.

Market convergence in the field of stationary energy storage systems

In order to develop and market powerful stationary energy storage systems, competences of different industries like the battery, chemical, energy, and electronics sector are necessary, which may lead to a convergence of these formerly distinct industries. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to anticipate industry convergence in the area of stationary energy storage by analyzing market convergence. A potential market convergence can be indicated by collaborative activities such as strategic alliances, joint ventures or mergers and acquisitions. As a main source of information on such activities, we use the full text database Nexis® to conduct a search in English news sources referring to collaborations on stationary energy storage systems. As a result, we find signs for an ongoing market convergence, whereby a detailed analysis of collaborations in this field reveals that the mainly involved industries are the battery, electronics and energy industry sectors. In this context, the dominance of cross-industry collaborations indicates that competences from a variety of industries are needed to develop and introduce new solutions for stationary energy storage. Our analyses and findings contribute to the convergence research field by extending the currently scarce body of empirical literature on market convergence and by validating a recently developed analytical framework to anticipate and assess the status of market convergence.

Technological distance measures: new perspectives on nearby and far away

Understanding the competitive environment of one’s company is crucial for every manager. One tool to quantify the technological relationships between companies, evaluate industry landscapes and knowledge transfer potential in collaborations is the technological distance. There are different methods and many different factors that impact the results and thus the conclusions that are drawn from distance calculation. Therefore, the present study derives guidelines for calculating and evaluating technological distances for three common methods, i.e. the Euclidean distance, the cosine angle and the min-complement distance. For this purpose, we identify factors that influence the results of technological distance calculation using simulation. Subsequently, we analyze technological distances of cross-industry collaborations in the field of electric mobility. Our findings show that a high level of detail is necessary to achieve insightful results. If the topic in scope of the analysis does not represent the core business of the companies, we recommend filters to focus on the respective topic. Another key suggestion is to compare the calculated results to a peer group in order to evaluate if a distance can be evaluated as ‘near’ or ‘far’.

Patterns of Convergence Within the Emerging Bioeconomy — The Case of the Agricultural and Energy Sector

In light of an emerging bioeconomy, fading boundaries between the so far distinct agricultural and energy sector indicate a convergence process leading to a new competitive setting between established value chains requiring dynamic capabilities of the affected firms. On the basis of understanding convergence as a process within research-intensive industries, patent analyses can be applied to identify whether there are trends of convergence associated with the emerging bioeconomy. This study focuses on examining the nexus of agricultural and energy sector with regard to German biogas technologies. Although different disciplinary activities within the field of biogas can be confirmed, for now, biogas (as well as other bioenergy) applications rather seem to build a sub-segment within the energy value chain than to form a new inter-industry segment.

Oil prices as a driving force in the diffusion of renewables

Purpose – Researchers began investigating the diffusion of renewable energy technologies (RETs) in the late 1990s, and, up to today, a variety of authors have presented different approaches to understand the special characteristics of RET diffusion. However, one factor has been thus far disregarded in the research: the influence of raw material prices on RET diffusion. The dependence of a multitude of technologies on raw material prices became especially apparent in recent years due to rather sudden and volatile price movements in raw material markets. Thus, the aim of this work is to contribute to the research by providing evidence for a direct linkage between raw material price developments and RET diffusion. Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical framework used in this article derives from the concept of induced diffusion. This empirical study is based on publicly available data of 18 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries over 20 years and uses multivariate regres...

The influence of raw material prices on renewables diffusion

Purpose – There are several approaches trying to explain the diffusion of renewable energy technologies (RET). The most commonly used instruments are learning and experience curves, followed by further economic, policy- and barrier-related analyses. In order to gain a more comprehensive understanding, additional influence factors on RET diffusion have to be studied. This paper aims to contribute to research on RET diffusion by adding the raw material price perspective. Design/methodology/approach – The authors develop a regression model to test the influence of raw material prices on RET diffusion, using investments in RET capacities as indicators of diffusion, and crude oil and natural gas prices as well as public R&D subsidies as main independent variables. The model is then applied to emerging RET (wind and solar power) for electricity generation in 18 OECD-countries. Findings – In the case of wind power, the model shows an adequate fit and a highly significant impact of oil as well as gas prices on in...

The relationship of calculated and perceived distance dimensions in interdisciplinary collaborations: Evidence from a battery research project

Innovation collaborations experienced a substantial growth, so that the research interest in factors contributing to successful collaboration increased. One important factor in this context are distances like technological and geographical distance. The distinction between objectively calculated and individually perceived distances provides possible starting points to bridge high distances. Therefore, the study at hand aims to answer the following research question: How are calculated technological and geographical distances related to their perceived counterpart and how do these different distance dimensions influence each other? The data is collected from an interdisciplinary battery research project. The calculated technological distance is measured via a publication-based approach while the calculated geographical distance is defined as the distance between the respective working places. Perceived distances, in contrast, are received via an online questionnaire. The influence model confirms a positive relationship between the calculated distance dimensions, technological and geographical distance, and their perceived counterparts. However, respective measures do by far not entirely overlap, so that the perceived ones are further influenced by factors like e.g. scientific background or shortest travel time. This approach is especially promising to foster social innovation as the awareness of bridging mechanisms might provide avenues to deal with technological distance, which can be assumed to be comparably high in this context.

A Patent-Based Approach for the Identification of Strategic Reactions to Technological Change: The Case of Emerging Battery Technologies

Assessments regarding the strategic reactions of companies towards technological change are highly complex and often lack generalization. Methods for analyzing company resources were rather applied than methods directly focusing on the respective strategic reactions. There is, however, a need for a methodology that provides a more comprehensive overview and enables an early recognition of strategic reactions to technological change, for example through the use of easily available secondary data. Thus, the aim of our study is the development of a patent-based approach to identify particular strategic reactions of respective companies towards technological change. Achieving this objective involves an analysis of patent activities for the case of relevant cell manufacturing companies of lithium-ion and post-lithium-ion battery technologies. The developed methodological approach could be applied successfully to the identification of strategic reactions in the battery field. From a practical point of view, our findings give detailed and above all early insights in strategic decisions and enable technology managers to better assess investment options in different technologies.

How to use crowdsourcing for innovation?: A comparative case study of internal and external idea sourcing in the chemical industry

Successful social innovation rely strongly on open innovation and the impact of crowds to find alternative solutions in a more transparent way. Social media as web-based communication platform leverages practices of crowdsourcing for idea generation to become a prominent tool for open innovation. The extant literature mainly focuses on external crowds, such as users and end customers. Although conducting internal crowdsourcing with employees has entered the research agenda, detailed examination on how and when to use external or internal crowds for open innovation is still missing. Thus, the research aim of the present study is to identify success factors and challenges for internal and external crowdsourcing by determining their differences. An exploratory multi-case study research design is used to investigate crowdsourcing activities within a specialty chemicals company. We compare a case of external crowdsourcing, where academic researchers were invited to submit solutions to a specialized problem with a case of internal crowdsourcing, whereby employees generate ideas for new products in an idea competition. Based on three key components - task, crowd and outcome an their interrelationships in three dimensions - social, technical and innovation dimension, we thus present a framework on how to use internal and external crowds best to source new ideas and solution pathways.