How can power utilities restructure their resource base in order to survive anticipated discontinous change due to technological innovations in the industry?

Mr Morten  Ansteensen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Incumbents in the Norwegian power industry are anticipating discontinuous changes in their business environment due to technological innovation such as energy storage, smartgrids and big data solutions; facing them with major strategic challenges in the upcoming years. New technology and cross-industry entrants bring uncertainty on whether the incumbents existing resource-base and strategy will continue to be a source of competitive advantage. Existing literature has explored the impact of these changes on incumbents from the viewing point of innovation systems and business model innovation, providing valuable insight. This paper builds further upon the literature from an entrepreneurial perspective. By drawing upon the link between corporate entrepreneurship (CE) and innovation, this projects’s main objective is to discuss how the CE literature, well familiar with firms strategizing under uncertainty and risk, can contribute to understand how electricity incumbents in the Norwegian energy sector respond to discontinuous industry change. Through the literature stream of CE, this project attempts to conceptualize how the shift from the traditional strategic paradigm to a more entrepreneurial one can benefit incumbents by utilizing concepts such as corporate ventures and strategic renewal to discover new sustainable business models.