Business model innovation for the energy market: Joint value creation for electricity retailers and their customers

Abstract

Electricity retailers are facing a decentralized, decarbonized, and digitalized road towards the sustainable energy transition. This paper presents an empirical study investigating how electricity suppliers can create and deliver values to private customers and capture the market for themselves through innovative business models during the low-carbon energy transition. Our exploratory study fills this research gap by collecting data from eleven different European companies and systematically analyzing them with the help of the “Business Model Canvas” (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010). The taxonomy and identification of the applied business model patterns are provided according to the “Business Model Navigator” (Gassmann et al., 2014). Consequently, the current research clarifies how business models of electricity retailers are structured today. We find that electricity retailers are trying to take a more consumer-centric perspective for creating economic, social, and environmental values. They provide different energy-related products and services besides green electricity to their private customers. The successful business models mainly focus on the increase in consumers’ energy efficiency and electricity self-sufficiency. By linking the business model innovation and retail electricity market, recommendations for business managers and policymakers are made.