Search

Managing intertemporal price risk in the long term is essential to make investments in renewable power generation bankable. When the derivative markets don't delivery enough price hedging products nor market liquidity, many rely on bilateral hedging by means of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). With the fast pace of change in power system fundamentals that Europe is now facing, effective PPA markets can play a key role in enabling a smoother transition to renewables. This paper aims to describe the price discovery process in bilateral hedging in the Nordic PPA markets, as well as their most important terms and conditions to understand how the markets can respond to challenges in the changing business environment. The paper finds that there is a need for stronger price references and more transparent price discovery processes in PPA markets, e.g. by means of standardized and more short-term contracts to reduce transaction costs and improve market access., QC 20230613

Deep decarbonisation of energy-intensive industries, such as steel production, will be required to achieve the European Union's climate targets. Green hydrogen technology has the potential to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions from iron and steelmaking to nearly zero and mitigate climate change from the industrial sector. The paper is based on an ongoing case in Sweden, where the established firms SSAB, LKAB, and Vattenfall are operating the HYBRIT joint venture. This paper aims to explore the conditions for transferring this technology from Sweden to three primary steel producing countries in Europe: Germany, France and Italy. As a theoretical point of departure, we integrate some concepts from the multi-level perspective and technology transfer theories to better understand transition pathways for hydrogen-based steel production in Europe. We use a case study methodology, including the analysis of more than 20 qualitative interviews and secondary data. The findings of the study conclude that the Swedish iron and steel industry is unique in many ways, yet other European countries are rapidly catching up in hydrogen-based steel production, particularly Germany. Sweden however remains unique in its nearly zero carbon electricity generation and low-cost electricity prices, which can enable green hydrogen production throughout the country. In order to overcome the barriers and create an enabling environment for hydrogen-based steel production, it is key that energy and industry transitions are aligned, that a policy framework that supports these transitions is in place, and that key actors representing all aspects of these transitions cooperate, from industry and research, to academia, policymakers, and civil society., QC 20211125 QC 20220303

The oil refinery industry is one of the major energy users and responsible for a large proportion of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This sector is facing multiple sustainability-related transformation pressures, forcing the industry to adapt to changing market conditions. The transition to a low-carbon economy will require oil refineries to adopt decarbonisation technologies like advanced biofuels, green hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS). However, the development and implementation of these technologies is not a straightforward process and may be inhibited by lock-in and path dependency. This paper draws on expert interviews and combines the Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) and Multi-level Perspective (MLP) frameworks to examining the niche level development of three emerging technologies in the context of deep decarbonisation of refineries. This research finds that the development of the three decarbonisation technologies shares some of the challenges and opportunities and exhibits technology interdependency to some extent. Among the three TISs, advanced biofuel is the most mature in terms of knowledge base, actor-network, legislation framework and market function. Green hydrogen and CCS encounter stronger momentum than before and can benefit from possible synergies across various sectors. However, the analysis also reveals the lack of market formation, mainly due to the lack of policy instruments for niche markets. Here, policy recommendations for accelerating deep decarbonisation of the oil refinery industry are discussed. Finally, we contribute to the sustainability transitions literature by exploring the dynamics of emerging TISs for industrial decarbonisation., QC 20220121

The amount of user-generated content (UGC) in the hospitality industry has exploded. Much of it exists in crowdsourced social media, forums, blogs and review sites. Schuckert et al. (2015) did a study on the role of online customer reviews in the hospitality industry and found that reviews can be a strategic tool and have a crucial role in hospitality and tourism management. By investigating user-generated material more thoroughly, the firms can better align their social media messages to the different and unique needs of their social media users (Zhu and Chen 2015). In doing this, they can better leverage the increasingly important social media. Although the predominant strategic perspectives, including the resource-based view, transaction cost economics and positioning tend to ignore the ultimate objects of strategy, the customer, the advent of social media may lead to a change. With the growth of social media and other UGC, there is a significant opportunity to use the views, thoughts, ideas, attitudes and so on from the actual consumer to help build a strategy from the bottom-up, rather than just top-down. Unsurprisingly, a focus on bottom-up or demand-side strategy is appropriate, especially in marketing strategy, where the customer plays such a crucial role. As this UGC is a source of customer intelligence, firms should be able to improve their market research resulting in better strategic decision making. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study is to understand whether a firm strategy can be enriched by using demand-side insights generated by customers. Resulting in the primary question—How can user-generated content help firms make strategic decisions? In sum, in this research, we argue that the crowd through its production of online content can aid firms in their demand-side marketing research, particularly concerning strategic decision making. Furthermore, as the amount of user-generated content continues to grow, new tools and techniques allow firms, QC 20220613

This paper studies the role of organizations in office automation and complements previous studies focusing on technology and jobs. Our case is Expense Management where technology is available for repetitive tasks highly susceptible to automation, and where the cost saving potential is high. The study includes data from a survey with 162 respondents and 16 interviews. Results show that companies with a large workforce favor automation and ease of the learning process stimulates it while high turnover has a negative effect on automation. We conclude that the role of organizations, and network effects should receive more attention in future research., QC 20220420