Designing business actor strategies for the electrical vehicle market: an explorative approach

ABSTRACT

The study and understanding of the emergent market of electric vehicles holds an interest for companies across the globe as the ability to frame and influence the rules of this potentially global market can lead to large scale success for the firms involved. In general, the main research conducted in the area of consumer understanding in the context of business actor strategies has been quantitative which has given a linear understanding of the hopes and motivations that drive consumer behaviour. The method seems more appropriate for testing existing products than in this case where we seek to explore future perceptions of an innovative concept. This article takes a qualitative approach that seeks to understand the context based and processual aspects of consumer behaviour. By using the case of the etrans Design Collaboration, a three year EU funded project that seeks to make electrical vehicles a commercial success in Denmark, we present five consumer voices derived from an in depth qualitative study. These are positioned using an adoption curve for the introduction of innovative products such as the electric vehicles, and combined with a model for strategic business design in emergent markets. In the case of the emergent market of electrical vehicles, we find that companies that focus on the development and design of tangible products, rather than systems such as infrastructure, will be the first to be adapted into the market of electric vehicles, thereby gaining a strategic and competitive advantage.

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