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CenSES annual report 2015
A possible future in the emerging marine
energy industry
Several RA 4 PhD candidates finished their PhD thesis
in 2015. PhD candidate Øyvind Bjørgum, NTNU did his
research in the context of the emerging marine energy
industry, which consists of firms developing devices to
harness energy from ocean waves and tides. His thesis
“
New firms developing novel technology in a complex
emerging industry. The road towards commercialization of
renewable marine energy technologies
”, focuses on the role
of new, resource-constrained firms in the development
of a complex and technology-based emerging industry.
The thesis consists of four papers studying how new firms
interact with potential suppliers, investors and public
agencies to acquire necessary resources and overcome
technological, financial and organizational challenges
towards commercializing their technologies.
The first paper, ‘New ventures in an emerging industry:
access to and use of international resources’, studies how
new firms use internationalization to access resources
such as funding and technology competence through
investors, companies and public programs, and how this
help them to further develop their technology towards
commercialization. The second paper, ‘The funding of
technology firms in an emerging industry—the role of smart
capital’, focuses on the positive non-financial contributions of
different types of investors such as business angels, Venture
Capitalists and larger corporations. The paper suggests that
for new technology firms in an emerging industry, the most
important contributions are when investors, actively or
passively, help attract new resources.
The third paper, ‘Configuration of supply chains in
emerging industries: a multiple-case study in the wave-
and-tidal energy industry’, addresses challenges and
opportunities in the technology development process. The
study proposes three supply chain configurations for new
firms in emerging industries and highlights how difficult
it can be to engage suppliers when operating in the early
stages of an emerging industry. The fourth paper, ‘The
entry of MNCs into an emerging industry: the choice of
entry mode and the role of uncertainty’, studies the entry
of large multinational companies (MNCs) into the tidal
energy industry. More specifically, it focuses on why MNCs
choose different entry modes such as internal development,
acquisition or minority investment, and how their entry
affects small tidal energy firms.
Based on the findings of the individual papers, the thesis
discusses how strategic decisions and interactions with
external stakeholders can help new firms in complex
emerging industries to commercialize their technology.
Especially, how different investors and strategies related to
internationalization and supply chain configurationmight be
important for new technology firms in overcoming specific
technological and financial gaps in the commercialization
process. Øyvind Bjørgum is defending his PhD thesis in
June 2016 at the Department of industrial economics and
technology management.
Image: pelamiswave
Image: Atlantis Resources