Business Model Generation for a Start Up Enterprise Within the Transport Infrastructure Industry

Abstract: Transports, and transport infrastructures enable and deliver vital societal functions in today’s society. At the same time, as sustainability becomes more and more important these sectors fail to enable the rate of change that international and national policies calls for. The electrification of the transport sector is a key driver of the future’s sustainable transport system, and the number of electric cars, buses, and trucks are increasing exponentially on our streets, but the rate of adaption is compromised by the lack of supporting charging infrastructure. The free market, in combination with governmental policies, has succeeded in creating the market for the electric vehicles we have today, but the case is not the same for the transport infrastructure sector. Some of the key reasons for this is the same reasons for that the infrastructure has been historically exposed to substantial government involvement, like that they are natural monopolies, have high up-front costs, high level of standardization, and long pay-back horizons. Innovation is needed within the transport infrastructure sector to enable sustainable transports at a faster rate than today but some of the most disruptive innovative firms, the start-up enterprises, fails to find viable business models to enter the market in larger scales. This thesis explores business model generation, and innovation, through a start-up enterprise within the transport infrastructure market – Elonroad. Through thirteen iterative workshops with the senior advisor at Elonroad, and a workshop with their investor and potential customer, Bring, the study identifies two main limitations to the current tools: a lack of a systematic evolutionary perspective, and an ecosystem centered approach. It presents a new matrix framework with eight key evolutionary dimensions for Elonroad’s business model as an extension of the existing tools in literature. The findings contribute to identifying the common ground between Elonroad’s capabilities and the markets challenges in a long-term perspective through business model tools.