Internationalisation of Cleantec

Students assisted  a clean tech company in analysing their internationalisation processes. They identified countries, regions, and market segments.

 

Facts

  • curricular module with 14 hours workload
  • 165 Bachelor students (50% Dutch / 50% International)
  • 1 academic partner (7 staff)
  • 1 business partner (3 staff)
  • 3 Bachelor theses
  • 1 Bachelor studies project
  • 2 Master’s studies projects
  • 1 international students collaboration project

 

Main elements

In Sweden:

  • Technologies for electricity generation from industrial excess heat (Bachelor thesis).
  • Drying and combustion of sewage sludge (Bachelor thesis).
  • The European ORC-market – A study of the market’s driving forces and obstacles, stakeholders, and potential future development (Bachelor thesis).
  • General market and competition analysis (Bachelor studies project).
  • Investigation of expansion of Againity into east European countries and the waste to energy market (Masters studies projects).
  • Upscaling upcycling business - A study of support business ecosystems for upscaling upcycling businesses (Masters studies projects).

 

Swedish-Dutch knowledge exchange project:

  • internationalization cleantech mini-case Againity in minor International Business of Avans UAS (3rd year program)
  • individual work
  • B2B focus (usually B2C-cases)
  • delivery of one-pager with chosen go-to-market approach
  • tutor feedback

 

What‘s new?

  • real small-scale company, huge differentiated international market
  • many individual assignments “business expansion” project
  • digital exchange of knowledge with the company
  • high level of technology for business students

 

In Sweden:

Againity’s internationalization strategy

·       Grow on the north European market (Baltic countries, Finland, Poland, Great Britain) by own sale personnel and sales agents/partners.

·       Get closer to the industrial waste heat market.

·       A long-term focus on waste-to-energy applications.

·       Building strategic alliances with boiler manufacturers and consulting firms in the energy sector.

 

Swedish-Dutch knowledge exchange project:

  • not formally at the activity level within the program
  • students appreciated cleantech product/services internationalization from a B2B perspective (almost all cases used in the program are B2C)

 

Main outcomes

 

In Sweden:

·       Overall analysis of the European ORC market.

·       Alternative technologies and competition in northern Europe.

·       Mapping of heat producers, including yearly production (GWh heat/year) and installed power (MW).

·       Regulatory aspects, electricity prices, taxes.

·       Specific projects on waste-to-energy in south-eastern Europe and electricity production from sewage gas.

 

Swedish-Dutch knowledge exchange project:

  • 165 identified go-to-market opportunities / potential partners to work with focusing on a wide range of different countries and sectors
  • better understanding of the complexity of real international business expansion of a (clean)tech case

 

Lessons learned & Future plans

  • Challenging for students to meet both academic and company requirements.
  • Composition of the student teams influenced their focus on either ORC technology or internationalization.
  • more attention should be given to the feedback loop from students to company (time-plan, expected deliverables etc.)
  • organizing a best-off presentation and feedback session with the company
  • involving tutors more in the preparations helps increase the quality of their guidance and students’ learning/end-product
  • improve case introduction through recorded video followed by Q&A session

 

More information at:  Joakim Wren (joakim.wren@againity.com) & Rogier de Jong MBA (rogiereadejongmba@yahoo.com)