Future Sustainable Business Models– A Mapping and Analysis of the Electrical Engineering Sector in Northern Sweden

The electrical engineering sector is undergoing a significant transformation. This doctoral project explores how electrical installation companies in Northern Sweden can develop sustainable, digital business models that respond to emerging demands for smart solutions and the green transition.

The electrical engineering industry is undergoing a transition in which digitalization, increasing sustainability demands, and shifting market conditions are reshaping the structural landscape for electrical installation companies.

Small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular, face growing complexity in maintaining relevant customer offerings, ensuring competence provision, and securing a strategic position within evolving value chains. Existing business models often remain rooted in an industrial logic that inadequately addresses emerging demands for flexibility, cross-sectoral collaboration, and circularity.

This doctoral project, supported by Swedish Electrical Engineering development fund (ETU), investigates how electrical installation companies, situated within the context of the green transition in Northern Sweden, respond to these challenges and how organizational and market-related factors influence their business development.

The study contributes to a deeper understanding of how sustainable and competitive business models can be conceptualized in a sector marked by rapid structural change.

• Link to ETU project web page (swe)