Sourcing energy services in business-to-business contexts: practices among end-customers

Journal article, 2023

Facing increased pressure to use renewable energy and achieve energy efficiency, organisations have the complex task of sourcing energy services from energy providers in business-to-business (B2B) contexts. We aimed to explore how customers in such contexts approach the sourcing of energy ser-
vices. Our theoretical and empirical approach linked energy as a service offering and customer–provider interfaces used in sourcing energy services to elucidate the practices adopted in such sourcing by customers in B2B contexts. To that end, we employed a
qualitative research approach using the Gioia methodology and conducted 18 semi-structured interviews with representatives of 18 firms in the B2B market for energy services in Sweden. Our results revealed two central categories of how energy services are sourced: basic and advanced. The theoris-
ing of those categories as forms of direct and indirect energy efficiency, combined with four types of energy services—information-, analysis-, improvement- and contract-oriented services, which include a description of energy services exchanged, where the cus-
tomer uses the energy service, the customer’s sourcing practices and characteristics of sourcing practices—provides important contributions to the
literature on energy services. In turn, we propose a four-part typology of interfaces used by providers and customers of energy services that considers the type of services sourced.