The Smart Home project

The Smart Home project

The Smart Home is an innovation and research project at Department of Management, Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University, which was carried out from February 2018 to December 2020. The project was funded by Industriens Fond.

The project has, via follow-up research, focused on developing a comprehensive approach to developing strategies in a digital market, launching development activities for the design of new, digital products and services, marketing, sales and customer contact through the development of new competencies that match the digital market and not least - to have them implemented in a number of Danish companies.

The goal is, through practically relevant and application-oriented research, to create a focus on greater digital maturity and the development of new, digital business models through an increased understanding of end customers and the value of collaboration in ecosystems.

Ecosystems consist of a set of actors with varying degrees of multifaceted non-generic related products / services that are not completely hierarchically controlled. Multifaceted related products and services arise when the value of one company's output depends on the value of the other companies' output. For example, the value of an IPhone depends on the value of the apps developed by the developers and vice versa. The term non-generic refers to the specific nature of the connection between the components of a finished product. To make a cup of tea, for example, you need a cup, boiling water and a tea leaf. These components are generic, not specific. This means that if customers find value in combining these three components into one product (a cup of tea), manufacturers do not have to coordinate their investments to ensure this value. On the other hand, it is necessary for the development of value-creating Smart Home solutions.

The project has high practical as well as theoretical relevance and contributes new knowledge in two areas in particular. First, the focus is on service transformation at traditional suppliers for construction and homes. Secondly, there is a special focus on strategy and management to be part of digital ecosystems and create growth. In addition, the project contributes with a self-evaluation application, a road-map self-learning tool,a Living Lab innovation concept and a number of knowledge dissemination products aiming at lifting Smart Home companies' overall digital maturity.