From smart grid to smart city business ecosystem: Strategy to define the proper legitimacy for an energy utility firm

DEVER RESEARCH has developed analytical and prospective tools based on the latest research outcomes to decipher, analyze and highlight relationships, environment and strategic opportunities for actors and stakeholders of the electric mobility and energy industry. The aim of this paper is to present the first results of an on-going research related to the impact of smart grid development on the Utility/Energy service providers legitimacy on Smart territories (Smart cities), therefore the required evolutions of company to move from a keystone firm position inserted into a complex but well-known ecosystem (smart grid) to a legitimate actor (and thus potential keystone) in the Smart cities ecosystem. After a comprehensive presentation of the concepts of legitimacy and business ecosystem, this article will present and validate analysis grids and recommendations based on examples and illustrations such as the Pecan Street project in Texas and highlight: the changes in “Smart” ecosystems, the type of legitimacy a firm can mobilize and the conditions that lead the Utility Company to evolve in order to ensure a central legitimate role in Smart cities.