Beyond ‘Business as Usual’ - A Truly Rational Approach to Smart Technology Implementation

Surely, promising new technologies are quintessential for innovations to take place. In the ‘new economy’, technological knowledge alone does not suffice though. Business corporations also have to gain insight into how technologies relate to the values of people and how they, in their turn, can relate to those values. For only when the whole value chain that is involved in the actual implementation is adequately aligned can we expect smart technologies to be put into practice in a wise way. Taking as example the domain of solar energy businesses, I will try and describe the various levels implied in the value creation and value capture related to technological innovations, thus showing how important it is to include the social and affective dimension.