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The growing demand for batteries, driven by the rapid growth of electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies, has led to increased focus on their lifecycle management. While batteries may reach the end of their primary life, they often have the potential for a second life, offering valuable services before their eventual recycling. This paper presents a comprehensive business model framework tailored for the second life battery business, aiming to guide stakeholders in the battery ecosystem through the complexities of this emerging field. Developed through detailed theoretical and practical industry insights, the framework is segmented into three core elements: value proposition, value creation and delivery, and value capture. Each core element further branches into sub-elements, offering a modular approach for stakeholders to construct unique business models. The paper also includes in-depth value analyses, sustainability implications, and stakeholder interests, providing a holistic understanding of the second life battery business. Practical implications for key stakeholders in the battery ecosystem, including battery OEMs, remanufacturers, repurposers, and dealers, are discussed. The paper contributes to the theory of circular business models in general, with specific relevance to battery circularity. 

Firms require multi-stakeholder ecosystems to successfully create and implement circular business models for electric vehicle (EV) battery second life. However, there is a notable absence of guiding instruments to assist EV battery ecosystem actors in formulating and managing strategies for battery second-life operations. This study's aim is to analyze how circular ecosystems are formed and managed, considering the interplay between firm-level and ecosystem-level interactions. The study identifies 17 prerequisites divided into four stages of circular ecosystem management, considering the interplay between firm- and ecosystem-level aspects, as well as short- and long-term perspectives. These four stages of circular ecosystem management are firm-level assessment, ecosystem formation, firm-level adaptation, and ecosystem orchestration. Based on these four stages, the study identifies three distinct pathways through which EV battery ecosystem actors can effectively form and manage second-life operations. Additionally, a decision tree model is proposed to navigate ecosystem actors through these four stages for enabling battery second-life operations. This research makes a valuable contribution to the field of ecosystem management and circular ecosystems, specifically by examining the interplay between firm-level and ecosystem-level dynamics within the context of EV battery second-life operations. The findings hold significance for both academic researchers and practitioners seeking to implement and scale-up circular business models and circular ecosystems in the realm of EV batteries.

The electrification of vehicles has become a critical means to achieve climate-neutral transportation. As more electric vehicles (EV) are adopted, an increasing number of lithiumion batteries will be utilized, inevitably experiencing capacity degradation over time. Retaining the value of these retired batteries through remanufacturing, reusing, and repurposing to create a second life holds significant environmental and economic benefits. However, many companies within the battery ecosystem struggle to capitalize on this opportunity due to a lack of business insight and suitable business models tailored to their operational contexts.

The ReCreate (Second Life Management of Electric Vehicle Batteries) research project was initiated to address these industrial needs through close collaboration with selected companies in the battery ecosystem. The project aims to define appropriate circular business models, methods, and processes to guide battery ecosystem actors in developing and implementing electric vehicle battery second life solutions, thereby advancing circularity around batteries and climate-neutral objectives. 

This handbook represents the culmination of three years of research within the ReCreate project. Its purpose is to present a simplified and practical overview of project outcomes across a series of key chapters. Comprising six chapters, the handbook will begin by discussing barriers and enablers, followed by circular business models and battery ecosystem management. It will then delve into design principles and performance monitoring guidelines, concluding with an integrated framework for second life and circular solutions for EV batteries. 

Each chapter briefly presents the main findings of the theme and concludes with discussion questions. The discussion questions include suggestions for relevant templates for workshops, and all templates are conveniently provided in the appendix for practical application. These templates serve as boundary objects, offering a starting point for internal and external cross-functional and cross-organizational dialogues within the electric vehicle battery ecosystem. They facilitate discussions and collaborations among various stakeholders, fostering alignment and synergy in developing circular business models for the second life of EV batteries.  

By facilitating reflection on current business strategies, needs, and pain points, the handbook aims to aid in the definition of future second life business strategies. We anticipate that this handbook will serve as a valuable resource for actors within the EV battery ecosystem, supporting their journey towards climate-neutral transportation. 

Purpose – Despite increasing focus among scholars and practitioners on the design of product-services systems (PSS), there exists no compilation of current knowledge on the role played by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in designing such systems. Thus, this paper sets out to identify and organise the existing research and suggest questions for future research.

Design/methodology/approach—A systematic literature review was performed to identify and provide in-depth details on key themes in the literature addressing the design of PSS in SMEs.

Findings – This paper identifies five themes in the literature on the design of PSS in SMEs: motives, challenges, SME characteristics, methods and digitalisation. The themes are interrelated, and SME characteristics seem to beat the core as they are related to all the other themes. Gaps in the current knowledge are identified, and questions for future research are suggested.

Originality/value – The suggestions for future research provide a starting point for expanding the research on PSS design and devising practical support for SMEs.

The electrification of vehicles has become a critical means to achieve climate-neutral transportation. As more electric vehicles (EV) are adopted, an increasing number of lithium-ion batteries will be utilized, inevitably experiencing capacity degradation over time. Retaining the value of these retired batteries through remanufacturing, reusing, and repurposing to create a second life holds significant environmental and economic benefits. However, many companies within the battery ecosystem struggle to capitalize on this opportunity due to a lack of business insight and suitable business models tailored to their operational contexts. The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated framework for designing and implementing second life for the EV batteries that could guide and navigate ecosystem actors towards circularity. This study employed an explorative qualitative inquiry approach, utilizing interviews and workshop methods, involving 15 companies in the EV battery ecosystem. Data collection involved 24 semi-structured interviews and 22 workshops. The framework includes four building blocks, including 1) barriers and enablers, 2) circular business models archetypes and design principles, 3) ecosystem management, and 4) battery performance monitoring. Further, the paper explains criteria influencing the selection of design and implementation of strategies for battery second life. This research contributes to the theory of circular business models and ecosystem management in general, with specific relevance to battery second life and circularity. 

This study adopts an ecosystem perspective to provide a detailed understanding of key challenges and enablers for implementing circular business models for electric vehicle battery second life. Although academia and practitioners believe electric vehicle (EV) batteries’ second life is a potential solution, the commercial implementations are still far away. A crucial step toward such implementations is to identify the key challenges and enablers of circular business models. The criticality of this step is even more evident when approaching second life business models from an ecosystem perspective, where multiple stakeholders are involved in the creation, capture, and delivery of value. This research conducts an explorative study with 15 companies in the EV battery ecosystem and identifies nine categories of key challenges and seven categories of key enablers. Based on priority dimensions (short/long term) and the responsible entity (firm/ecosystem related), the study proposes a guiding framework to address challenges and enablers. The study contributes to the circular business model innovation and ecosystems literature related to the EV battery second life.

This paper explores uncertainties experienced by suppliers involved in their customers’ product development projects. The study introduces a model for classifying different types of involvement, which is used to identify uncertainties and effects across the various types. Empirical data originates from a multiple case study involving four SME suppliers. Four types of uncertainty are identified. These uncertainties stem from both customer and supplier organizations as well as from technology.

In this paper, balancing electricity production using renewable energy such as wind power, PV cells, hydropower, and CHP (combined heat and power) with biomass is carried out in relation to electricity consumption in primarily one major region in Sweden, SE-3, which contains 75% of the country's population. The time perspective is hours and days. Statistics with respect to power production and consumption are analyzed and used as input for power-balance calculations. How long periods are with low or high production, as well as the energy for charge and discharge that is needed to maintain a generally constant power production, is analyzed. One conclusion is that if the difference in production were to be completely covered with battery capacity it would be expensive, but if a large part of the difference were met by a shifting load it would be possible to cover the rest with battery storage in an economical way. To enhance the economy with battery storage, second-life batteries are proposed to reduce the capital cost in particular. Batteries are compared to hydrogen as an energy carrier. The efficiency of a battery system is higher than that of hydrogen plus fuel cells, but in general much fewer precious materials are needed with an H-2/fuel-cell system than with batteries. The paper discusses how to make the energy system more robust and resilient.

Manufacturing companies can contribute to a resource-efficient society by designing product-service systems (PSS). Despite the increased importance of PSS for the manufacturing industry in their efforts to become sustainable, few studies focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study presented in this article aims to add knowledge on how the characteristics of SMEs influence the challenges SMEs experience when designing PSS. It employs a multiple case study design where data are based on interviews, workshops, and internal archive documents from three contract manufacturing SMEs. The analysis suggests that nine SME characteristics influence the challenges SMEs experience when designing PSS. It also shows that SMEs’ different characteristics influence one or more challenges, and that SMEs have a short-term horizon and a reactive business approach which influences the overall challenge of designing PSS. 

The agile methodology is gaining attention among practitioners and researchers in hardware development. As a new methodology, it is a source of misunderstandings and misinterpretations. This is problematic at the managers' levels as they may hinder its adoption or lead to its impractical implementation and use. This study, therefore, aims to explore the manager's level of understanding of the agile methodology. The study identifies the similarities and differences between the fundamental elements of the agile methodology and the elements mentioned by managers in hardware development. The fundamental elements of the agile methodology are identified based on the elements presented in the Scrum method; the elements mentioned by managers are identified based on ten semi-structured interviews with managers in hardware development. The study shows that the understanding of the agile methodology varies largely among managers. The obtained detailed insights in the managers' level of understanding of the agile methodology could be used to develop appropriate support to facilitate its adoption and implementation.