“It is becoming apparent that industry boundaries are eroding, leading to changes in the traditional architecture,” comments Lucas Miehé of ETH Zurich Switzerland, chair of Track 1.3 of the R&D Management Conference 2025.
Lucas continues: “I and my co-chairs, Jenni Kaipainen and Sophie Führer, chose the topic of sector coupling based on our research interests, practical observations, and sustainability considerations.
“By adopting organizational processes such as circular economy or new technologies like digital platforms, firms are able to increase efficiency and effectiveness, but to achieve this requires coordinating different players and systems. This is eroding the industry boundaries and changing industry architecture.
“In my latest research at SusTec, the Sustainability and Technology Group at ETH Zurich, I have been focusing on innovation ecosystems, a set of firms that innovate together for a joint value proposition. I have been investigating mobility and heating systems, and looking at digitisation as an enabling technology that can improve the resource efficiency of legacy systems.
“I believe digital technologies are key to promoting sustainability, as they provide transparency through data, enable stakeholder management through connectivity, and offer potential efficiency gains through enhanced analytics.
“Thus, the evolution towards Industry 5.0 follows the innovation trajectory started in 4.0, with digital technologies laying the foundation for socio-environmental innovations.”
1.3 Innovating Beyond Boundaries: Transforming Industry Architectures through Sector Coupling and Ecosystem towards Sustainability
This track explores how innovation across industry boundaries can support achieving sustainability goals, such as decarbonization and the circular economy.
In energy transition literature, cross-industry innovation may occur in integrating multiple industries to optimize energy production and distribution with sector coupling. Meanwhile, ecosystem theory leverages interdependent relationships among actors for industry-crossing value propositions and reveals broad innovation implications for cross-industrial transformation.
As a step forward, this track aims to extend the concept of sector coupling beyond energy solely and invites submissions that investigate ecosystem innovation across industry boundaries through strategies such as sector coupling.
R&D Management Conference 2025:
Innovation & Biodiversity
Institute of Management of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa
30 June – 2 July 2025
Track Chair: Lucas Miehé, ETH Zurich Switzerland
Co-chairs:
Jenni Kaipainen, ETH Zurich Switzerland
Sophie Führer, ETH Zurich Switzerland
