Envisioning Sustainable Smart Markets and Enabling Sustainable Smart Markets; Impactful Business Cases

Ketter’s innovative inaugural address will have relevance to business and society alike. The title is Envisioning Sustainable Smart Markets and Enabling Sustainable Smart Markets, a subject which takes into account business, society and academic viewpoints in the search for more sustainable ways of living. He will argue that market mechanisms and intelligent decision support can be effective in solving large-scale resource allocation problems of this kind, but only if the market design reflects the social costs. Information systems have a central role in helping to devise solutions. His address looks at the challenges and opportunities involved for information systems researchers, and sets out an agenda for sustainable smart markets research, centred on collaborative approaches.

The address will form the academic culmination of this year’s two-day Erasmus Energy Forum, an international conference that attracts a diverse audience of leaders from business and industry, including policymakers and academics. The Forum addresses three themes: EU policies and markets; energy microgrids and new business models; and financing sustainable energy.

The address is published in the ERIM Inaugural Address Series and is aimed at a dual audience; academia and business. This is why the inaugural booklet contains two complementary parts; The envisioning part is the classical inaugural address aimed at the academic audience. The second part on enabling smart markets contains business cases and interviews with business leaders on the business relevance of the smart markets concept and the innovative software tools created for business.

The combination of a dual impact inaugural address and a two day Erasmus Energy Business Forum organized in the context of a very visible centre of excellence on Future Energy Business is a powerful approach for creating immediate business impact and strong corporate relations.