Scenario Planning for the European Small Capacity Sorption Cooling Industry: Strategies in an uncertain environment

Sorption cooling is a technology that generates cold for cooling and air-conditioning with the help of heat instead of electricity. This driving heat ideally comes from renewable sources. Electricity consumption and carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced by up to 90%, making it an economically and ecologically interesting clean technology. The global market for chillers with small cooling capacities has a volume of approximately 70 million units. The European small capacity sorption cooling industry today is in its embryonic stage and faces many challenges. Regarding strategic positioning little work has been published. The macro- as well as the microenvironment are highly uncertain and hard to predict. Classic strategic tools are not easily applied in such conditions because they do not work well under uncertain boundary conditions. Scenario based strategic planning, however, offers the possibility to deal with uncertainty and complexity. In this book a systematic scenario-planning approach, developed by the Leipzig Graduate School of Management (HHL) and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, is applied and a strategic recommendation for the European small capacity sorption chiller industry is developed.