Strategic Assessment of the Fuel Cell Industry from a System Integratr's Perspective

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Helsinki University of Technology | Diplomityö
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Date

2005

Major/Subject

Teollisuustalous

Mcode

TU-22

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

91

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Abstract

The objective of this paper was to find the critical success factors for a fuel cell system developer lacking own cell/stack technology and to recommend actions with which such a company can excel and maximize its profits. The goal was to give a comprehensive picture of the fuel cell industry and the challenges that the companies in the industry are facing. Wärtsilä Fuel Cell group was used as an example throughout the paper and the conclusions and recommendations were compiled for such a company. Strategic management frameworks were used to describe the external and internal environments. The external analysis consists of an industry analysis and a competitor analysis, where value chain approaches, target markets, and investment and funding were described. The companies where further divided into four strategic groups according to their main target market and application size. The internal analysis of Wärtsilä Fuel Cell Group looked at the possible strengths, weaknesses, and core competences the company possesses. A set of conclusions and recommendations for Wärtsilä fuel cell group was made based on the findings in the external and internal analyses. In addition to the conclusions and recommendations, the most important finding in this thesis was the three value chain approaches in the industry.

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Supervisor

Lillrank, Paul

Thesis advisor

Jumppanen, Pauli

Keywords

strategy, fuel cell

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