Sustainable energy new-age ventures are driving the global energy transition towards cleaner and resilient energy systems. While the development of this sector looks positive and successful from the outside, the companies face tremendous external impacts to sustain their competitiveness and survival. The industry lies at the crux of environmental, economical and social constructs given the nature of their business, that involves having focus and consideration for product, people and planet. This involves operating in an ecosystem driven by continual impacts, requirements and changes from all three constructs, and tactically reacting to those pressures. To understand the impact of these external triggers, this research examines how Dutch sustainable energy-tech startups and scale-ups perceive the triggers and respond accordingly. With having a particular focus on ’pivots’ - i.e., deliberate change in the course of action of business model (Ries, 2011) - an attempt to explore the understanding between trigger and subsequent pivot action has been made. Drawing upon conceptual understanding of dynamic business models, we further probe into cascade of internal changes within business models of companies as a result of these external triggers and pivots.

This thesis investigates how digital technologies shape business models in high-tech renewable energy firms. Using five firm cases and a systematic literature review, both coded independently with the Gioia methodology and then compared, the study maps the technologies discussed across sources, analyses their effects on value creation, delivery, and capture, and relates these component-level patterns to business model change types: adaptation (BMA), evolution (BME), and innovation (BMI). Technologies are organised into a functional grouping conceptualised as a layered stack from data capture to system-level orchestration, which clarifies roles and enables cross-dataset comparison. The thesis also develops digital integration depth, defined as the extent to which technologies are structurally embedded across components. Findings indicate that deeper and coherent embedding aligns with more extensive reconfiguration, whereas context-driven constraints commonly coincide with adaptation. Together, the functional grouping and integration-depth lens provide a testable framework for analysing and guiding digital transformation in renewable energy.