Ecosystem «smart home»: Opportunities for companies through multilateral collaboration

Today’s living spaces face ever then more important challenges. An aging population that seeks to stay longer independent or the effects of a pandemic influences how we will use our homes in the future. Many large technology corporations have already launched new solutions that inter-connect various products and services, making our homes smarter and more comfortable. Also, the high energy con­sumption of buildings and fluctuating energy production urges for modernizations and behavioral changes around our living environment.

All these topics are addressed with products and services that shape today’s journey to smarter and more connected homes. The exchange of information between different solutions, asks for a higher level of interaction.

This bachelor thesis has elaborated the significant factors that promote and hinder collaborations between different actors in the Swiss smart home ecosystem. Further, an intuitive and responsive network visualization reveals the inter­connection and interdependencies of the different actors within the ecosystem.

The results show that the collaboration areas in the Swiss smart home ecosystem are only little more than outsourcing activities. Firms must overcome their fears of losing control of their products. To avoid losing contact with the evolving ecosystem, they must start thinking about product system solutions that can co-exist with external systems.