Chapter 7: Volocopter (Germany)
Keywords: decision-making, partnerships, intellectual property, effectuation, Technological startup, Urban air mobility, Ecosystem strategy
Abstract
With a vision, a yoga ball, and an innovative configuration of distributed electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) technology, Stephan Wolf and Alexander Zosel created Volocopter and laid the foundation for electric passenger flights. Having gained a strong position through intellectual property and partnerships, Volocopter has pioneered urban air mobility since 2011. Still, bringing urban air mobility taxi services to life and achieving their goals relies on every stakeholder’s buy-in. One of the most significant challenges Volocopter has faced from the beginning has been the development of electric VTOL flight taxis for passengers and cargo drones. Developing the technology alone was insufficient to achieve success based on the novelty of their product. Instead, they had to develop an entirely new ecosystem around their product to help it sell. Readers are presented with an example of a multilayered, versatile startup that must face numerous considerations and take difficult decisions to succeed. Volocopter’s case illustrates the challenges of highly disruptive innovation and the need to replace the status quo and implement a new innovation-driven ecosystem.
Más información
| Editorial: | Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd |
| Página de inicio: | 87 |
| Página final: | 101 |
| Idioma: | English |
| URL: | https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollbook/book/9781802206289/9781802206289.xml |
| DOI: |
https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802206289.00013 |