To meet the European Union’s target of climate neutrality by 2050 ambitious measures need to be taken. The electricity sector is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions globally, which makes it an important sector to decarbonize. For this to happen, fossil fuels must be replaced by renewable energy sources. A relatively new way of generating renewable electricity is through solar parks, which is a technology that has seen rapid growth in the last decade. A solar park consists of a large collection of photovoltaic modules which converts solar energy to electricity which is later transferred to the grid. However, numerous external factors, such as permit-processes, grid capacity, social acceptance and land availability, can hinder the deployment of solar parks.  The solar park market which was previously driven by small regional players is demonstrating a shift towards large multinational companies. Companies may therefore need to enter new, foreign markets to remain competitive. A country which might be attractive to enter is Germany due to their ambitious targets for solar energy. Thus, the objective of this thesis is to investigate the external environment of the solar park market in the German region Lower Saxony, and its implications on foreign companies’ entry strategies. Two highly controlled entry modes are considered: entering through a joint venture, i.e. with a partner, or with a wholly owned subsidiary. The examined conditions are: regulatory, technical, social, geographical, and economic. A literature study was conducted to frame the different conditions and the empirical evidence was collected mainly from grey literature but the information was also supplemented by interviews with specialists within the area. By analyzing the external conditions, a number of drivers and barriers for establishing solar parks in the region are identified and discussed. Further, the possibilities for a foreign solar park company to enter the market are discussed based on the identified drivers and barriers.  One of the main drivers is the promising potential, due to the region’s ambitious targets for solar parks, an expected increase in electrification as well as the halted use of nuclear and current phase out of coal. This will open a large share of the electricity production that needs to be covered, which gives solar parks the opportunity to gain large market shares. Additional drivers are the high public acceptance and the high electricity price, which enables a faster payback time on investment. One of the most significant barriers in the region is the lack of clear permit processes for establishing solar parks. Permit processes are handled on a local level, which means that they can differ between communities and be rather lengthy due to lack of resources in the communities. Another key barrier is the difficulties of accessing attractive land in Lower Saxony considering the importance of the agriculture sector resulting in competition of land. These barriers make Lower Saxony a rather uncertain market. However, an increasing amount of land is being released for solar park developments and the permit processes are anticipated to be clearer in the near future.  The promising potential of the solar park market speaks in favor of entering the market with a wholly owned subsidiary due to the possibilities for a high return. The market uncertainties, such as unclear permit processes, uncertainties within the policies for solar parks, and the difficulties of accessing suitable land areas, are also in favor of entering with a wholly owned subsidiary due to the strategy’s flexibility. However, it has been found that having local connections is important since there are many processes with high local involvement, e.g., in the permit processes and land acquisition. This indicates that entering through a joint venture with a local partner might be more suitable for a foreign company when entering the solar park market in Lower Saxony. Entering through a joint venture is also a faster way to enter a rapidly growing market, which enables the company to become an early player and obtain larger market shares.

This thesis provides insights into the feasibility of managing product requirements in a concept leveraging an object-centric information model. The aim of this concept is to provide efective management of product requirements in the context of rising volume and complexity of requirements. Firstly, benefts and challenges between the current document-centric way of managing requirements and the novel object-centric concept for managing requirements are mapped and presented. Secondly, the organizational prerequisites necessary for adopting the object-centric product requirement applicability concept are explored and insights into how this transition can be facilitated with knowledge management are generated. Thirdly, the accuracy of this novel concept is evaluated in terms of applying the correct requirements onto products and not more nor less. The methods in this thesis are of mixed nature and combine qualitative and quantitative data sets. The quantitative data was collected from the analysis of the requirement applicability concept and the previous tests of the same concept on diferent products at Company X. The analysis of quantitative data for concept accuracy revolved around interpreting the nature of negative- and positive delta values following an automatic application of requirements in the novel object-centric concept. The former of these delta values relates to relevant requirements missing onto products whereas the latter relates to non-relevant requirements being applied following the automatic application. The qualitative data was collected mainly through a comprehensive literature review, semi-structured interviews, a workshop, meetings, Company X documents and observations. The analysis of qualitative data was done via an adaptation of two frameworks: The Multi-Dimensional Framework for Digital Transformation by Hanelt et al, 2021 and The Process of Organizational Knowledge Creation by Nonaka, 1994. These adapted frameworks were leveraged to generate insights into the necessary organizational prerequisites for adopting the object-centric product requirement applicability concept. While benefts and challenges exist between the two diferent ways of managing requirements, these are not weighted and thus no defnitive conclusion on best practice is drawn. Instead these fndings provide organizations a reference point for evaluating each approach in relation to their own circumstances. Some of the prerequisites identifed as critical for adopting an object-centric product requirement applicability model are a digital library of requirement specifcations that are convertible to object-centric data format, and a suitable PLM strategy chosen by the Top Management Teams that is aiding the development of the concept. As for knowledge management in order to transition to the new concept, fndings show that standardized knowledge creation and knowledge exchange is necessary as well as developing centralized knowledge databases. Lastly, the quantitative fndings indicate that the applicability concept is accurate, but that there is a need for additional iterations with model improvements where the negative delta can be eliminated and the positive delta held at an acceptable level. / Den här studien ger insikter om genomförbarheten av att hantera produktkrav i ett koncept som utnyttjar en objektcentrerad informationsmodell. Syftet med detta koncept är att tillhandahålla efektiv hantering av produktkrav i samband med att de ökar i volym samt komplexitet. Studien kartlägger först fördelar och utmaningar mellan det nuvarande dokumentcentrerade sättet att hantera krav och det nya objektcentrerade konceptet. Även de organisatoriska förutsättningar som krävs för att införa det objektcentrerade produktkravskonceptet undersöks i samband med hur denna övergång kan underlättas med hjälp av kunskapshantering. Slutligen så utvärderas det objektcentrerade konceptet för kravapplicering beträfande hur exakt konceptet är i att applicera rätt krav på produkter. Metodiken i denna studie kombinerar kvalitativa och kvantitativa datamängder. Den kvantitativa datan samlades in från analys av kravappliceringskonceptet samt de tidigare testerna av konceptet på olika produkter som gjorts av Företag X. Analysen av kvantitativ data för hur exakt konceptet är i att applicera rätt krav kretsar kring att förstå grundorsakerna till de negativa och positiva deltavärden som uppkommit efter en automatisk applicering av krav i det nya objektcentrerade konceptet. Det negativa deltavärdet relaterar till nödvändiga krav som saknas på produkter, medan det positiva deltavärdet avser icke-relevanta krav som har applicerats efter en systemförfrågan och automatisk applicering av krav. Den kvalitativa datan samlades huvudsakligen in genom en omfattande litteraturstudie, semistrukturerade intervjuer, workshops, möten, dokument från Företag X och observationer. Analysen av kvalitativ data gjordes via en anpassning av två vetenskapliga ramverk: The Multi-Dimensional Framework for Digital Transformation av Hanelt et al, 2021 och The Process of Organizational Knowledge Creation av Nonaka, 1994. Dessa anpassade ramverk utnyttjas för att generera insikter i de nödvändiga organisatoriska förutsättningarna som krävs för att införa det objektcentrerade kravappliceringskonceptet i en organisation. Fördelar och utmaningar med de två olika sätten att hantera krav viktades inte i denna studie, därför dras ingen defnitiv slutsats om bästa praxis. Istället ger dessa fynd en referenspunkt till organisationer att utvärdera bästa praxis i förhållande till sina egna omständigheter. Några av förutsättningarna identiferade som kritiska för att tillämpa en objektcentrerad produktkravappliceringsmodell är ett digitalt bibliotek av kravspecifkationer som är konverterbara till objektcentrerat dataformat, samt en PLM-strategi införd av de högsta ledningsgrupperna som hjälper till med stödja det objekcentrerade konceptet för produktkravsapplicering. Vad gäller kunskapshantering för att övergå till det nya konceptet visar resultaten att standardiserad kunskapsskapande och utbyte av kunskap är nödvändigt, samt utvecklingen av centraliserade kunskapsdatabaser. Slutligen indikerar de kvantitativa resultaten att tillämpningskonceptet är noggrant, men att ytterligare iterationer med modellförbättringar behövs där den negativa deltan kan elimineras och där den positiva deltan hålls på en acceptabel nivå.