Book chapter 2024
The Economics of Space Sustainability: Delivering Economic Evidence to Guide Government Action OECD Publishing · pp. 93–107
Satellite infrastructure creates potential value far beyond the space sector, but end users enact that value most readily in tactical activities; strategic adoption requires lower transaction costs, stronger capabilities and closer alignment between provider solutions and user needs.
New Space industrial dynamics require satellite infrastructure to generate value for a broader set of commercial end users as well as traditional institutional actors. This OECD chapter examines how organizations in insurance and finance, energy and utilities, and transportation and logistics perceive the value of Earth Observation and satellite-navigation infrastructure. It combines Value Theory with a system-lifecycle perspective to explain how value is expected, created, distributed, captured and ultimately enacted in the emerging space economy.
How do end users perceive the value of satellite infrastructure in the “new space” economy ecosystem?
The research follows four steps: reviewing value in innovation ecosystems, interviewing end-user managers, analysing value dimensions and perceptions, and comparing expected with enacted value. The empirical setting is the European New Space Economy. The study draws on 29 manager interviews, with an average of 15 years of experience and 58-minute interviews, across Insurance and Finance, Energy and Utilities, and Transportation and Logistics. Interviews are triangulated with secondary material, and the analysis uses Value Theory to interpret expected and enacted value.
Satellite data is most readily adopted for shorter-term, lower-risk and reversible decisions, especially when organizations can improve internal activities and assess value quickly. Across the three sectors, tactical activity uses show the strongest alignment between expected and enacted value.
Managers recognize substantial long-term potential but are more reluctant to rely on satellite data for strategic decisions about services and products. Uncertainty, resource requirements, reliability concerns and internal approval processes widen the gap between expected and enacted value.
High transaction costs, limited data literacy and competencies, and mismatches between available solutions and concrete end-user needs constrain adoption. Providers can therefore increase value enactment by working directly with users, reducing integration costs and supporting the capabilities needed to use satellite data.
The chapter places satellite infrastructure within a broader system-lifecycle view of value. It moves attention away from infrastructure delivery alone and toward how multiple actors create, distribute and capture economic, social and environmental value over time.
For policymakers and space agencies, the results highlight the importance of capacity building and intermediaries. For satellite providers, they point to closer user engagement and lower transaction costs. For end users, the framework provides a way to assess where satellite infrastructure is already producing value and where expected benefits remain unrealized.
Paravano, A., Locatelli, G., & Trucco, P. (2024). Value mechanisms of satellite infrastructure in the “new space” economy. In The Economics of Space Sustainability: Delivering Economic Evidence to Guide Government Action (pp. 93–107). OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/a729c640-en
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