Business Model Innovation Paths and Tools

There is a multitude of tools available for Business Model Innovation (BMI). However, Business models (BM) and supporting tools are not yet widely known by micro, small and medium sized companies (SMEs). In this paper, we build on analysis of 61 cases to present typical BMI paths of European SMEs. Firstly, we constructed two paths for established companies that we named as \u27I want to grow\u27 and \u27I want to make my business profitable\u27. We also found one path for start-ups: \u27I want to start a new business\u27. Secondly, we suggest appropriate BM toolsets for the three paths. The identified paths and related tools contribute to BMI research and practise with an aim to boost BMI in SMEs

Designing an ICT tooling platform to support SME business model innovation: Results of a first design cycle

Business model innovation (BMI) is becoming increasingly relevant for enterprises as they are faced with profound changes like digitalization. While business model thinking in academia has advanced, practical tooling that supports business model innovation for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is still lacking. In this paper, we design, implement and evaluate an online platform with ICT-enabled tooling that supports business model innovation by SMEs. Based on interviews with ten SMEs and SME helpers, we define requirements for the BMI tooling platform. The implemented platform offers downloadable tools, decision support for finding the proper tooling, and interactive features for building communities of SMEs. Evaluation through log data analysis and informal interviews shows that the platform is usable and provides a relevant overview of BMI tooling, although several improvements are still suggested. As next steps, we will (1) create prefilled tools and templates to speed up the process of BMI; (2) create educational videos on how to use the tooling; (3) define paths on how to move from one tool to another; and (4) enhance the community features on the platform. The paper contributes to understanding how academic conceptualizations of BMI can be transferred into practically valuable artefacts for SMEs

From strategic goals to business model innovation paths: an exploratory study

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse how different strategic goals of (micro-, small- and medium-sized firms=SMEs) relate to the business model innovation (BMI) paths that SMEs take when improving their business.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted 11 in-depth case studies involving SMEs innovating their business models (BMs).FindingsThe authors found evidence that strategic goals of SMEs (start new business, growth and profitability) lead them to alternative innovation path in terms of BM components affected. Growth seekers start from the right-hand side of a BM Canvas, while profitability seekers start from the back end, the left side of a Canvas; and new businesses adopt a cyclical approach considering BM components in turn, while at the same time redesigning and testing the BM. The findings of this study also indicate that all three paths gradually lead to improvement in several BM components.Research limitations/implicationsFindings indicate that a strategic management view in which strategic goals define BMI also applies to SMEs. The distinctive BMI paths that the authors identified provide evidence to suggest that, although the SMEs may not have an explicitly formulated strategy, their strategic goals determine the type of improvements they make to their BM. All three SME groups started their improvements from different BM components and changed several elements in their BMs in a specific order, forming distinctive BMI paths. Finally, to understand the BMI in SMEs better, more research is needed into BMI processes and into the way BMI is managed in SMEs.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study help SMEs to anticipate the next steps in their path towards an improved BM. By mirroring their approach to the BMI paths, they can better manage their BM makeover process and focus on their innovation activities. For providers of BMI tools and methods, the study indicates which SME innovation tasks could be supported by tools and how the tools should be aligned with the BMI paths.Originality/valueBMI is attracting growing attention in both research and practice. However, knowledge concerning BMI in SMEs is limited. The authors contributed to BMI research by focussing on the BMI paths of SMEs, i.e. the often sequential, non-linear and iterative steps taken to improve the business by making changes to specific BM components.</dl

Technology, Government, Business, and Universities: The Innovation Ecosystem

The purpose of this presentation is to present an overview of the roles of the government, business enterprises, and universities in the promotion and creation of innovation. Our approach is to present key concepts, principles, methods, tools and use illustrative examples from research and executive practice. We begin by defining “innovation”. We argue that innovation is both a process and an output. From a process perspective, innovation is an emergent property of a complex social-technical system composed of government, business enterprises, and universities. The behavior of this system is the result of policies engineered by the government. We illustrate this point with examples of various macro economies, e.g. Chile. Using these examples we illustrate effective government policies. Next we discuss innovation as an output from business enterprises. We focus on enterprise level methods and tools for innovation. They are: business model transformation, business process reengineering, inventive problem solving, analysis of customer requirements, technology roadmapping, and knowledge management. Consistent with our practice, we illustrate the use of these methods and tools in detail. Next, we touch on the role of universities. For universities to promote innovation, we identify six research paths, three research strategies, and two goals. We cite a few examples from MIT. We present a key role of universities: to create interpretation spaces for researchers, government, and business where new innovative knowledge and ideas can be explored and generated in an environment of strong mutual trust. Innovation is impossible without decisive executives who are committed to action. Therefore, we present a detailed discussion of a new prescriptive approach that take a fresh look at decision-making for executives and policy makers. Finally, we distill from all of the above a set of principles that help unlock innovation. Finally we distill from all of the above a set of principles that help to unlock innovation

Designing transition paths for the diffusion of sustainable system innovations. A new potential role for design in transition management?

Copyright @ 2008 Umberto AllemandiIt is a shared opinion that the transition towards sustainability will be a continuous and articulated learning process, which will require radical changes on multiple levels (social, cultural, institutional and technological). It is also shared that, given the nature and the dimension of those changes, a system discontinuity is needed, and that therefore it is necessary to act on a system innovation level. The challenge now is to understand how it is possible to facilitate and support the introduction and diffusion of such innovations. Bringing together insights from both Design for sustainability and Transition management literatures, the paper puts forward a model, called Transition model of evolutionary co-design for sustainable (product-service) system innovations, aimed at facilitating and speed-up the process of designing, experimentation, niche introduction and branching of sustainable such innovations

How to facilitate the implementation and diffusion of sustainable Product-Service Systems? Looking for synergies between strategic design and innovation sciences

Copyright @ 2010 Greenleaf PublishingEco-efficient Product-Service System (PSS) innovations represent a promising approach to sustainability. However the application of this concept is still very limited because eco-efficient PSS are intrinsically radical innovations, that challenge existing customers’ habits (cultural barriers), companies’ organizations (corporate barriers) and regulative framework (regulative barriers). Because of these multi-dimensional changes, eco-efficient PSS can be considered complex and highly uncertain innovations, and therefore difficult to be predicted, planned and managed. Therefore the challenge is not only to conceive eco-efficient PSS concepts, but also to understand which are the most effective strategies to introduce and diffuse these concepts in the market. Bringing together insights from innovation sciences (in particular transition management, strategic niche management and radical innovation studies), the paper puts forward an approach through which effectively manage the implementation and diffusion of eco-efficient PSS innovations. Starting from these results the paper outlines the implications on the design level. A new different role for design emerges. A role that may potentially opens new fields of activity alongside the consolidated ones. A role in which design is not only aimed at defining sustainable PSS concept but it is also aimed at promoting, facilitating and setting- up the conditions for implementing and diffusing this kind of innovations

Managing stimulation of regional innovation subjects’ interaction in the digital economy

The reported study was funded by RFBR according to the research project No. 18-01000204_a, No. 16-07-00031_a, No. 18-07-00975_a.Purpose: The article is devoted to solving fundamental scientific problems in the scope of the development of forecasting modeling methods and evaluation of regional company’s innovative development parameters, synthesizing new methods of big data processing and intelligent analysis, as well as methods of knowledge eliciting and forecasting the dynamics of regional innovation developments through benchmarking. Design/Methodology/Approach: For regional economic development, it is required to identify the mechanisms that contribute to (or impede) the innovative economic development of the regions. The synergetic approach to management is based on the fact that there are multiple paths of IS development (scenarios with different probabilities), although it is necessary to reach the required attractor by meeting the management goals. Findings: The present research is focused on obtainment of new knowledge in creating a technique of multi-agent search, collection and processing of data on company’s innovative development indicators, models and methods of intelligent analysis of the collected data. Practical Implications: The author developed recommendations before starting the process of institutional changes in a specific regional innovation system. The article formulates recommendations on the implementation of institutional changes in the region taking into account the sociocultural characteristics of the region’s population. Originality/Value: It is the first time, when a complex of models and methods is based on the use of a convergent model of large data volumes processing is presented.peer-reviewe

Recombination in the Open-Ended Value Landscape of Digital Innovation

Digital innovation introduces a new open-ended value landscape to anyone seeking to generate or capture new value. To understand this landscape, we distinguish between design recombination and use recombination, explore how they play out together, and redirect the attention from products and services toward digital resources. Digital resources serve as building-blocks in digital innovation, and they hold the potential to simultaneously be part of multiple value paths, offered through design recombination and assembled through use recombination. Building on this perspective, we offer the value spaces framework as a tool for better understanding value creation and capture in digital innovation. We illustrate the framework and offer the early contours of a research agenda for information systems researchers

Integration of innovative users as source of service innovations

In this study we research user integration in the German service industry. Goal is to explore the industrial practice with regard to four dimensions of user integration, i.e., why, whom, how, and how successful the service industry integrates to find novel service ideas. Data is collected from a large-scale survey sent out to 2,905 service companies and posted in various user groups related to service innovations. Drawing from data gathered from 301 respondents in our study, we present explorative findings for each distinct dimension of user integration. To better understand the interrelation of these dimensions, we also create a structural equation model using partial least square for estimation of direction and strength of relationships between those. Results show that service companies like companies from other industries actively pursue the development of radical innovations. We find that service companies do not integrate users by random. Instead a service company's level of importance for radical innovation significantly determines both, choice of users integrated as well as choice of integration instruments deployed. In our study we can also show, that many of the beliefs brought forward by service companies for not integrating users cannot be sustained in the light of our findings. We can demonstrate that user contributions provide true value to those companies integrating the latter, and also that using tools which are considered easy and versatile to apply can still have a significant impact on the attractiveness of user ideas. --

A European research agenda for lifelong learning

It is a generally accepted truth that without a proper educational system no country will prosper, nor will its inhabitants. With the arrival of the post-industrial society, in Europe and elsewhere, it has become increasingly clear that people should continue learning over their entire life-spans lest they or their society suffer the dire consequences. But what does this future lifelong learning society exactly look like? And how then should education prepare for it? What should people learn and how should they do so? How can we afford to pay for all this, what are the socio-economic constraints of the move towards a lifelong-learning society? And, of course, what role can and should the educational establishment of schools and universities play? This are questions that demand serious research efforts, which is what this paper argues for