Uncovering the Role of IS in Business Model Innovation - A Taxonomy-driven Approach to Structure the Field

Business model innovations (BMIs) are one of the key activities organizations must undertake to survive and thrive. As information systems (IS) penetrate more and more aspects of life, they become an important factor affecting both the process and the outcome of business model innovations. The increased importance of IS in a growing number of industries has led various researchers to focus on examining the role of IS in innovation. However, these insights concentrate on process, product, and service innovations, while business model innovations encompass characteristics that are fundamentally different from these. Therefore, in this paper we use a rigorous taxonomy-building approach to uncover the distinct roles IS play in this important endeavor, employing a meta-perspective and drawing from documented empirical research on business model innovations. We found that IS act, first, as enablers of business model innovation, second, as capabilities in the business model innovation process, and third, as frames of reference for business model innovations. Our findings indicate that IS are thus both operand and operant resources in business model innovations. Hence, business managers must be aware of all of these roles, as they could have transformative impacts in every industry

Sharing Yet Caring - Mitigating Moral Hazard in Access-Based Consumption through IS-Enabled Value Co-Capturing with Consumers

The quest for creating smart and sustainable cities entails various substantial challenges, such as environmental degradation and a shortage of space. To negotiate these hurdles, innovative approaches must be implemented. A key aspect in this regard is the shared use of resources via forms of access-based consumption. Owing to advances in the digitalization of contemporary societies, these concepts have recently attracted both consumer and scholarly interest. However, the digitally enabled separation of ownership and use brings along the risk of moral hazard by consumers using resources in careless or wasteful ways, which is detrimental to the sustainability of the overall system. In this study, the authors conceptualize and empirically investigate how these adverse effects can be mitigated by applying the potentials of connectivity and digital data to enable users to participate economically while acting favorably from a collective perspective. The results of the quasi-experimental research design, situated in a carsharing context and comprising data records of 2,983 bookings, indicate that this form of value co-capturing with consumers can significantly motivate users to alter their behavior. From these findings, the authors derive important implications for research on the sustainability of digital business eco-systems in the specific context of smart cities

Entering the Digital Era – The Impact of Digital Technology-related M&As on Business Model Innovations of Automobile OEMs

Digital technologies have reached the sphere of industrial-age, primarily physical industries, thus forcing incumbent firms to digitally innovate their business models. Employing a longitudinal dataset of the world’s largest automobile manufacturers from 2000 to 2013, we found empirical evidence of a positive effect of digital technology–related mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on digital business model innovativeness. Moreover, this effect is enhanced by previous non-digital M&A experience, a diversified M&A history, as well as early experience with digital technology–related M&As. Consequently, our findings reveal that OEMs acquiring complementary and heterogeneous external knowledge on digital technologies and possessing the absorptive capacity to integrate as well as commercialize this type of knowledge are better prepared to master the digital transformation of their business. Furthermore, we find indications of a positive influence of digital business model innovations on the expected future firm performance of automobile manufacturers, thus substantiating the importance of digital transformation

DISCOVERING NEW DIGITAL BUSINESS MODEL TYPES – A STUDY OF TECHNOLOGY STARTUPS FROM THE MOBILITY SECTOR

In the 1990s, the broad diffusion of the internet allowed firms such as Amazon, eBay, and Google to invent new digital business models. Since then, research has formalized recurring configurations as digital business model types, still frequently being used to analyze existing business models and develop new ones. Now, the next wave of digital transformation – enabled by ongoing improvements in processing power, the miniaturization of hardware, and ubiquitous wireless connectivity – is again driving innovation. For instance, in the mobility sector, startups such as Uber, Turo, and Streetline have formed business logics that cannot be understood with existing types. Therefore, we identified and formalized new business model configurations by systematically analyzing a comprehensive data set of technology startups from the US mobility sector. We found that, in order to adequately account for the new digital logics, 14 digital business model types must be added to existing collections: app developer, autonomous products/robots manufacturer, data analytics provider, integrator of third-party services, IT-enabled self-service provider, IT-guided service provider, manufacturer of connected physical products, manufacturer of connectivity devices for physical products, mobilized service provider, P2P goods sharing platform, P2P information sharing community, P2P service provision platform, seller of sensor information, and sensor-enabled service innovator

Digital M&A, digital innovation, and firm performance:an empirical investigation

Aiming to support digital innovation endeavours, industrial-age companies increasingly acquire firms that heavily build upon digital technologies. Related research has raised serious concerns regarding the prospects of such plans, yet has not focused the particular context of digital mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Drawing on a knowledge-based perspective as well as the particularities of digital technologies and the context of digital innovation, we theorise the link between digital M&A, a digital knowledge base on the part of the acquirer, and the consequences for digital innovation and firm performance. We employ panel data regressions to a longitudinal dataset of the world's largest automobile manufacturers. Our findings suggest that executing digital M&A contributes to building the digital knowledge base of industrial-age firms, which in turn enables them to drive digital innovation. Our findings further indicate that digital innovation improves firm performance of industrial-age firms. We discuss implications for information systems research about M&A and digital innovation as well as recommendations for managerial practice

The Value of IS in Business Model Innovation for Sustainable Mobility Services - The Case of Carsharing

Result-oriented services that provide mobility on demand seem to be a promising means of meeting both societal trends and environmental sustainability targets. In this paper, we investigate the contribution of Information Systems (IS) to drive this substantial business model change towards sustainable mobility from a cus-tomer\u27s perspective. While doing so, we focus on the specific case of carsharing - a result-oriented mobility service that has been known for decades, which is re-cently receiving more attention due to environmental concerns. Employing a choice-based conjoint analysis (n = 221), we explore and evaluate the role of IS for the perceived attractiveness of carsharing. With our investigation, we show how IS, by their three functions of information, automation and transformation, may improve this sustainable form of individual mobility and thus contribute to the shift towards sustainable mobility

Digital Transformation of Primarily Physical Industries - Exploring the Impact of Digital Trends on Business Models of Automobile Manufacturers

The phenomenon of digital transformation received some attention in previous literature concerning industries such as media, entertainment and publishing. However, there is a lack of understanding about digital transformation of primarily physical industries, whose products cannot be completely digitized, e.g., automotive industry. We conducted a rigorous content analysis of substantial secondary data from industry magazines aiming to generate insights to this phenomenon in the automotive industry. We examined the impact of major digital trends on dominant business models. Our findings indicate that trends related to social media, mobile, big data and cloud computing are driving automobile manufactures to extend, revise, terminate, and create business models. By doing so, they contribute to the constitution of a digital layer upon the physical mobility infrastructure. Despite its strong foundation in the physical world, the industry is undergoing important structural changes due to the ongoing digitalization of consumer lives and business

Confinement Assembly of ABC Triblock Terpolymers for the High-Yield Synthesis of Janus Nanorings

Block copolymers are versatile building blocks for the self-assembly of functional nanostructures in bulk and solution. While spheres, cylinders, and bilayer sheets are thermodynamically preferred shapes and frequently observed, ring-shaped nanoparticles are more challenging to realize due to energetic penalties that originate from their anisotropic curvature. Today, a handful of concepts exist that produce core-shell nanorings, while more complex (e.g. patchy) nanorings are currently out of reach and have only been predicted theoretically. Here, we demonstrate that confinement assembly of properly designed ABC triblock terpolymers is a general route to synthesize Janus nanorings in high purity. The triblock terpolymer self-assembles in the spherical confinement of nanoemulsion droplets into prolate ellipsoidal microparticles with an axially-stacked lamellar-ring (lr)-morphology. We clarified and visualized this complex, yet well-ordered, morphology with transmission electron tomography (ET). Blocks A and C formed stacks of lamellae with the B microdomain sandwiched in-between as nanorings. Cross-linking of the B-rings allows disassembly of the microparticles into Janus nanorings (JNRs) carrying two strictly separated polymer brushes of A and C on top and bottom. Decreasing the B volume leads to Janus spheres and rods, while an increase of B results in perforated and filled Janus disks. The confinement assembly of ABC triblock terpolymers is a general process that can be extended to other block chemistries and will allow to synthesize a large variety of complex micro- and nanoparticles that inspire studies in self-assembly, interfacial stabilization, colloidal packing, and nanomedicine

Disruption on the Way? The Role of Mobile Applications for Electric Vehicle Diffusion

Disruptive eco-innovations that replace existing unsustainable modes of transportation could contribute to achieve substantial improvements in environmental sustainability. Electric vehicles (EVs) have the potential to provide a more sustainable means of individual mobility, but, thus far, customer adoption remains relatively low. Following disruptive innovations theory developed by Christensen, the disruptive potential of EVs can be realized if their performance on traditional attributes that customer\u27s value improves. Here, information systems can play a key role. In this paper, we use a large scale (n = 1461) empirical investigation to examine which attributes must be addressed and assess the ability of existing mobile applications (apps) to do so. Our results indicate that apps contribute to a more reliable and convenient EV-user experience. We shed light on the role of apps in connecting the vehicle, the infrastructure and the user and in creating a digital eco-system that enhances the diffusion of EVs