Learning while (re-)configuring: business model innovation processes in established firms

This study addresses the question of how established organizations develop new business models over time, using a process research approach to trace how four business model innovation trajectories unfold. With organizational learning as analytical lens, we discern two process patterns: “drifting” starts with an emphasis on experiential learning and shifts later to cognitive search; “leaping,” in contrast, starts with an emphasis on cognitive search and shifts later to experiential learning. Both drifting and leaping can result in radical business model innovations, while their occurrence depends on whether a new business model takes off from an existing model and when it goes into operation. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory on business models and organizational learning

Business models for growth

This report is the result of the project "Business models for growth". This project aimed to support the national Syntens growth program NLGroeit, mainly with good examples of repeatable and scalable business models for growth and with an approach for the design and implementation of business models for growth. The project focused on innovative startups and scale-ups with ambition to grow, and innovative established SME organizations in general. This report starts with a literature study performed on small firm growth, business models, and approaches for transforming business models for growth. Next, 8 example cases showing high growth and how this is achieved are described and preliminary conclusions are derived from these

Business models for growth

This report is the result of the project "Business models for growth". This project aimed to support the national Syntens growth program NLGroeit, mainly with good examples of repeatable and scalable business models for growth and with an approach for the design and implementation of business models for growth. The project focused on innovative startups and scale-ups with ambition to grow, and innovative established SME organizations in general. This report starts with a literature study performed on small firm growth, business models, and approaches for transforming business models for growth. Next, 8 example cases showing high growth and how this is achieved are described and preliminary conclusions are derived from these

Sustainable business models as boundary-spanning systems of value transfers

Sustainable innovation requires collaboration across organizational boundaries, hence in this research, we take a boundary-spanning perspective on the business model. This perspective focuses on how value is created and captured across organizational boundaries, by investigating the value transfers between the focal organization and the external network of business model actors. We analyze the business models of 64 innovative sustainable organizations from The Netherlands in terms of how environmental and social sustainability is manifested in the content, structure, and governance of their business models. We find that environmental sustainability is mainly represented in value creation content, whereas social sustainability is achieved by serving underprivileged user groups and mainly is reflected in value capture content. We observe that social sustainability in both for-profit and non-profit organizations is often achieved by having an imbalance in value exchanges that is compensated elsewhere in the business model. In terms of business model structure we show that sustainable organizations use the same underlying business model structures as can be found in conventional firms. All in all, we demonstrate that analyzing the environmental and social sustainability of organizations using the boundary-spanning perspective on business models provides complementary insights to the traditional component-based view of the business model

Combining free and paid: Revenue models in the Apple app store

Value propositions in the mobile app industry tend to converge. In such a leveled playing field, apps tap into the configuration of their revenue model as a way to distinguish themselves. App developers face intricate decisions concerning what to charge for and what not, and if charged, what configuration of the revenue model to use. They increasingly resort to revenue model configurations that involve perpetually free app distribution, either subsidized with the intention of enticing future customer expenditure on additional app functionalities, or by third-party-generated revenue from advertisement placings or affiliation. Using a weekly panel dataset on 808,866 mobile apps from the U.S. Apple App Store, we study how such revenue model configurations impact the number of downloads - a prerequisite for successful value appropriation. Our results account for endogeneity and show that apps with a revenue model generate more downloads as opposed to apps without a revenue model. Downloads further increase with a revenue model based on free app distribution, such that both third-party and customer-based revenue models favorably affect the number of downloads. On the contrary, downloads decrease when apps combine customer and third-party-based sources of revenue in their revenue model

Mainstreaming solar: Stretching the regulatory regime through business model innovation

This paper explores how the regulatory regime for Solar PV, defined as a combination of niche shielding and mainstream regulations, affects niche business models, using the Dutch and Flemish regulatory regimes as examples. The regulatory regime does not influence all components of the business model: only one or two components are usually affected. The level of niche shielding influences the dominant niche empowerment strategy. We also identified substantial heterogeneity in fit-and-conform and stretch-and-transform empowerment strategies for dealing with the regulatory regime. These strategies are reflected in business models, and differ in terms of temporal focus, motivation and shielding characteristics targeted. Finally, we show that business model innovation, sometimes in combination with technological innovation, can be used for stretching the regulatory regime. Organizational components of the model are usually redesigned for this purpos