Strategies for Value Creation in E-Commerce:: Best Practice in Europe

This paper investigates strategies for value creation of e-commerce companies. Our main assumption is that e-commerce fundamentally affects the way business is conducted across many industries. To support this insight, we discuss the unique characteristics of `virtual markets\u27 brought on by the Internet. Based on a survey of 30 European e-commerce companies, we then identify two main strategies for value creation in e-commerce — the efficiency that e-commerce business models exhibit, and the degree to which they create `stickiness.\u27 To illustrate these two strategies, we give examples of European companies that can be considered `best practice\u27 companies

The Fit Between Product Market Strategy and Business Model: Implications for Firm Performance

We examine the fit between a firm\u27s product market strategy and its business model. We develop a formal model in order to analyze the contingent effects of product market strategy and business model choices on firm performance. We investigate a unique, manually collected dataset, and find that novelty-centered business models—coupled with product market strategies that emphasize differentiation, cost leadership, or early market entry—can enhance firm performance. Our data suggest that business model and product market strategy are complements, not substitutes

Reprint of "The impact of mergers and acquisitions on shareholders' wealth in the logistics service industry"

Logistic service providers are facing significant challenges in recent years due to intensified competition and ever-increasing customer expectations for cohesive high-standard services at low cost. To cope with these developments many companies aim for external growth to realize operational efficiencies and exploit productive opportunities of new markets and diversified services. Accordingly, 2015 has even become the most active year for mergers and acquisitions in logistic service industry. However, studies examining the post-merger performance effect and its determinants are scarce. Consequently, this paper takes up this issue by analysing a sample of 826 transaction announcements taken place between 1996 and 2015 and their performance effect in terms of short- and long-term abnormal shareholder returns. The results reveal, that although overall transactions exhibit significant positive abnormal returns, post-merger performance for the acquiring companies differs considerably according to the logistic services offered. In the short-term trucking, railway, 3PL and air cargo companies experience significant positive abnormal returns of about 0.6%-2.6%, while sea freight carriers realize only marginal effects and CEP companies do even not show any significant reaction. In the long-term, railway and 3PL companies realize a significant abnormal return of about 20%-24%, while trucking, sea freight and air cargo carriers do not exhibit significant returns and CEP companies do even experience significant losses of about -17%. Overall, diversifying transactions of established full-service providers outperform focus-increasing transactions of specialized operators

Institutional entrepreneurship, governance, and poverty: Insights from emergency medical response servicesin India

We present an in-depth case study of GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute, an Indian public–private partnership (PPP), which successfully brought emergency medical response to remote and urban settings. Drawing insights from the case, we investigate how the organization established itself through institutional entrepreneurship using a process conceptualized as opportunity framing, entrenchment, and propagation. The case and context highlight the need for innovation in organizational design and governance modes to create a new opportunity that connects state actors, private healthcare providers, and the public at large. We consider the role of open innovation and novel business models in creating these service platforms. The implications of our findings for the literature on PPPs, institutional entrepreneurship, inclusive and open innovation, and organizational design in base of the pyramid contexts are discussed

The Concept of Business Model Scalability

The power of business models lies in their ability to visualize and clarify how firms’ may configure their value creation processes. Among the key aspects of business model thinking are a focus on what the customer values, how this value is best delivered to the customer and how strategic partners are leveraged in this value creation, delivery and realization exercise. Central to the mainstream understanding of business models is the value proposition towards the customer and the hypothesis generated is that if the firm delivers to the customer what he/she requires, then there is a good foundation for a long-term profitable business. However, the message conveyed in this article is that while providing a good value proposition may help the firm ‘get by’, the really successful businesses of today are those able to reach the sweet-spot of business model scalability. This article introduces and discusses the term scalability from a company-level perspective. It illustrates how managers should be using this term for the benefit of their business by focusing on business models capable of achieving exponentially increasing returns to scale

University technology transfer office business models: One size does not fit all

Technology transfer processes enable universities to increase their positive impact on society by pursuing their entrepreneurial mission in several ways. By analyzing quantitative and qualitative data collected in a longitudinal dataset of 60 U.S. universities during the period 2002-2012, this article identifies four types of technology transfer business models that may generate economic and non-economic linkages that need to be evaluated. Findings reveal that business models that leverage high-quality research (i.e., catalyst) and startup creation (i.e., orchestrator of local buzz) are associated with higher economic performance. This study contributes to the emergent literature on university business models and provides suggestions to policymakers to incorporate a business model typology in university evaluation programs