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1. ___________________________ UNIVERSITE DE LAUSANNE ECOLE DES HAUTES ETUDES COMMERCIALES ___________________________________________ THE BUSINESS MODEL ONTOLOGY A PROPOSITION IN A DESIGN SCIENCE APPROACH THESE Présentée à l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de l'Université de Lausanne par Alexander OSTERWALDER Licencié en Sciences Politiques de l'Université de Lausanne Diplômé postgrade en Informatique et Organisation (DPIO) de l'Ecole des HEC de l'Université de Lausanne Pour l'obtention du grade de Docteur en Informatique de Gestion 2004
To all those people out there fighting poverty in the world
The Business Model Ontology - a proposition in a design science approach 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH CONTEXT 1.1.1 Economic Context The ideas for this research on business models emerged when e-business, e-commerce and the so- called new economy where blooming and booming. At that time many people in business and academe used to believe that the Internet would make existing business rules or even economic theories and laws obsolete (e.g. Merrifield 2000; Wood 2000). One could often hear that traditional business models were dead and that new business models were emerging. The term became a buzzword and was used by managers, academics and journalists for everything and nothing related to the "new economy", an economy driven by ICTs. However, I started this research at the end of October 2000 when the so-called dotcom bubble just burst and technology stocks where in full decline (see Figure 1). This was a little bit disturbing because the expression business model, the core of my research, was largely associated to the "new economy" (e.g. Boulton and Libert 2000). Furthermore, many and particular the press decided in the year 2000 that the idea of business models was dead. Was I supposed to drop my research? I decided to stick to the expression and to the research on business models and see what the future would bring, because my conceptual perception of business models has little to do with the press' and mainstream publics' perception of business models. Though the excessive dotcom hype negatively earmarked the expression I believed the concept of business models would reemerge as a helpful instrument in management. This proved to be the right decision, as the appearance of a decent research stream on business models in management and information systems has shown. Figure 1: NASDAQ Chart 1998-2003 1.1.2 Academic Background and Context After achieving a degree in political science and then business information systems of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland I decided to stay at my alma mater as a doctoral candidate. I started to work as a research assistant under Professor Yves Pigneur at the Information Systems Department, where I taught and conducted research on business models. In the course of time I also started to rediscover my interest in developing countries, which I had developed during my studies in political science. Thus, besides setting up an interfaculty seminar on Information Technology (ICT) and development, I tried to combine my core research with the subject of the seminar and the reader will notice that some of the examples in this dissertation are ICT-based business models from the "South". Furthermore, I was partially involved in a research project called MICS: Mobile Information and Communication Systems of the National Centers of Competence in Research (NCCR) and managed by the Swiss 1
Introduction National Science Foundation on behalf of the Federal Authorities. Hence, you will also find some illustrations and cases from the mobile industry in this thesis. 1.2 RELEVANCE AND RESEARCH GOALS Although the dotcom bubble has burst it is clear that the Internet and other ICTs are here to stay and companies have to cope with them. Beyond the Internet hyperbole of the late 90s, few experts deny that the Internet, the WWW, e-commerce and e-business have had and will continue to have an enormous impact on businesses. This is best illustrated by the so-called Hype Cycle of Gartner (Linden and Fenn 2003), a technology research and advisory firm. Gartner's Hype Cycle, introduced as early as 1995, characterizes the typical progression of an emerging technology from over- enthusiasm through a period of disillusionment to an eventual understanding of the technology's relevance and role in a market. Today it is clear that ICTs and particularly the Internet have changed the business landscape and that they are relevant for conducting business. The impact has been huge, even if traditional business rules have not been abrogated, as some authors have suggested during the hype (e.g. Merrifield 2000). In my opinion one of the major impacts of ICTs has been an increase in the possible business configurations a company can adopt because of the reduced coordination and transaction costs (see Coase 1937; Williamson 1975). In other words, they can increasingly work in partnerships, offer joint value propositions, build-up multi-channel and multi-owned distribution networks and profit from diversified and shared revenue streams. This, however, means that a company's business has more stakeholders, becomes more complex and is harder to understand and communicate (for more details see section 2.1). If this assumption is true one can argue that the existing management concepts and tools may not be sufficient enough anymore and that new ones have to be found. For example, Rentmeister and Klein (2003) call for new modeling methods in the domain of business models. Effectively, a whole range of authors propose using the relatively new concept of business models for managing companies in the Internet era (Chesbrough and Rosenbloom 2000; Afuah and Tucci 2001; Applegate 2001; Pateli and Giaglis 2003). This dissertation is part of this new research stream on business models and focuses on a specific area not so well covered until now: specifying and conceptualizing business models. Whereas most business model research stays at a non-conceptual, broad and sometimes even vague level, this work tries to dig into the details and define a generic model to describe business models. Such an approach is indispensable if one does not only want to provide rather simple management concepts, but effective software-based business model tools to improve managing in a rapidly moving, complex and uncertain business environment. The research question of this dissertation is: How can business models be described and represented in order to build the foundation for subsequent concepts and tools, possibly computer based? To tackle this question I design and propose a rigorous conceptual model of business models, which I subsequently call an ontology. Gruber (1993) defines an ontology as an explicit specification of a conceptualization. It can be understood as a description (like a formal specification of a program) of the concepts and relationships in a specific domain. In the domain of IS ontologies were originally used in artificial intelligence and knowledge engineering. Now its importance is being recognized in research fields as diverse as knowledge representation, qualitative modelling, language engineering, database design, information modelling, information integration, object-oriented analysis, information retrieval and extraction, knowledge management and organization, and agent-based systems design. Current application areas of ontologies are also disparate, including enterprise integration, natural language translation, medicine, mechanical engineering, standardization of product knowledge, electronic commerce, geographic information systems, legal information systems2, biological information systems (Guarino 1998). What I call an ontology can also be understood as a reference model. Duce and Hopgood (1990) refer to a reference model as follows: "The two words "reference" and 'model' establish the overall intent [..] A 'reference' is something which can be referred to as an authority. A 'model' is a standard or example for imitation or comparison. It provides a pattern on which to base an artifact. Duce, 2
The Business Model Ontology - a proposition in a design science approach Giorgetti et al. (1998) see reference models as "a basis for a new type of system which exhibits significant advantages over previous approaches; a basis for explaining deficiencies in existing systems and showing ways of overcoming these; as a framework within which systems may be compared and new systems designed". Reference models exist in many different domains, for instance in supply chain management (SCC 2003), networking (ISO 2003) or visualization systems (Wood 1998). However, because the term ontology is gaining increasing weight and acceptance in the information systems and computer science community and besides other things stands for the definition of semantics and syntax in a domain I will subsequently refer to my modeling approach as a domain ontology. This seems to suit the business model ontology quite well, as it aims at defining the concepts and their relationships in the business model domain. Yet, it must be said that there are different degrees of rigor and formalness in an ontological approach. The business model ontology and its business model modeling language BM2L can be understood as semi-formal in the sense of Ushold and Gruninger (1996) and are "expressed in an artificial formally defined language". Based on the above, my research goal is to tackle the concept of business models with an ontological approach in order to provide the basis for new management tools. In the general terms of Ushold and King (1995) this means: • Identification of the key concepts and relationships in the domain of interest (i.e. scoping the domain of business models) • Production of precise unambiguous text definitions for such concepts and relationships • Identification of terms to refer to such concepts and relationships • Agreeing on all of the above The outcome of this research is a generic business model ontology that shall ideally represent the foundation for new management tools in strategy and information systems, possibly software based. One simple prototype tool that shall be provided in this dissertation aims at facilitating the description of a business model. Subsequent tools based on the business model concept (but not researched in this dissertation) are necessary for the following reasons: • Today's business landscape is characterized by complexity and uncertainty, based among other things on the dominant influence of ICTs and the resulting large range of possible business models. Yet, the concepts and tools to cope with this are still missing • Increasingly, today's business models demand the coordination of a large number of stakeholders, such as partners, strategists, business process designers and information systems staff. But so far few management tools exist to understand, map and share the business logic of today's firms. • After an initial hype of over-funded, megalomaniac business models, rigorous business planning for profitability has become indispensable again considering today's fierce global competition. This means that all parts of a business have to be optimized and reinforcing and that details in a business model make the difference. Yet, few approaches and concepts exist that give an overall view of a business. As I will explain in the next section on the dissertation's methodology (see section 1.3) the research goals can be summarized as the delivery of a business model ontology (see section 4), its validation (see section 17) and the demonstration of some possible applications (see section 6). 1.3 METHODOLOGY Finding an adequate founding in methodology was not easy, given that the goals of this research do not necessarily follow mainstream management or IS research directions. Traditional research in these areas often focus on theory building and theory testing. At first glance, working on a generic business model framework might also seem like theory work. But if business model research is certainly theoretical it does not mean that it is a theoretical contribution to science as commonly understood. In 3
Introduction a special issue of the Academy of Management Review dedicated to theory, David A. Whetten (1989) nicely defines a framework of what constitutes a theoretical contribution. Central to his framework and to theory building is the notion of understanding the WHY of a phenomenon in question. Theory helps discerning how things come to be as they are and how they function. This is the case for theory building on natural as well as on social phenomena. Simply put, theory helps explaining patterns found in our world. The nature of business model research, however, is quite different. The reasoning behind business model research is not the understanding of a phenomenon, rather it is a problem-solution finding approach. It is about finding the concepts and relationships that allow expressing the business logic of a firm in order to be able to formally seize this business logic. It means designing and building a model that makes it possible to represent the business model of a firm. The question that must immediately follow is, if this is valid and viable research or if it is mere consultancy work, meaning finding a solution to a problem. This question is significant because the research in this dissertation neither contributes to theory building as defined above nor to theory falsification and testing, which is the second major scientific preoccupation. So can a problem-solution finding approach as applied in this business model research qualify as a scientific method, specifically in IS? If we consider science in the light of Kuhn's scientific paradigms (Kuhn 1970) this depends on the scientific context of the moment. Paradigms are a collection of beliefs shared by scientists, a set of agreements about how problems are to be understood. Thus, the next step in finding out if business model research qualifies as scientific is looking for an accepted problem-solution finding method that can be applied to this dissertation. As a matter of fact, there exists a scientific research method applied to IS baptised design science (March and Smith 1995; Au 2001; Ball 2001) that can – with some modifications – be used in developing a business model framework. The essence of design science was nicely expressed by Buckminster Fuller (1992), an architect, engineer, mathematician, poet, cosmologist and forerunner of design science. "The function of what I call design science is to solve problems by introducing into the environment new artifacts, the availability of which will induce their spontaneous employment by humans and thus, coincidentally, cause humans to abandon their previous problem-producing behaviours and devices. For example, when humans have a vital need to cross the roaring rapids of a river, as a design scientist I would design them a bridge, causing them, I am sure, to abandon spontaneously and forever the risking of their lives by trying to swim to the other shore". Translated to this dissertation, design science means designing a business model framework that helps managers and IS specialist express the business logic of a firm in a new way, abandoning the former informal business logic descriptions. This is in line with Nunamaker, Chen et al. (1990) who classify design science in IS as applied research that applies knowledge to solve practical problems. 1.3.1 Design Science A good starting point to design science in IS is provided by March and Smith (1995). They define it as an attempt to create things that serve human purposes, as opposed to natural and social sciences, which try to understand reality (Au 2001). March and Smith outline a design science framework with two axes, namely research activities and research outputs (see Figure 2). Research outputs cover constructs, models, methods and instantiations. Research activities comprise building, evaluating, theorizing on and justifying artifacts. 4
The Business Model Ontology - a proposition in a design science approach RESEARCH ACTIVITIES Build Evaluate Theorize Justify RESEARCH OUTPUT Constructs Model Method Instantiation Figure 2: Design Science Research Framework (March and Smith 1995) Constructs or concepts form the vocabulary of a domain. They constitute a conceptualization used to describe problems within a domain. A model is a set of propositions or statements expressing relationships among constructs. In design activities, models represent situations as problem and solution statements. A method is a set of steps (an algorithm or guideline) used to perform a task. Methods are based on a set of underlying constructs (language) and a representation (model) of the solution space. An instantiation is the realization of an artifact in its environment. Instantiations operationalize constructs, models and methods. Concerning research activities, March and Smith (1995) identify build and evaluate as the two main issues in design science. Build refers to the construction of constructs, models, methods and artifacts demonstrating that they can be constructed. Evaluate refers to the development of criteria and the assessment of the output's performance against those criteria. Parallel to these two research activities in design science March and Smith add the natural and social science couple, which are theorize and justify. This refers to the construction of theories that explain how or why something happens. In the case of IT and IS research this is often an explanation of how or why an artifact works within its environment. Justify refers to theory proving and requires the gathering of scientific evidence that supports or refutes the theory (March and Smith 1995). Summarized, constructs, models, methods and artifacts are built to perform a specific task. These outputs then become the object of study, which must be evaluated scientifically. They have to be evaluated in order to conclude if any progress has been made. In order to do this, we have to develop metrics and measure the outputs according to those metrics. For instance, when an artifact has been applied in a specific environment, it is important to determine why and how the artifact worked or did not work. Such research applies natural science methods to artifacts (theorize). Then, given a generalization or theory we must justify that explanation. Evidence has to be gathered to test the theory in question. Justification for artefacts generally follows the natural science methodologies governing data collection and analysis. 1.3.2 Research Outline of the Dissertation The business model research in this dissertation is based on the design science framework detailed above and essentially covers the build and some evaluate research activities and has a research output of constructs, models and instantiations. As stated earlier (see section 1.2), the first research goal of this dissertation is to find an ontology (i.e. artifact or model) that makes it possible to conceptually express the business logic of a firm in a structured form. The second research goal consists in applying this model to one of its possible uses (i.e. instantiation), from which we chose two. Firstly, the instantiation of the ontology in an IT tool that allows to capture business models in a structured way 5
Introduction and secondly, IS & strategy alignment. In terms of March and Smith's research frameworks this means we will aim at finding the basic constructs of a business model and build and ontology that expresses the relationships among them. Subsequently, we have to evaluate the constructs and the model based on an adequate measurement system. The same two steps of building and evaluating apply to the two instantiations that are based on the ontology (IS & strategy alignment and IT prototype). As illustrated in Figure 2, March and Smith (1995) propose a four by four framework that produces sixteen cells describing viable research efforts. The different cells have different objectives with different appropriate research methods. A research project can cover multiple cells, but does not necessarily have to cover them all. Concerning the importance of a specific design science research its relevance and contribution in the build activity are judged on the basis of novelty of the artifact and its persuasiveness of achieving the goals it claims. Research in the evaluate activity is based on the development of metrics that allow to compare the performance of constructs, models, methods and instantiations for specific tasks. Evaluation of constructs tend to involve completeness, simplicity, elegance, understandability and ease of use. In Figure 3 we illustrate which cells at the intersection of research activities and research outputs of March and Smith's framework (1995) are covered by this thesis. Each cell/intersection contains a specific research objective of the overall business model research and is addressed and explained in a specific chapter of the dissertation. The build column covers the quest for the basic concepts in business models (construct), the definition of a business model ontology (model) and the prototyping of an IT tool that assesses business models, as well as a proposition for IS and strategy alignment (instantiation). The evaluate column includes evaluating the completeness of the concepts (construct), the appropriateness of the ontology (model) and the application of the prototype and the IS and strategy alignment proposition to a specific case (instantiation). The theorize and justify columns and the according cells are not covered in this research, nevertheless they are addressed in the evaluation and conclusion (see sections 7, 9). RESEARCH ACTIVITIES Build Evaluate Theorize Justify Find basic concepts Investigate for business models completeness and Constructs (i.e. building understandability blocks) (section 4, 17) (sections 4) RESEARCH OUTPUT Define an ontology Investigate fidelity that expresses the with real world Model business logic of a phenomena firm. (sections 7) (section 4) Method IT Prototype to Apply Prototype to capture business cases models (e.g. XML) Instantiation Apply alignment IS & Strategy proposition to case alignment (section 5) (section 6, 8.1 ) Figure 3: Research outline based on March and Smith (1995) 6
The Business Model Ontology - a proposition in a design science approach 1.3.3 Method Mix Applied to the Cells of the Design Science Framework In the previous section we explained the research objectives in the different cells of March and Smith's framework (1995) covered by this dissertation. But as March and Smith explain, every cell and research objective may call for a different methodology. This makes it necessary to identify an adequate method for each specific research objective, resulting in an overall method mix. To achieve this I analyzed a study on the methodologies applied in and accepted by seven leading MIS journals during a recent five year period (Palvia, Mao et al. 2003). The study outlines thirteen different methodologies that they also rank by their popularity. From the thirteen I retain seven that fit well with the research objectives (respectively cells) I have defined previously. These methods are speculation/commentary, frameworks & conceptual models, library research, literature analysis, case study, interview and secondary data (see Table 1). Methodology Definition Speculation/commentary Research that derives from thinly supported arguments or opinions with little or no empirical evidence. Frameworks and Conceptual Models Research that intends to develop a framework or a conceptual model. Library Research Research that is based mainly on the review of existing literature. Literature Analysis Research that critiques, analyzes, and extends existing literature and attempts to build new groundwork, e.g., it includes meta analysis. Case Study Study of a single phenomenon (e.g., an application, a technology, a decision) in an organization over a logical time frame. Interview Research in which information is obtained by asking respondents questions directly. The questions may be loosely defined, and the responses may be open-ended. Secondary Data A study that utilizes existing organizational and business data, e.g., financial and accounting reports, archival data, published statistics, etc. Table 1: MIS Methodologies retained for this research (based on Palvia et al. (2003)) Figure 4 illustrates which one of the retained methodologies I have applied to which cell and accordingly to which research objective. In the following lines I explain why I have chosen these methodologies and how they contribute to this research on business models. The category speculation/commentary refers to articles and research that are not really based on any hard evidence. They largely reflect the knowledge and experience of the authors. By definition, they tend to be somewhat visionary in nature. Typically, they signal the arrival of new trends and directions in the technology, its management or application (Palvia, Mao et al. 2003). In this dissertation speculation/commentary has triggered the initial research on business models as a method for formally representing the business logic of a firm. It is somewhat visionary wanting to formalize business models in order to improve business and IS management and results will only occur after building and evaluating a model. Thus I use speculation/commentary as one of the contributors to build constructs and models. Library research (which is also part of most of the other methodologies) summarizes and synthesizes past research, and highlights some of the important conclusions. Literature analysis goes a step further and examines many (perhaps all) past studies in a particular area and conducts a scientific meta analysis of the cumulative knowledge, in effect treating each study as one data point (Palvia, Mao et al. 2003). These two methodologies embody the basis for the design of the business model ontology. In order to build the ontology we rely on an extensive library and literature research on business model, managerial and to some extent ontology research. 7
Introduction Palvia et al. define frameworks & conceptual models as especially useful for a discipline that generally lacks and defies attempts to develop theory. They note that in lieu of theory, frameworks helped guide the work of many MIS researchers over the years. In this dissertation conceptual research in the form of the business model framework (i.e. business model ontology) is the heart of the research and follows March and Smith's (1995) design science principles of building and evaluating an artifact. In the case of this research the artifact takes the from of a conceptual model, a managerial application (IS and strategy alignment) and an IT prototype (an IT tool to seize business models). Lee (1989) has been one of the first to argue that case study research in MIS can have as much rigor as quantitative research. A case study generally refers to the in depth study of a single phenomenon (e.g., one application, one technology) over time in a single organization (Palvia, Mao et al. 2003). In the case of this dissertation I use a case study that has a somewhat different function. It serves as a method to test and evaluate the validity of the constructs and the designed ontology, which is essentially based on interviews. Furthermore, the case study is applied to evaluate the instantiations of the ontology. Although interviews are typically part of other methodologies, such as case studies and qualitative research, Palvia et al. (2003) list them as a separate category. The reason is that in their study they found this method repeatedly mentioned – either by itself or in combination with other methodologies – as the primary method of data collection. In this dissertation interviews are essentially used to evaluate the ontology by people that would use such a construct, like managers, consultants and academics. IS research based on secondary data is not in widespread practice, as in other business disciplines (e.g., in Finance where company financial performance data and stock market data are analyzed frequently) (Palvia, Mao et al. 2003). However, this dissertation uses secondary data, drawing from company websites, financial databases and publicized case studies, in order to illustrate parts of the ontology or to evaluate some of its constructs. RESEARCH ACTIVITIES Build Evaluate Theorize Justify RESEARCH OUTPUT Constructs Speculation Case study Library research Secondary data Literature analysis Interviews Conceptual research Literature analysis Model Speculation Case studies Library research Secondary data Literature analysis Interviews Conceptual research Literature analysis Method Instantiation Conceptual research Case study Secondary data Figure 4: Method Mix (based on March and Smith (1995) and Pavlia et al. (2003)) 1.4 CONTRIBUTIONS OF THIS DISSERTATION The goal of this dissertation is to bring business model research a step further. This is achieved by four different major and minor contributions: 1. Update of the knowledge in the business model domain provided by Stähler (2001), Gordijn (2002) and Pateli and Giaglis (2003) (i.e. revised literature review). 2. Consolidation of the research in the domain of business models into a specification of a conceptualization resulting in the proposition of a business model ontology defining the 8
The Business Model Ontology - a proposition in a design science approach semantics and relationships of nine main elements. 3. Demonstration that an ontology can be the fundament for software tools in the domain of business models by providing a prototype (BM2L). 4. Outlook on what business models can be good for. 5. Proposition on business and IS alignment as ICT in general and e-business in particular are increaslingly underpinning today's business models. The dissertation does NOT aim at the following: • Modeling the whole enterprise. The dissertation focuses on the business model, i.e. the logic of how an enterprise earns money - it does not aim at describing the entire enterprise. • Modeling and explaining business model success. The success of a business model relates not only to its design but to its implementation which is not part of this dissertation. • Re-write strategy research. By providing a business model ontology that can help to describe how a company makes money this dissertation deals with a new concept that yet has to be integrated into strategy research as proposed by Rentmeister and Klein (2003). 1.5 STRUCTURE OF THIS THESIS The dissertation is structured in nine parts: Chapter 1 presents the motivations of this research, the research methodology with which the goals shall be achieved and why this dissertation present a contribution to research. Chapter 2 investigates the origins, the term and the concept of business models. It defines what is meant by business models in this dissertation and how they are situated in the context of the firm. In addition this chapter outlines the possible uses of the business model concept. Chapter 3 gives an overview of the research done in the field of business models and enterprise ontologies. Chapter 4 introduces the major contribution of this dissertation: the business model ontology. In this part of the thesis the elements, attributes and relationships of the ontology are explained and described in detail. Chapter 5 presents a case study of the Montreux Jazz Festival which's business model was captured by applying the structure and concepts of the ontology. In fact, it gives an impression of how a business model description based on the ontology looks like. Chapter 6 shows an instantiation of the ontology into a prototype tool: the Business Model Modelling Language BM2L. This is an XML-based description language that allows to capture and describe the business model of a firm and has a large potential for further applications. Chapter 7 is about the evaluation of the business model ontology. The evaluation builds on literature review, a set of interviews with practitioners and case studies. Chapter 8 gives an outlook on possible future research and applications of the business model ontology. The main areas of interest are alignment of business and information technology IT/information systems IS and business model comparison. Finally, chapter 9 presents some conclusions. 1.6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This is probably the nicest moment of my dissertation because I have the chance to thank all the people that have supported me and had to bear me during difficult moments. Though not essential to science this personal note is very important to me. I would like to name all, taking the risk of forgetting some and having to regroup others, but I am sure they will forgive me as they know that my heart is with them when my memory sometimes lets me down. 9
Introduction Of course my warmest thanks go to my mother, my father my sister, my grandmothers, Jean-Luc, Luca and Hanna for always believing in me even in difficult moments and for giving me days of rest in Winterthur, St.Gallen, Davos, Montreal and Sarajevo. I am deeply indebted to my dissertation supervisor Prof Yves Pigneur without whom I would not have been able to write nor finish this dissertation. He has always, and I mean this literally, been available to look at my work when I was stuck and helped me to restructure my thoughts. For the time being it is a myth to me how somebody can grasp intellectual problems so quickly and give back a constructive input immediately. I express my gratitude to my dissertation jury composed of Profs Erkko Autio, Stefan Klein and Christopher L. Tucci for the discussions and inputs. Furthermore, I'm indebted to the "business model research community" for discussions, inputs, workshops and conferences, particularly to Profs Jaap Gordijn, Harry Bouwman, Otto Petrovic and Christian Kittl, Patrick Stähler and Adamantia Pateli. I also want to thank all my friends and colleagues at the institute for the moments we have spent together: Ivan for the Saturdays spent working, Mathias for the discussions on French thinker Bourdieu (and the pleasure and "burden" of having kids) and both for some memorable after-hour parties, my office colleagues, Sarra, Giovanni and Sandrine for listening to my "existential" problems, then there are all those that made the moments at the cafeteria more pleasant, notably Olivier, Yelena, Dominique, Bertrand, Antoine, Jan and Ian. I'm also grateful for the encouragements by Ethel Bonvin, Prof Christine Parent, the great discussions with Profs Thibault Estier and Benoît Garbinato, the enthusiasm of Prof André-René Probst, the other Profs with whom I had a warm relationship, not forgetting the team of the Infocentre helping me out during those regular computer crashes. Of course I am also thankful for those outside of the academic microcosm that have stimulated intellectual thought and given me power to go on: Notably all the members of the Open World Initiative OWI for those amazing debates on global governance, development and trade, particularly Prof Jean-Pierre Lehmann and the OWI members at the University of Lausanne and EPFL, namely Valérie (and all those "net sends"), Gerry, Minyue, Roch, Marc and Jacques. I certainly do not want to forget my friends in Lausanne and all over the world that made me cheer up when I had weaker moments: Thank you Bijou (for all the time we spent together), Maurice, Peter, Catherine, Aïcha, Ricci, Carla, Eva, Sandra (long live FUCP), Stéphane, Thierry & Nathalie, Alain & Corinne, Yves, Philippe, Urs, Andrew, Ricci, Anouk, Angèle Flora, Florian, Christian, Olivier, Nicolas, Ben, Greg, Cyprien, Edouard, Gladys, Aleks, Véronique and Vanessa. Also, a special thanks to Stefan who's exploits in professional sports (hope to see you there in Athens!) have been a particular motivation to me. Finally and most importantly, thank you Marliatu and Latif for stepping into my life. 10
The Business Model Ontology - a proposition in a design science approach 2 ORIGIN, DEFINITION, PLACE AND ROLE OF BUSINESS MODELS IN THE FIRM We live in a competitive, rapidly changing and increasingly uncertain economic environment that makes business decisions complex and difficult. Companies are confronted with new information and communication technologies, shorter product life cycles, global markets and tougher competition. In this hostile business environment firms should be able to manage multiple distribution channels, complicated supply chains, expensive IT implementations, strategic partnerships and still stay flexible enough to react to market changes. Astonishingly, the concepts and software tools that help managers facilitate strategic business decisions in this difficult environment are still scarce. Where are the tools that help managers easily explain what their business is and how exactly they should execute it, except maybe for simple text editors or simple charting tools? Where are the really useful tools that allow them to assess, understand, measure, change, communicate or even simulate their business models? Of course every manager and entrepreneur does have an intuitive understanding of how his business works and how value is created. In other words he does have an intuitive understanding of the company's business model, but even though this business model influences all important decisions, in many cases she or he is rarely able to communicate it in a clear and simple way (Linder and Cantrell 2000). And how can one decide on a particular business issue or change it, if it is not clearly understood by the parties involved? Therefore it would be interesting to think of a set of tools that would allow business people to understand what their business model is and of what essential elements it is composed of, tools that would let them easily communicate this model to others and that would let them change and play around with it in order to learn about business opportunities. In the following three subsections I first try to show that the business model concept has become popular because of a business environment shaped by ICT and globalization and characterized by an increasing complexity and uncertainty that leaves managers with difficult decisions to make. Then I explain what business models actually are and how they can be situated in the company. Finally, in the last subsection I outline what they can be used for. 2.1 TECHNOLOGY, E-BUSINESS, COMPLEXITY AND UNCERTAINTY I argue that the business model concept has become popular because today's managers are spoilt for choice when it comes to defining their value proposition, configuring their value network, choosing their partners, looking for ways to reach the customer and many other similar decisions. This has not always been the case and is essentially the outcome of the interaction between increasingly rapid technological change and globalization (Archibugi and Iammarino 2002). However, new technologies, globalization and the abundant reservoir of choices to configure a business makes managing an ever harder task (Zahra and O'Neill 1998). Today's business landscape is characterized by the intense use of ICT (e.g. for e-business), fierce global competition, rapid change and results in increasing complexity, high risk and greater uncertainty than ever before. Responding to these challenges described below I will later address how the business model concept can improve manageability of some of these issues in the sections 2.3 and 2.4. 2.1.1 Technological Change, e-Business and New Business Models In the last decades science and technology have experienced an impressive advance. According to Hodgson (2003) this is inherent to capitalism. Competition pressures firms to pursue profits through two main means. Firstly, the conquest of new markets by geographical expansion and/or the introduction of new products, such as new technologies or skills. Secondly, by cutting costs through the adoption of new technologies and new skills (see Figure 5). Hodgson explains that "in this quest for innovation, the frontiers of science and technology are advanced, leading to new fields of knowledge and enquiry" (Hodgson 2003, p.471). Furthermore, he argues that because "services are generally more diverse than manufactured goods, diversity also increases with the increasing relative size of the service sector". And there is certainly no doubt that the contribution of the service sector to GDP and employment has become more and more important (OECD 2001). 11
Origin, Definition, Place and Role of Business Models in the Firm innovation • Rate of Technological • New Markets Innovation • New Products • Falling Cost of ICTs Weak Seller • • Global Markets Market Technological Performance • New Entrants Change Explosion of ICTs • Adoption & Change • Globalization of Innovations adoption Figure 5: Competition and Technological Change As a glance at the statistics shows, investment in ICT equipment and software has steadily grown over the last decades (OECD 2002). At the same time the cost of ICT hardware, software and services have fallen drastically, while their performance has exploded. Of course this has had an important impact on companies of every size, as they increasingly adopt and rely on ICT. Particularly the rise of the Internet in the 1990s and the adoption of e-business and e-commerce has drastically changed the way companies do business. As to definitions, e-commerce, or more properly electronic commerce, stands for the buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet, especially the World Wide Web. The more wider term e-business, or more properly electronic business, simply stands for the conduct of business on the Internet. In contrast to e-commerce this is not only buying and selling but also servicing customers and collaborating with business partners. E-business can be understood as a powerful extension of the more traditional EDI that predates today's Internet and stands for the exchange of business data using an understood data format. As regards the effects of new ICTs, e-commerce and e-business, their impact has been the multiplication of possible business configurations and thus choices to make for managers. In contrast to the traditional organization of an industry where business models looked alike, the range of possible new business models in the ICT era have grown strongly. I argue that this increase in variety of business models is closely related to the adoption of ICTs in business. ICT's impact has been fourfold. Firstly, affordable ICTs have reduced transaction and coordination costs as defined in transaction cost economics (Coase 1937; Williamson 1975). In other words, the costs of collaborating with partners (e.g. outsourcing) and integrating customers in the company's processes (e.g. customization, customer services) are not prohibitive anymore. This means that the traditionally isolated firm is shifting to new forms of network organizations. Based on a literature review Andriani (2001, p.261) explains that "this transition reflects the widely acknowledged phenomenon of disintegration of traditionally integrated structures of business into more complex networks of independent parts". The consequences for management are a much larger choice of possible business configurations. Secondly, ICT, e-commerce and e-business have made it possible to offer completely new products and services of which many have an important information component and which are frequently provided in collaboration by multiple companies (Evans and Wurster 1997). Thirdly, ICTs have made it possible to reach customers in new and innovative ways and through a multitude of channels. Also, the Internet has made it easier to conduct business on a global basis and theoretically reach and service customers at the remotest places of the planet. Finally, with the Internet and the Web a range of new pricing and revenue mechanisms have found the way into business practice (Verma and Varma 2003). The list of ICT's impacts on business could probably be extended, but the main thing to be retained from the above is that these evolutions bring an important increase in choices and decisions that managers face in terms of business models. This explains the growing research in business models in general and business models with a strong ICT component (e.g. e-business). 2.1.2 Industry Clockspeed Charles Fine (1998) has coined the term industry clockspeed. He shows that different industries and segments of them have their own pace of change in the life cycles of their products, production 12
The Business Model Ontology - a proposition in a design science approach processes, structural makeup and CEO tenure. These "clockspeeds" are essentially driven by technological change and competition. The consequence is that positions of competitive advantage last only for a certain time and leading companies sometimes lose this position because they do not or cannot adapt to change. Therefore, when change was slower, competitive advantage was longer- lasting. But in today's world of rapid change managers have to find new ways of keeping up with faster industry clockspeed. A research on the electronics industry has shown that clockspeed is a driver of organizational change (Mendelson and Pillai 1999). The authors of the research indicate how other industries are also experiencing increasing levels of business dynamics and they recommend learning from the electronics industry which leads the way. The question is of course what management tools to use in order to cope with this increasing clockspeed. Maybe the business model concept could help companies better adapt to change (see section 2.4.3). Though not focus of this dissertation, the question of rapid adaptation may be easier to answer on the basis of the contributions of this research. 2.1.3 Complexity Another characteristic of today's business landscape is its complexity. According to Hodgson (2003) capitalism naturally leads to more complexity driven by powerful economic forces. Under this he understands a growing diversity of interactions between human beings and between people and their technology (Hodgson 2003). He also mentions "new and varied organizational forms devised to increase productivity and to manage an exponentially expanding number of products and processes" as drivers of complexity (Hodgson 2003, p.471). Indeed, the decomposition of the integrated company and the formation of business networks as described above has contributed to complexity because it is a mechanism that generates diversity (Andriani 2001). The business model concept may be one of the tools that helps tackling at least some aspects of complexity by highlighting important issues and pointing out the relationships between them (see section 2.4.1 and 2.4.4). Like every conceptualization and model the business model concept aims at representing reality in a structured, simplified and understandable way. 2.1.4 Uncertainty It is widely accepted that one of the effects of the communication technology revolution of the 1990s, coupled with the forces of globalisation and liberalisation, has been the increase in environmental risk and uncertainty that organisations have to face (Andriani 2001). As Wytenburg states "the greater the degree of complexity in an environment, the more various, dynamic, and unpredictable are those situations" (2001, p.118). The problem with uncertainty is that it increases the environmental risk that a company faces because the future becomes unpredictable. Referring to this Courtney, Kirkland et al. (1997) speak of four levels of uncertainty that managers face (see Theory Box 1). At the first level there is a single view of the future, at the second level one of several futures will occur, at the third level there is a range of possible futures and at the fourth level true ambiguity rules in regard to future. Managing uncertainty is probably one of the most important challenges that managers face today. Providing a specification of the conceptualization of business models could eventually improve scenario approcaches and one day lead to simulation. This would help managers to be better prepared for the future (see section 2.4.4). A B C Level 1: clear enough future Level 2: alternative futures Level 3: range of futures Level 4: true ambiguity Single view of the future Limited set of possible Range of possible future Not even a range of future outcomes, one of outcomes possible future outcomes which will occur Theory Box 1: Four Levels of Uncertainty (Courtney, Kirkland et al. 1997) 13
Origin, Definition, Place and Role of Business Models in the Firm 2.2 WHAT ACTUALLY IS A BUSINESS MODEL In this section I outline my understanding of the expression and concept of business models. This understanding is based on a careful literature review (see section 3.1), but may not be shared in detail by all the authors in business model research. As the term business model intuitively suggests it has something to do with business and it has something to do with models. A quick lookup in the online version of the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge 2003) returns no result for the full combined term but the following definitions for the two separate terms: • business: the activity of buying and selling goods and services, or a particular company that does this, or work you do to earn money. • model: a representation of something, either as a physical object which is usually smaller than the real object, or as a simple description of the object which might be used in calculations. Related to the first definition it can be said that the term business in the expression business model relates to "the activity of buying and selling goods and services" and "earning money". Related to the second definition it can be said that the term model relates to "a representation of something as a simple description of the object which might be used in calculations". By combining the two we get a first simple understanding which is that a business model is a representation of how a company buys and sells goods and services and earns money. In general the purpose of creating a model is to help understand, describe, or predict how things work in the real world by exploring a simplified representation of a particular entity or phenomenon. Thus, in the case of a business model the model (i.e. representation) shall help understand, describe and predict the "activity of buying and selling goods and services" and "earning money" of a particular company. But as the notion buying and selling seems too narrow, I try to extend it. So differently put, the business model is an abstract representation of the business logic of a company. And under business logic I understand an abstract comprehension of the way a company makes money, in other words, what it offers, to whom it offers this and how it can accomplish this. At this point it must be mentioned that some confusions exist concerning business models. The conceptual business model approach outlined in this dissertation is very abstract and quite different from so-called "business modeling", which is process related and with which it is often confused. This confusion comes from research and industry where the term business model is sometimes used for business process models (Gordijn, Akkermans et al. 2000). However, in the domain of process models a multitude of tools and concepts already exist, such as UML activity diagrams or Petri nets. In contrast, little concepts and tools exist that help companies and their managers specify their more conceptual business model (i.e. their business logic) on a higher level of abstraction. It must also be mentioned that there is an ongoing discussion on the difference between strategy and business models (Stähler 2002; Seddon and Lewis 2003). Currently, there are different points of view that differ widely. In this dissertation I will not address this discussion and simply look at a business model as the translation of a company's strategy into a blueprint of the company's logic of earning money. Putting strategy, business models and process models together one can say that they address similar problems (e.g. the one of earning money in a sustainable way) on different business layers (see Figure 6). In general, such a multi-layer approach is quite common in IS. planning level strategic layer vision, goals & objectives architectural level business model layer money earning logic implementation level process layer organization & workflow Figure 6: Business layers 14
The Business Model Ontology - a proposition in a design science approach For example Chandler (Chandler 1962; 1990) already themasized strategy and structure which would be typically located in the strategic layer. The business model layer would then translate these issues into the elements and relationships of the money earning logic of a company's business model. Furthermore, there is a business model process going from design to implementation illustrated in Figure 7. The business model design translates a strategy into a business model blueprint. Then the business model has to be financed through internal or external funding (e.g. venture capital, cash flow, etc.). And finally it has to be implemented into an actual business enterprise. Design Finance Implement Business Model Business Model Business Model Management defines and Management works out a financial The business model is designs the right business structure for the business model implemented into business logic that responds to (e.g. internal funding, venture structure, business market circumstances capital, stock market funding) processes and infrastructure Figure 7: Business Model steps A last common but important confusion related to the concept of business models is that many people speak about business models when they really only mean parts of a business model (Linder and Cantrell 2000). An online auction, for example, is not a business model, but a pricing mechanism, and, as such, part of a business model (admittedly sometimes a dominant part of the business model). Similarly, an online community is not a business model in itself, but part of the customer relationship. Or take revenue sharing. This is not a business model in itself either, but a way of exploiting partnerships to address the customer and distribute the resulting revenues. In my opinion a business model has to be understood as a much more holistic concept that embraces all such elements as pricing mechanisms, customer relationships, partnering and revenue sharing. In a nutshell I describe a business model...: • as an abstract conceptual model that represents the business and money earning logic of a company. • as a business layer (acting as a sort of glue) between business strategy and processes. But, the business model...: • is not a guarantee for success as it has to be implemented and managed. • is something else than the company's business process model (Gordijn, Akkermans et al. 2000). After having defined what a business model is in this dissertation and what it isn't, it is of course of interest to define what belongs into a business model. This can be equated with the quest of defining a generic business model with all its elements and relationships. This will be subject of section 4 of this dissertation. Obviously, and as this domain of research is still quite young, there are differing opinions among business practitioners and academicians on what these elements and relationships are. For the moment, until providing more details in section 4, let me use the following working definition for business models: A business model is a conceptual tool that contains a set of elements and their relationships and allows expressing a company's logic of earning money. It is a description of the value a company offers to one or several segments of customers and the architecture of the firm and its network of partners for creating, marketing and delivering this value and relationship capital, in order to generate profitable and sustainable revenue streams. A last thing that must be considered when talking about business models is their type. Similar to Linder and Cantrell (2000) I distinguish between three different types. First, there is the abstract business model concept, which is a generic model of elements, components and relationships. Second 15
Origin, Definition, Place and Role of Business Models in the Firm there are the operating business models that are the implemented and existing business models of different companies. In other words, they represent an instance of the generic business model. Finally, there are the scenario business models that are only virtual, not existing as such in the real world. They can serve different ends like fostering innovation, simulating opportunities or acting as a guideline in change management. They represent a virtual instance of the generic business model. 2.3 THE BUSINESS MODEL'S PLACE IN THE COMPANY In order to get a better understanding of the business model and its role, it is important to explain how it is situated in the company. As mentioned in the previous section the business model is a conceptualization of the money earning logic of a firm. As such it can function as a conceptual link, forming a triangle between strategy, business organization and ICT (see Figure 8). Because there is often quite a substantial understanding gap between these three "worlds", the business model concept could serve as a federator or glue. As illustrated in Figure 8, business strategy, business organization and ICT look at the firm from different angles and on different business layers. These categories also often regroup different groups of employees with different preoccupations and worldviews. Business people position the company in the market define the direction and formulate objectives and goals, whereas business process and ICT designers have to understand and implement these visions into something more concrete. In order to guarantee a smooth implementation of business visions and alignment between the different groups, firms require a very clear communication of concepts and understandings between the implicated parties. This is where conceptually defined business models come into play. By using an ontological approach to business modeling, one can create a shared and common understanding of what a company does to earn money and facilitate communication between people and heterogeneous and widely spread application systems (Fensel 2001). The triangle and the business model are subject to continuous external forces (Figure 8). Among others these forces include competition, legal, social or technological change and changes in customer demand. It is the manager's role to design or adapt a company's business model by responding to these external forces. Competitive Forces Legal Customer Environment Demand Business Strategy Business Social Technological Environment Model Change Business ICT Organisation Figure 8: Environment, Business Models, Strategy, Process and Information Systems 2.3.1 Strategy and Business Models The first element in the triangle described above is business strategy. Mintzberg and Lampel (1999) describe strategy as an elephant of which we can only grab hold of some part or other. This is a nice metaphor for the fact that business strategy is an enormous domain in which little consensus exists and a variety of schools reign. Different views include that strategy is about providing a company vision, designing an organization that achieves a fit between internal strengths and weaknesses and external threats and opportunities (Learned, Christensen et al. 1965), positioning the company in the market (Porter 1985), defining a set of goals and objectives (Drucker 1954; Kaplan and Norton 1992), the 16
The Business Model Ontology - a proposition in a design science approach steps to achieve them and the way to measure them (Kaplan and Norton 1992). In this dissertation I argue that the business model and strategy talk about similar issues but on a different business layer. I understand the business model as the strategy's implementation into a conceptual blueprint of the company's money earning logic. In other words the vision of the company and its strategy are translated into value propositions, customer relations and value networks (see Figure 9). • Translate strategy into • Company Vision a business model • Design Fit with SWOT Business Business • Evaluate if the • Positioning Strategy business model still Model • Defining Goals fulfills strategy • Achieving Goals Figure 9: Business Strategy and Business Model 2.3.2 Business Organization and Business Models The second element of the triangle surrounding business models is the organizational side. Similarly to strategy and business model layer the business organization layer talks about similar issues (e.g. structure) but addresses them from a different angle. The business organization is about the "material" form the conceptual business model takes in the world, such as departments, units and workflows (see Figure 10). This is not to be confused with the business model, which illustrates a company's money earning logic as a set of concepts. Yet, the business organization and business model are closely interrelated (see Illustration Box 1). Compaq vs. Dell The then dominating computer manufacturer Compaq (now HP) came under pressure by Dell in the 90s, when this competitor was extremely successful with its direct-to-customer approach that heavily relies on the Internet. Compaq was forced to rethink its strategy because it was constantly losing ground in the PC market. As an apparently logic consequence Compaq introduced its own direct Internet distribution channel on the Internet into its business model. However, the company forgot to align this new business model with its business organization. The outcome was a hostile reaction from its resellers, who said that Compaq was competing with them. Illustration Box 1: Business Organization and Business Model at Compaq Changes in the business model bring up organizational questions, which is illustrated by the fact that companies didn't really know how to structurally cope with their new online outlets in the 90s. When a large number of companies started selling over the Internet they used different organizational approaches regarding their new online channels. Some created entirely new departments, others put their existing IT department in charge and yet others created completely new companies in which they had a majority stake. • Implement the • Structure business model into an • Departments appropriate business Business • Units Business structure and processes Organization Model • • Processes Evaluate if business • Workflow structure and processes and business model are aligned Figure 10: Business Organization and Business Model 17
Origin, Definition, Place and Role of Business Models in the Firm Furthermore, a good understanding of the infrastructure side of a business model leads to an optimized business organization. By precisely defining infrastructural aspects of a business models, such as the supply chain and the various partnerships and links a company maintains it becomes much easier to address questions related to processes or, for example, business process outsourcing (BPO). 2.3.3 ICT and Business Models The last element in the triangle is technology, or more precisely ICT. Under ICT I understand all the information and communication technology used in the company. This includes hardware, such as PCs, servers, PDAs and mobile phone as well as software and tools, such as Websites, customer relationship management applications, management information systems and so on. The link between ICT and business models is particularly strong, since ICT has been a strong enabler for a variety of innovative business models (cf. section 2.1). Relying on ICT: Amazon.com and eBay The most extreme examples of the relationship between ICT and business model are web- based companies like Amazon.com or eBay. They have business models that rely to a great deal on ICT and specifically the Internet. Besides the most evident dependencies on websites and servers they also improve their business model through a number of customer related applications, like personalized recommendations or rankings. Illustration Box 2: Relying on ICT Sometimes the link between ICT and business model is evident as in the case of online companies such as Amazon.com or eBay (see Illustration Box 2). However, the link between technology and business model does not have to be so obvious. When communication and coordination costs dramatically decreased because of shrinking ICT costs, this had an enormous indirect impact on business models. It became much easier for companies to work in networks and offer joint or complementary value propositions. Also, companies increasingly included informational aspects or even ICT enriched components into their products and services. In general, technology people should ask themselves how ICT can contribute to improving a company's business model. And the other way around, business people should ask themselves what technological consequences a change in the business model could have (see Figure 11). • How can the business model be improved • Hardware through ICT? Business • Software ICT Model • What kind of ICT does • Systems a business ask for in order to be implemented? Figure 11: ICT and Business Model 2.3.4 Environment and Business Model Besides relating to the elements in the triangle a company's business model is continuously subject to external pressures that oblige a company to constantly adapt their business model to a changing environment. In this section I list some of these pressures that directly or indirectly influence a business model. Namely, these are technological change, competitive forces, change in customer demand and change in the social or legal environment. Technological change. As shown in section 2.1 on technology and change, technology (e.g. ICT) and its application in business is rapidly changing. And since technology is increasingly applied to every aspect of business, technological change pressures managers to reflect on how technology can be adopted to improve the business logic of the firm. With the rise of the Internet companies started 18
The Business Model Ontology - a proposition in a design science approach adopting new web-based channels. Some even tried to figure out how their products could be entirely digitized or at least "digitally enhanced". Also, falling communication and coordination costs due to cheaper technology have forced companies to become more efficient. They started to outsource all non-essential business and progressively rely on partnerships. I think it is no understatement to say that technological change is a major force of business model change. In some cases technological change may even challenge the mere existence of a particular business model. Competitive forces. A second-major pressure on a company's business model comes from its competitors. I have already discussed the example of Compaq and Dell that competed for customers with two different business models in the PC-industry. For traditional industry players adapting to changes in the competitive environment is especially crucial when new dynamic competitors rapidly dispute their market position as an incumbent (cf. Christensen 1997; Christensen 2003). Customer demand. Pressure to adapt a company's business model may also come from the customer demand side. Changes in consumption patterns, revenue increases and "fashion changes" are just some of the possibilities I want to mention. The shift from fixed-line to mobile telephony is a nice example of change in customer demand. Social environment. Sometimes the social environment and social mood can influence the business model of a firm. This kind of pressure is particularly studied in stakeholder theory (Friedman and Miles 2002). For instance, if a company's business model is centered around low cost production in developing countries it might draw the attention of militant non-governmental organizations that could mobilize public opinion against the firm. This happened to Nike regarding the ethics of its operations in Vietnam (Kahle, Boush et al. 2000). Besides ethics, changes in the social environment will also have an indirect influence on customer demand. This is the case for technology adoption, where the use and social acceptance of a specific technology by a broad majority opens up completely new markets and customer demands (Moore 1999). Legal environment. Often changes in the legal environment also make it necessary to adapt business models. The introduction of new privacy laws can make the use of some business models illegal, if a company has extensively relied on customer information without the customer's explicit accordance. Anti-spamming laws may (hopefully) wipe-out business models based on sending out large trunks of unsolicited mails. Regulating advertisement over mobile phones may limit the range of possible business models in m-commerce. New taxes may make a company's value proposition too costly and thus uninteresting for the customer. In general it can be said that the legal environment has a large influence on business models. 2.4 USE OF BUSINESS MODELS Business model research is a rather young research domain and still has to prove its relevance. But as addressed above, yet relatively little concepts and tools exist to help managers capture, understand, communicate, design, analyze and change the business logic of their firm. In my opinion and the opinion of many other researchers in this domain the business model concept can fill some of this gap and can eventually gain an important position in managing under uncertainty. In the following sections I will outline some of the roles the business model concept (i.e. the use of a specification of a conceptualization of business models) can play in business management, and, particularly in regard to e-business issues. I have identified five categories of functions, which are understanding & sharing, analyzing, managing, prospects and patenting of business models. Furthermore, an ontological approach to business models is indispensable for building software based tools that help fulfill these five functions. I describe these categories to give an outlook on what could be done with the help of the business model concept, particularly on the base of the business model ontology. The scope of this dissertation, however, is the design of a business model ontology. The possible roles of the business model concept will not be further specified beyond this outlook except for the propositions on further research in section 8. 19
Origin, Definition, Place and Role of Business Models in the Firm 2.4.1 Understand and Share The first area in which business models can contribute is in understanding and sharing the business logic of a firm. Concretely, business models help to capture, visualize, understand, communicate and share the business logic. Capture. As explained earlier, the business model of a company is a simplified representation of its business logic. However, as such business models exist only as abstract concepts or mental models in the head of people reasoning on them. Yet, experience shows that in many cases these people are not always capable of communicating this business model in a clear way (Linder and Cantrell 2000). Furthermore, because people have different mental models they will not automatically understand the same thing under a business model. Thus, a generic framework (i.e. an ontology) for describing business models becomes necessary. Such a framework can be understood as a common language between stakeholders to get the ideas out of their heads in order to formulate them in a way that everybody understands. Visualize. Human's ability to successfully process complex information is quite limited. As can be shown theoretically and empirically, processing information through the visual system can substantially increase the degree to which complexity can be handled successfully (Rode 2000). Using an ontology to capture business models, means that with little additional effort they can be presented graphically (Gordijn and Akkermans 2003). Understand. Nowadays business models are increasingly complex, particularly those with a strong ICT and e-business component. The relationship between the different elements of a business model and the decisive success factors are not always immediately observable. Therefore the process of modeling social systems and in this case business models help identifying and understanding the relevant elements in a specific domain and the relationships between them (Morecroft 1994; Ushold and King 1995). In addition, the visual representation of a business model can dramatically enhance understanding. Communicate and share. I have already made a point that the business model concept helps capturing, understanding and visualizing the business logic of company. Being able to communicate and share this understanding with other stakeholders is simply a logical consequence of the foregoing. Formalizing business models and expressing them in a more tangible way clearly help managers to communicate and share their understanding of a business among other stakeholders (Fensel 2001). 2.4.2 Analyze The second area in which the business model concept can contribute is in analyzing the business logic of a company. Concretely, they can improve measuring, observing and comparing the business logic of a company. Measure. Having captured the business model in a first step it may become easier to identify the relevant measures to follow in order to improve management. Similar to the Balanced Scorecard Approach (Kaplan and Norton 1992) a business model shows which areas to monitor in a particular business. This is all the more relevant since in e-business the indicators to follow are still an issue of debate. Observe. The business logic of a company constantly changes due to inside and outside pressures, as shown in section 2.3.4. Therefore a structured approach to business models is important in order to understand which particular issues have changed over time. Compare. Similar to observing a company's business model over time, a structured approach allows companies to compare their business model to the ones of their competitors. This is based on the reasoning that things are only comparable if they are seized and understood in the same way. Also, comparing one's business model to the one of a company in a completely different industry may help gaining new insights and foster business model innovation. Related to e-business and to dynamic industries this can help incumbents understand how aggressive new competitors and startups work. 20
The Business Model Ontology - a proposition in a design science approach 2.4.3 Manage The third area of contribution of business models is in improving the management of the business logic of the firm. The business model concept helps ameliorating the design, planning, changing and implementation of business models. Additionally, with a business model approach companies can react faster to changes in the business environment. Finally, the business model concept improves the alignment of strategy, business organization and technology. Design. Designing a coherent business model where all the elements are mutually reinforcing or at least optimized is not an easy task. Nowadays business models are quite complex and their success is often based on the interaction of a number of apparently minor elements. This is even more the case since e-business increases the range of imaginable business models. Having a business model ontology at hand that describes the essential building blocks and their relationships will make it easier for managers to design a sustainable business model. Plan, Change & Implement. When a company decides to adopt a new business model or to change an existing one, capturing and visualizing this model will improve planning, change and implementation (see Figure 12). It is much easier to go from one point to an other, when one can exactly understand, say and show what elements will change. In this regard, Linder and Cantrell (Linder and Cantrell 2000) speak of so-called change models that are the core logic for how a firm will change over time to remain profitable in a dynamic environment. Business plan, change, New Business Model implement Model Time t0 tfuture The management analyzes the current business The new business model becomes a model's adequacy to environmental pressures and goal to achieve and guides planning, designs a new business model if necessary change and implementation Figure 12: Planning, Changing and Implementing Business Models React. Once a business model has been captured, mapped and understood by managers the foundations for improving speed and appropriateness of reaction to external pressures have been created. According to Petrovic and Kittl (2001), business model designers can easily modify certain elements of an existing business model. This is without doubt essential in an uncertain and rapidly changing competitive landscape. Align. I have already argued earlier that the business model concept can serve as a federator between the triangle of business strategy, business organization and technology. In other words, the business model forms a sort of conceptual bridge that makes it easier to align these three. Chesbrough and Rosenbloom (2000), for example, see business models as a mediating construct between technology and economic value. Improve decision-making. Having claimed that the business model concept enhances understanding and communicating the business logic of the firm I deduce that decision makers make more informed, and hence, better decisions. Asides from this, business models are a new unit of analysis (Stähler 2002) that can be observed and compared, help defining measures and should therefore also improve decisions. 2.4.4 Prospect A fourth area of contribution of business models refers to the possible futures of a company. I believe that the business model concept can help foster innovation and increase readiness for the future through business model portfolios and simulation. 21
Origin, Definition, Place and Role of Business Models in the Firm Innovate. Similar to the argument of improving change and increasing reaction capacities in the firm, I believe that a conceptual and modular business model approach can foster innovation. In fact, specifying a set of business model elements and building blocks, as well as their relationships to each other, is like giving a business model designer a box of Lego stones. He can play around with these stones and create completely new business models, limited only be his imagination and the pieces supplied. Amit and Zott (2001) explicitly perceive the business model as a locus of innovation. Business model portfolio. Based on Allen's law of excess of diversity in evolutionary theory (Allen 2001) one may argue that it could be interesting for a company to maintain a portfolio of business models in order to be ready for the future. The idea behind Allen's law is that a sustainable and successful evolutionary strategy requires an amount of internal diversity superior to that of the environment. Allen suggests that agents need to have a stock of potential strategies to be set off in the face of unpredictability in environmental change (Andriani 2001). In the case of a company this would mean having a stock of business models in order to cope with change. Simulate and test. Simulating and testing business models is obviously the dream of every manager. Though simulation will never be able to predict the future, it is a way of doing risk free experiments, without endangering an organization (Sterman 2000). By simulating and testing possible business models, managers will be better prepared for the future. Similarly, in the domain of e-business Richards and Morrison (2001) compare this kind of simulation tool to a sort of flight simulator that allows building better e-business strategies. 2.4.5 Patenting Increasingly entrepreneurs and companies in e-business seek to patent e-business processes and even entire aspects of their business model. Therefore business modeling may potentially have an important role to play in this legal domain. For example, Priceline based much of its business strategy on a patent whose technology matches bids from buyers with interested sellers on the Net (Angwin 2000). Consequently, patenting of e-business methods has also started to create a number of legal battles. A famous one is the case between the online retailer Amazon.com and the online arm of the bookseller Barnes & Noble (B&N). Amazon.com, who received a patent for its "one-click" ordering system attacked B&N for patent infringement, supposedly caused by its "express lane" checkout system on the B&N website (Lesavich 2001). It remains to be seen in what direction patenting business models and business processes moves. 2.5 BUSINESS MODEL ONTOLOGY AND BUSINESS MODEL TOOLS A last but fundamental area of contribution of business models is in building the foundation for a set of new computer-assisted management tools. Management literature is famous for producing concepts and models. Yet, little of these concepts have been translated into software-based tools, although, in my opinion this could bring enormous value to management. For instance, some of the business model functions mentioned above principally make sense in a digitized version. Visualizing, designing and comparing business models can be done quickly, once software-based tools have been developed. More complex tasks, such as simulation are simply impossible without the help of computers. But in order to be able to use computer assistance as outlined above, an ontology of the business model domain has to be provided. And this is exactly one of the aims of this dissertation (see section 1.2). Once the elements and relationships of the business model concept have been defined one can start building a set of software-based tools to simplify the life of managers. 22


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The Complementary Relationship between Man and WomanIn an unprecedented interreligious conference in November 2014, Pope Francis and four hundred religious leaders and scholars from around the world met in Rome to explore what their diverse faiths teach about marriage and "the complementarity of man and woman."This book contains the most representative presentations at that closely followed event, Humanum: An International Interreligious Colloquium
$17.09Since Theodor Geisel published his first children's book in 1937 under the pseudonym Dr. Seuss, children and adults alike have been captivated by the charming and laconic tales of whimsical characters and imaginative worlds. But Dr. Seuss' stories are more than just catchy poems; they often wrestle with serious philosophical and moral dilemmas, whether it is Horton discovering the very essence of
Johann Sebastian Bach - Cello Suite No.1 in G Major - BWV 1007 - A Score for the CelloSuite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007 The Prelude, mainly consisting of arpeggiated chords, is probably the best known movement from the entire set of suites and is regularly heard on television and in films. Most students begin with this suite as it is assumed to be easier to play than the others in terms of the technique required.
Concrete Structures for Wind TurbinesThe wind energy industry in Germany has an excellent global standing when it comes to the development and construction of wind turbines. Germany currently represents the world's largest market for wind energy. The ongoing development of ever more powerful wind turbines plus additional requirements for the design and construction of their offshore foundation structures exceeds the actual
$0.99A sketch of St. Francis of Assisi in modern English may be written in one of three ways. Between these the writer must make his selection; and the third way, which is adopted here, is in some respects the most difficult of all. At least, it would be the most difficult if the other two were not impossible. First, he may deal with this great and most amazing man as a figure in secular history and a
$1.99Born in London, Chesterton was educated at St. Paul's, but never went to college. He went to art school. In 1900, he was asked to contribute a few magazine articles on art criticism, and went on to become one of the most prolific writers of all time. He wrote a hundred books, contributions to 200 more, hundreds of poems, including the epic Ballad of the White Horse, five plays, five novels, and
$0.99This book comes complete with a Touch-or-Click Table of Contents, divided by each section. Gilbert Keith Chesterton, was an English writer] He published works on philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction. Chesterton has been called the "prince of
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Pew Poll Highlights How Important Obamacare Is For Midterms
And the news continues to be bad for Democrats
(USA Today) The Affordable Care Act looms as a powerful issue in this year's congressional elections, a USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll finds, and one that is reverberating in ways likely to boost the GOP.
In the survey, taken after President Obama announced a surprising 7.1 million Americans had signed up for health care through the law's exchanges, more than eight in 10 registered voters say a candidate's stance on the law will be an important factor in determining their vote. A 54% majority call it very important.
By 2-1, those who rate the issue as very important disapprove of the law.
That means it is more likely to motivate opponents than supporters to vote – a critical element in midterm elections when turnout often is low.
The law is still negative, with 50% disapproving and 37% approving. Obviously, most Republicans disapprove and most Dems approve. The danger is that 54% of Independents disapprove, with only 34% approving.
So far, most Americans, 57%, say the law hasn't had much of an impact on them or their families. In coming years, they predict by 35%-29% that it will have a mostly negative effect on them. In a survey that has mostly bad news for proponents, that 6-percentage-point gap may provide a glimmer of good news: It has narrowed from 12 points in December.
They've spent billions and billions of dollars on this boondoggle, damaged the economy, caused people to be shifted to part time work hours, and limited hiring, among others, all for a net gain in private insurance of about 1.4 million (after 6 million or so lost their plans). And let's not forget the potential cancellations come fall 2014. Think about all the advertising for this, the free positive press, all the tweets and silly campaigns for ACA supports. Think about all that, and most think that the ACA will have either no effect or a negative effect. Even 58% of Democrats say that it has pretty much had little effect on their lives.
Asked about the effect on the country as a whole so far, 43% say it has been mostly negative, 30% mostly positive. That's a bigger shift, to a 13-point gap from a 26-point gap in December. That may reflect some reassessments as the heart of the law goes into effect.
47% of Independents lean negative. Just 26% say mostly positive. Those are numbers that do not bode well for Dems for the midterms.
Just 17% overall state that Ocare has had a mostly positive effect on the country. Democrats are destroying the health care system for 17% positive.Think about that.
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