Business Model Innovation – State of the Art and Future Challenges for the Field

Review

Name of the article:

“Business model innovation –state of the art and future challenges for the field”

Authors:

Prof. Dr. Patrick Spieth – he is professor at two institutuions, firstly at Kassel University, at the Faculty of Business and Management IBWL (Institute of Management and Business Studies), Technology, Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship (TIME) and secondly, he is visiting professor at EBS University.

Dr. Dirk Schneckenberg – he is Associate Professor at ESC Rennes School of Business, Strategy and marketing Department.

Prof. Dr. Joan E. Ricart – professor at IESE Business School University of Navarra, currently he is professor of economics and strategic management. Also, he is IESE’s head of Strategic Management Department.

The article was published on ResearchGate, section: R&D Management, June 2014

        In this article, the focus is on 3 detailed perspectives: “explaining the business”, “running the business” and “developing the business”. Business model innovation was discussed in many reviews of business literature, with many characteristics, , but in 2005, Morris defines them by dividing it in 3 parts – economic, strategig and operational. Also, Schneider and Spieth categorized in 2013 the literature of business model innovation as being categorized on 3 main topics: prerequisites of conducting business model innovation,  elements and process of   business   model   innovation,   and      effects achieved through business model innovation.

        The authors claim that, after going through many articles in the literature of business model innovation, they concluded that there is necessary to “focus on the roles and functions assigned to the concept”, in order to better understand and develop a business model.

        As I already mentioned at the begining, there are three ways that have to be applied in order to better understand the business and inovate it, explaining the business, developing the business and running the business.

        Explaining the business - This step appropaches the idea that the firm has to be known and understood by new people, to be explained in this way how it may generate future profits, why it will and eventually when. In this way, the target audience  is external stakeholders of the firm (media, customers and parteners, investors and even internal employees). The associated terms with this topic were identified as the following: “Abstraction”, “Description”, “Outline”, “Reflection”, “Represantion”, “Statement” and “Story”

        Running the business – Refers mainly at the operational roles of business models. In this way, the business model in understood to adress operational aspects to the employees, managers and external parteners, such as the linkages or structures. The associated terms found for running the business in the article were: “Activity system”, “Architecture”, “Framework/standard”, “Structural template/blueprint”, “Method”.

        Developing the business – That part represents the strategic function of the business model, which has to support the management in defining and developing the firm’s strategy. Associated terms: “Approach”, “Design/plan”, “Logic”, “Model/conceptual tool”, “Recipe”, “Set of choices and consequences”.