Showing papers on "Business model published in 2004"

Eight types of product–service system: eight ways to sustainability? Experiences from SusProNet

Abstract: Function-oriented business models or product–service systems (PSSs) are often seen as an excellent means for achieving ‘factor 4’. SusProNet, an EU network on PSSs, showed a more complicated reality. At least eight different types of PSS exist, with quite diverging economic and environmental characteristics. The economic potential of each type was evaluated in terms of (i) tangible and intangible value for the user, (ii) tangible costs and risk premium for the provider, (iii) capital/investment needs and (iv) issues such as the providers' position in the value chain and client relations. The environmental potential was evaluated by checking the relevance of certain impact reduction mechanisms (e.g. more intensive use of capital goods, inherent incentives for sustainable user and provider behaviour etc.). Most PSS types will result in marginal environmental improvements at best. The exception is the PSS type known as functional results, but here liability and risk premium issues, amongst others, need a solution. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

The Success of Open Source

Abstract: Preface 1. Property and the Problem of Software 2. The Early History of Open Source 3. What Is Open Source and How Does It Work? 4. A Maturing Model of Production 5. Explaining Open Source: Microfoundations 6. Explaining Open Source: Macro-Organization 7. Business Models and the Law 8. The Code That Changed the World? Notes Index

Towards a Theory of Open Innovation: Three Core Process Archetypes

Abstract: Open Innovation is a phenomenon that has become increasingly important for both practice and theory over the last few years. The reasons are to be found in shorter innovation cycles, industrial research and development's escalating costs as well as in the dearth of resources. Subsequently, the open source phenomenon has attracted innovation researchers and practitioners. The recent era of open innovation started when practitioners realised that companies that wished to commercialise both their own ideas as well as other firms' innovation should seek new ways to bring their in-house ideas to market. They need to deploy pathways outside their current businesses and should realise that the locus where knowledge is created does not necessarily always equal the locus of innovation - they need not both be found within the company. Experience has furthermore shown that neither the locus of innovation nor exploitation need lie within companies' own boundaries. However, emulation of the open innovation approach transforms a company's solid boundaries into a semi-permeable membrane that enables innovation to move more easily between the external environment and the company's internal innovation process. How far the open innovation approach is implemented in practice and whether there are identifiable patterns were the questions we investigated with our empirical study. Based on our empirical database of 124 companies, we identified three core open innovation processes: (1) The outside-in process: Enriching a company's own knowledge base through the integration of suppliers, customers, and external knowledge sourcing can increase a company's innovativeness. (2) The inside-out process: The external exploitation of ideas in different markets, selling IP and multiplying technology by channelling ideas to the external environment. (3) The coupled process: Linking outside-in and inside-out by working in alliances with complementary companies during which give and take are crucial for success. Consequent thinking along the whole value chain and new business models enable this core process.

The quest for resilience

Abstract: In less turbulent times, executives had the luxury of assuming that business models were more or less immortal. Companies always had to work to get better, but they seldom had to get different--not at their core, not in their essence. Today, getting different is the imperative. It's the challenge facing Coca-Cola as it struggles to raise its "share of throat" in noncarbonated beverages. It's the task that bedevils McDonald's as it tries to restart its growth in a burger-weary world. It's the hurdle for Sun Microsystems as it searches for ways to protect its high-margin server business from the Linux onslaught. Continued success no longer hinges on momentum. Rather, it rides on resilience-on the ability to dynamically reinvent business models and strategies as circumstances change. Strategic resilience is not about responding to a onetime crisis or rebounding from a setback. It's about continually anticipating and adjusting to deep, secular trends that can permanently impair the earning power of a core business. It's about having the capacity to change even before the case for change becomes obvious. To thrive in turbulent times, companies must become as efficient at renewal as they are at producing today's products and services. To achieve strategic resilience, companies will have to overcome the cognitive challenge of eliminating denial, nostalgia, and arrogance; the strategic challenge of learning how to create a wealth of small tactical experiments; the political challenge of reallocating financial and human resources to where they can earn the best returns; and the ideological challenge of learning that strategic renewal is as important as optimization.

Crafting and Executing Strategy : The Quest for Competitive Advantage - Concepts and Cases

Abstract: Part I: Concepts and Techniques for Crafting and Executing Strategy Section A: Introduction and Overview Chapter 1: What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? Chapter 2: Leading the Process of Crafting and Executing Strategy Section B: Core Concepts and Analytical Tools Chapter 3: Evaluating a Company's External Environment Chapter 4: Evaluating a Company's Resources and Competitive Position Section C: Crafting a Strategy Chapter 5: Five Generic Competitive Strategies--Which One to Employ? Chapter 6: Supplementing the Chosen Competitive Strategy: Other Important Strategy Choices Chapter 7: Strategies for Competing in Foreign Markets Chapter 8: Diversification: Strategies for Managing a Group of Businesses Chapter 9: Ethical Business Strategies, Social Responsibility, and Environmental Sustainability Section D: Executing the Strategy Chapter 10: Building an Organization Capable of Good Strategy Execution Chapter 11: Managing Internal Operations: Actions That Promote Good Strategy Execution Chapter 12: Corporate Culture and Leadership: Keys to Good Strategy Execution Part II: Cases Section A: Crafting Strategy in Single-Business Companies 1 Whole Foods Market in 2008--Vision, Core Values, and Strategy 2 Costco Wholesale Corp in 2008--Mission, Business Model, and Strategy 3 JetBlue Airways: A Cadre of New Managers Takes Control 4 Competition in the Golf Equipment Industry in 2008 5 Competition in the Movie Rental Industry in 2008: Netflix and Blockbuster Battle for Market Leadership 6 Dell, Inc in 2008--Can It Overtake Hewlett-Packard as the Worldwide Leader in Personal Computers? 7 Apple, Inc in 2008 8 Panera Bread Company 9 Rogers's Chocolates 10 Nucor Corporation--Competing Against Low Cost Foreign Imports 11 Competition in Video Game Consoles 12 Nintendo's Strategy for the Wii--Good Enough to Beat Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3? 13 Corona Beer 14 Google's Strategy in 2008 15 The Challenges Facing eBay in 2008--Time for Changes in Strategy? 16 Loblaw Companies Limited: Preparing for Wal-Mart Supercenters 17 Research in Motion: Managing Explosive Growth Section B: Crafting Strategy in Diversified Companies 18 Adidas in 2008: Has Corporate Restructuring Increased Shareholder Value? 19 PepsiCo's Diversification Strategy in 2008 Section C: Executing Strategy and Strategic Leadership 20 Robin Hood 21 Dilemma at Devil's Den 22 Wal-Mart Stores, Inc in 2008--Management's Initiatives to Transform the Company and Curtail Wal-Mart Bashing 23 Southwest Airlines in 2008: Culture, Values, and Operating Practices 24 Shangri-La Hotels Section D: Strategy, Ethics, and Social Responsibility 25 E & J Gallo 26 Detecting Unethical Practices at Supplier Factories: The Monitoring and Remediation Challenges

Managing Open Innovation

Abstract: OVERVIEW:Industrial innovation is becoming more open, requiring changes in how firms manage innovation. External sources of knowledge become more prominent, while external channels to market also offer greater promise. This complicates the evaluation of early-stage technology projects, which often involve significant technical and market uncertainty. In such circumstances, companies need to “play poker” as well as chess. Measurement errors (false positives, false negatives) are likely to arise from judgments about the commercial potential of early-stage projects. Most companies' policies consciously limit “false positives” in assessing a project's commercial potential, but few companies take steps to manage the risk of “false negatives.” New metrics may help a firm focus more upon external sources of innovation to enhance its business model, and enable the firm to salvage value from false negatives that otherwise would be lost.

The utility business model and the future of computing services

Abstract: The utility business model is shaped by a number of characteristics that are typical in public services: users consider the service a necessity, high reliability of service is critical, the ability to fully utilize capacity is limited, and services are scalable and benefit from economies of scale. This paper examines the utility business model and its future role in the provision of computing services.

Competing with dual business models: A contingency approach

Abstract: Executive Overview How can a company adopt two different business models in the same market? This question has become particularly pressing for an increasing number of established companies that have recently come under attack from “strategic innovators”—companies that attack the established players by using radically different business models. The success of these attackers in gaining market share has created a big dilemma for established companies. On the one hand, by embracing the new business models that the innovators have introduced in their markets, established companies can potentially take advantage of a great growth opportunity. On the other hand, because the new business models often conflict with the established ones, companies that try to compete by adopting both of them risk mismanaging both and destroying value. How, then, can established companies embrace the new business models without diluting and destroying their existing models? Our research explores this question and offers a continge...

A Practice Perspective on Technology-Mediated Network Relations: The Use of Internet-Based Self-Serve Technologies

Abstract: Embedded relationships with customers have been key in generating repeat business and economic advantage, especially in business-to-business settings. Such relationships are typically maintained through interpersonal interactions between customers and their providers. Lately, however, firms have been seeking to make their service operations more scalable by offering customers access to Internet-based, self-serve technology. This raises questions about the implications of inserting self-serve technology into embedded relationships. Recent research on the role of information technology (IT) within interfirm network relations suggests that relationships and the use of IT are complementary. However, most of this research focuses on the organizational level and fails to consider the instantiation of these interfirm relations by the actions and interactions of individual actors (e.g., customers and salespeople) representing their respective firms. In this paper, we explore the implications of using IT within interfirm relations through an analysis of customers' and sales representatives' (reps) work activities and interpersonal relationships. We apply a practice perspective that highlights how macrolevel phenomena such as interfirm relations are created and recreated through the microlevel actions taken by firm members. This analysis reveals that managing the complementarity between relationships and IT in practice is fraught with considerable tension. This study of WebGA, a bricks-and-clicks dotcom, highlights how the use of the self-serve technology made it more difficult for sales reps to build and maintain embedded relationships with their customers. The use of IT altered the nature and quality of information shared by the participants, undermined the ability of sales reps to provide consulting services to customers, reduced the frequency of their interaction, and prompted sales reps to expend social capital to promote customers' technology adoption. These changes produced intended and unintended shifts in the network relations enacted by WebGA and its customers, and raised serious challenges to the viability of WebGA's business model.

A research framework for analysing eBusiness models

Abstract: As eBusiness is moving towards maturity, research interests shift to the investigation of opportunities for market exploitation of eBusiness technologies. As a result, the debate around business models naturally becomes more topical. However, while many researchers and practitioners are contemplating business models, there is an alarming lack of theoretical tools in the literature to structure and codify knowledge in the area. This paper draws on an extensive review of the literature to propose an analytic framework that decomposes the area of business models into eight research sub-domains. The proposed framework is then applied to organize and critically review existing research under each sub-domain as well as to define an agenda of future challenges on business model research. The framework can benefit future research by allowing researchers to better concentrate their efforts and place their contributions in an overall context, thus assisting in building a coherent body of knowledge in the challenging research domain of business models.

Adaptive Entry Strategies Under Dominant Standards - Hybrid Business Models in the Open Source Software Industry

Abstract: During the '60s and the '70s, basically all software was Open Source and everyone was allowed to copy, modify and redistribute computer programs. When software ceased to be hardware-specific and the diffusion of computers took off, firms started to produce software independently from hardware and to protect their code through intellectual property rights. At present, a turnaround is taking place: the Open Source production mode is spreading across the software industry and, in some cases, it performs even better than the traditional proprietary one. Although a growing body of literature is analyzing Open Source software (OSS) issues, there is still lack of empirical data on the phenomenon, and little is known about firms that enter the software industry by producing under the Open Source license scheme (Open Source firms). This paper is a contribution to fill this gap and focuses on the business models of these firms. We find significant heterogeneity among them, in particular many agents supply both proprietary and Open Source software. We present a model of adoption that studies the intra-firm diffusion of the new paradigm. Explanatory hypotheses are discussed analyzing how the characteristics of the Open Source production mode and of network externalities in software demand shape the strategies of firms that entered the OSS field.

Entrepreneurship: Successfully Launching New Ventures

Abstract: Part 1 Decision to Become an Entrepreneur Chapter 1 Introduction to Entrepreneurship Part 2 Developing Successful Business Ideas Chapter 2 Recognizing Opportunities and Generating Ideas Chapter 3 Feasibility Analysis Chapter 4 Writing a Business Plan Chapter 5 Industry and Competitor Analysis Chapter 6 Developing an Effective Business Model Part 3 Moving From an Idea to An Entrepreneurial Firm Chapter 7 Preparing the Proper Ethical and Legal Foundation Chapter 8 Assessing a New Venture's Financial Strength and Viability Chapter 9 Building a New Venture Team Chapter 10 Getting Financing or Funding Part 4 Managing and Growing an Entrepreneurial Firm Chapter 11 Unique Marketing Issues Chapter 12 The Importance of Intellectual Property Chapter 13 Preparing for and Evaluating the Challenges of Growth Chapter 14 Strategies for Firm Growth Chapter 15 Franchising

e-Business and Supply Chain Integration

Abstract: e-Business has emerged as a key enabler to drive supply chain integration. Businesses can use the Internet to gain global visibility across their extended network of trading partners and help them respond quickly to changing customer demand captured over the Internet. The impact of e-business on supply chain integration can be described along the dimensions of information integration, synchronized planning, coordinated workflow, and new business models. As a result, many of the core supply chain principles and concepts can now be put into practice much more effectively using e-business. Significant value can be created by e-business enabled supply chain integration.

Why Knowledge Management Systems Fail: Enablers and Constraints of Knowledge Management in Human Enterprises

Abstract: Drawing upon lessons learned from the biggest failure of knowledge management in recent world history and the debacle of the ‘new economy’ enterprises, this chapter explains why knowledge management systems (KMS) fail and how risk of such failures may be minimized. The key thesis is that enablers of KMS designed for the ‘knowledge factory’ engineering paradigm often unravel and become constraints in adapting and evolving such systems for business environments characterized by high uncertainty. Design of KMS should ensure that adaptation and innovation of business performance outcomes occurs in alignment with changing dynamics of the business environment. Simultaneously, conceiving multiple future trajectories of the information technology and human inputs embedded in the KMS can diminish the risk of rapid obsolescence of such systems. Envisioning business models not only in terms of knowledge harvesting processes for seeking optimization and efficiencies, but in combination with ongoing knowledge creation processes would ensure that organizations not only succeed in doing the thing right in the short term but also in doing the right thing in the long term? Integrating both these aspects in enterprise business models as simultaneous and parallel sets of knowledge processes instead of treating them in isolation would facilitate ongoing innovation of business value propositions and customer value propositions.

The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age

Abstract: Five years ago in ""The Vanishing Newspaper"", Philip Meyer offered the newspaper industry a business model for preserving and stabilizing the social responsibility functions of the press in a way that could outlast technology-driven changes in media forms. Now he has updated this groundbreaking volume, taking current declines in circulation and the number of dailies into consideration and offering a greater variety of ways to save journalism. Meyer's 'influence model' is based on the premise that a newspaper's main product is not news or information, but influence: societal influence, which is not for sale, and commercial influence, which is. The model is supported by an abundance of empirical evidence, including statistical assessments of the quality and influence of the journalist's product, as well as its effects on business success. Meyer now applies this empirical evidence to recent developments, such as the impact of Craigslist and current trends in information technologies. New charts show how a surge in newsroom employment propped up readership in the 1980s, and data on the effects of newsroom desegregation are now included. Meyer's most controversial suggestion, making certification available for reporters and editors, has been gaining ground. This new edition discusses several examples of certificate programs that are emerging in organizations both old and new. Understanding the relationship between quality and profit probably will not save traditional newspapers, but Meyer argues that such knowledge can guide new media enterprises. He believes that we have the tools to sustain high-quality journalism and preserve its unique social functions, though in a transformed way.

New frontiers in international strategy

Abstract: This paper studies a new frontier in the understanding of International Strategy (IS). To explore it, we propose the analogy of the ecology of firms and places as a way to emphasize that the real problem is the colocation of different places with different types of firms. Locations are in fact the distinctive content of International Business Strategy. We deal with this problem with four different perspectives. First, differences across countries must be addressed with integrative frameworks able to represent the multidimensionality of ‘semiglobalization’, or intermediate states between total localization and total integration. Second, differences in the development of intermediary markets in a particular place influence firm positioning and industry structure in that place, but their impact also crosses different places, and it is endogenous to the ecology of places and firms in a systemic, integrative way that makes simplifications extremely risky in the design of competitive strategy in an international context. Third, places, firms, and strategies form a complex ecology that can be studied with a framework focused in understanding the geography–strategy link that incorporates different levels of analysis, new economic actors, and a set of primitives. Finally, firms around the ecology of places face the challenge of developing strategies and business models to serve the majority of humanity today excluded from world trade. It is a fundamentally different way to think about the ecology of places and firms. Overall, we present an intriguing New Frontier, with the capacity to impact both research and practice in the field of international strategy, based in understanding the interplay among firms and places.

Aspect-oriented web service composition with AO4BPEL

Abstract: Web services have become a universal technology for integration of distributed and heterogeneous applications over the Internet. Many recent proposals such as the Business Process Modeling Language (BPML) and the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS) focus on combining existing web services into more sophisticated web services. However, these standards exhibit some limitations regarding modularity and flexibility. In this paper, we advocate an aspect-oriented approach to web service composition and present AO4BPEL, an aspect-oriented extension to BPEL4WS. With aspects, we capture web service composition in a modular way and the composition becomes more open for dynamic change.

Do academic spin-outs differ and does it matter?

Abstract: This paper questions the widespread tendency to view academic spin-outs as an undifferentiated category and explores typologies of companies originating in universities, using a Penrosean conceptualization of entrepreneurial activity. We initially identified five main types of business activities pursued by academic entrepreneurs, which we revised after analyzing a database of Cambridge University spin-outs and real-time exemplars of emerging ventures. The refined typology takes into account the dynamic of the entrepreneurial process. As the business models of ventures evolve they may enter a different category of business activity. We conclude by discussing the academic and practical needs for a better understanding of the heterogeneity of spin-outs, the diversity of which has theoretical and policy implications.

Corporate Social Opportunity!: Seven Steps to Make Corporate Social Responsibility Work for your Business

Abstract: Don't be misled by the word social in the title. This is a book about how to improve corporate performance and gain competitive advantage. In Corporate Social Opportunity! Grayson and Hodges challenge perceived wisdom that adherence by business to corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a zero-sum game where the impact on companies is added costs and extra regulatory burden. From their unique vantage point working with leaders of global businesses and of local communities, the authors explain how powerful drivers forcing companies to adopt stringent social, ethical and environmental standards simultaneously create largely untapped opportunities for product innovation, market development and non-traditional business models. The key to exploiting these opportunities lies in building CSR into business strategy, not adding it on to business operations. With examples from 200 companies to illustrate their case, they outline both in theory and practice a seven-step process managers can apply to assess the implications of CSR on their business strategy and identify their own corporate social opportunities. Business is operating in a whirlwind of interacting global forces: revolutionary developments in communications and technology, significant changes in markets, shifts in demographics, and a transformation of personal values. The fallout from these forces is the underlying reason that corporate social responsibility has come of age. These global forces have led to a number of issues-such as ecology and environment, human rights and diversity, health and well-being, and communities-becoming potential liabilities for companies. Once regarded as 'soft' management issues, they are now increasingly recognised as hard to predict and hard for the business to deal with when they go wrong. Corporate Social Opportunity!, by the authors of the best-selling Everybody's Business moves the argument from the "why" of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the "how" and beyond – to a future where CSR is perceived as an opportunity for business both in terms of reaping the benefits of retaining brand or organisational value and by developing new products and services, serving new markets and adopting new business models. This is not always a story of black and white, of what is right or what is wrong. Often it embraces apparently conflicting demands which require the application of judgement, guided by a clear sense of overall direction and corporate purpose. This book is designed to act as a compass for aiding navigation through such dilemmas and complex decisions. Using examples of current good practice, detailed interviews with leading CEOs and newly created diagnostic planning tools, all framed within a seven-step model for making CSR happen, the book aims to provide a practical guide to help business leaders and their managers understand how to assess the impact of corporate social responsibility factors on their core business strategy and operations and help them identify and prioritise between subsequent options and resulting business opportunities. The book is structured into two parts. Both parts describe the same seven-step model which, if followed, will help managers think through desired changes to business strategies, and necessary corresponding changes to operational practices. In Part 1, the seven steps-triggers; scoping; making the business case; committing to action; resources and integrating operations; engaging stakeholders; and measuring and reporting-are described and illustrative evidence and corresponding data provided. In Part 2, the authors have created a worked example of the diagnostic processes that form the backbone of the seven steps, based on the health and well-being issue of fast food and the growing problem of obesity, particularly among children, along with notes on how a manager might work through the processes with colleagues. The authors are pro-business although not business-as-usual. The book is written first and foremost with the purpose of helping to improve business performance, because business is after all the principal motor for growth and development in the world today. The authors argue that companies adhering to best practice in CSR and taking advantage of possibilities inherent in Corporate Social Opportunity! are good for shareholders as well as customers and employees.

The wheel of business model reinvention: how to develop a new business model and organizational fitness to Leapfrog competitors

Abstract: In today's rapidly changing business landscape, new sources of sustainable competitive advantage can often only be attained from business model reinvention that is based on disruptive innovation and not on incremental change or continuous improvement. Extant literature indicates that business models and their reinvention have recently been the focus of scholarly investigations in the field of strategic management, especially focusing on the search for new bases of building strategic competitive advantage, not only to outperform competitors but to especially leapfrog them into new areas of competitive advantage. While the available results indicate that progress is made on clarifying the nature and key dimensions of business models, relatively little guidance of how to reshape business models and its organizational fitness dimensions have emerged. This article presents a systemic framework for business model reinvention, illustrates its key dimensions, and proposes a systemic operationalization process. Mo...

The Past, Present, and Probable Future for Community Banks

Abstract: The large majority of banks and savings institutions are small and community-based. But advances in information technology, new financial instruments, innovations in bank production processes, deregulation, and increased competition have created a less hospitable environment for community banks. The number of community banks is shrinking, along with their shares of loan and deposit markets. By some measures both the number and market share of community banks in the U.S. have approximately halved since 1980. Given these trends, it is natural to wonder if the community bank business model will continue to be viable in the future. The specter of a declining, or perhaps a disappearing, community banking sector has potentially serious implications for local communities, small businesses seeking credit, and by extension the U.S. economy. This paper presents a comprehensive view of the community banking sector in the U.S. in three parts. Each of these three sections includes numerous citations to the recent academic literature, and each is supported by a variety of data from the U.S. banking industry. First, we review the past three decades of change in the U.S. banking system, with a special focus on how deregulation, technological advance, and increased competitive rivalry have affected the size and health of the community banking sector. Second, we use a strategic map approach to develop a theory of how deregulation and technological change have affected the competitive viability of community banks. The theory suggests that this change (a) has exposed community banks to intensified competition that is likely to force many more of them out of the industry, but (b) has also left well-managed community banks with a potentially exploitable strategic position. We show that U.S. banking data over the past three decades supports these theoretical conclusions. Third, we consider the number of community banks that will remain viable in the future. Projecting the future number and size distribution of commercial banks after the U.S. banking industry has fully adjusted to deregulation is a treacherous exercise, and we do not pretend to be able to make accurate point estimates. Rather, we consider the recent financial performance of community banks relative to large banks, and, based on straightforward market principles, suggest which types of community banks, and how many of each type, are most at risk and least at risk going forward.

Prospects for productivity.

Abstract: Long-term declines in the productivity of pharmaceutical R&D threaten the sustainability of the current business model. A major driver of the decline has been the rising cost, and increased rate of failure, of projects across the industry, caused in part by the confluence of new approaches, novel technologies, higher go/no-go hurdles and organizational challenges. Here we examine several of the top culprits that are charged with driving this decline and the merits of the cases against them, and speculate on the emerging trends that will underpin the industry's future productivity.

Open Access to Scientific Publications – An Analysis of the Barriers to Change?

Abstract: One of the effects of the Internet is that the dissemination of scientific publications in a few years has migrated to electronic formats. The basic business practices between libraries and publishers for selling and buying the content, however, have not changed much. In protest against the high subscription prices of mainstream publishers, scientists have started Open Access (OA) journals and e-print repositories, which distribute scientific information freely. Despite widespread agreement among academics that OA would be the optimal distribution mode for publicly financed research results, such channels still constitute only a marginal phenomenon in the global scholarly communication system. This paper discusses, in view of the experiences of the last ten years, the many barriers hindering a rapid proliferation of Open Access. The discussion is structured according to the main OA channels; peer-reviewed journals for primary publishing, subjectspecific and institutional repositories for secondary parallel publishing. It also discusses the types of barriers, which can be classified as consisting of the legal framework, the information technology infrastructure, business models, indexing services and standards, the academic reward system, marketing, and critical mass.

The case for viewing business models as abstractions of strategy

Abstract: This paper examines in detail the meaning of two frequently used terms, namely, “business model” and “strategy”. It is argued that as used by leading thinkers these two terms might reasonably be interpreted as being roughly equivalent in meaning. However, we argue that the term “business model” can serve another distinct and potentially useful role. In this role, a business model is viewed as an abstraction of a firm’s Porter-1996 strategy. It outlines the essential details of a firm’s value proposition for its various stakeholders and the activity system the firm uses to create and deliver value to its customers. However, unlike strategy, business models do not consider a firm’s competitive positioning; they potentially apply to many firms. Such abstractions, it is argued, attracted the attention of many researchers because they are useful for evaluating alternative possible future ways of building profitable businesses.

Collaborative Networked Organizations: A Research Agenda for Emerging Business Models

Abstract: Foreword. Preface. 1: Introduction. 1.1. Towards Next Business Models. 1.2. Some Basic Concepts. 2: New Collaborative Forms. 2.1. Overview. 2.2. VO In Industry: State Of The Art S. Alexakis, B. Kolmel, T. Heep. 2.3. Virtual Organising Scenarios B.R. Katzy, H. Loeh, Chunyan Zhang. 2.4. Emerging collaborative forms L.M. Camarinha-Matos, E. Banahan, J. Pinho de Sousa, F. Sturm, H. Afsarmanesh, J. Barata, J. Playfoot, V. Tschammer. 3: Global and Regional Research Agendas. 3.1. Overview. 3.2. Targeting major new trends L.M. Camarinha-Matos, H. Afsarmanesh, A. Abreu. 3.3. Challenges of Collaborative Networks in Europe H. Afsarmanesh, V. Marik, L.M. Camarinha-Matos. 3.4. A challenge towards VO in Japanese industry: Industrial Cluster T. Kaihara. 3.5. Collaborative networks in Australia - Challenges and recommendations L. Nemes, J. Mo. 3.6. A Brazilian observatory on global and collaborative networked organizations R.J. Rabelo, A.A. Pereira-Klen. 3.7. Some American research concerns on VO H.T. Goranson. 4: Human, Societal, and Organizational Aspects. 4.1. Overview. 4.2. Socio-organizational challenges in the creative economy E. Banahan, J. Playfoot. 4.3. Towards Strategic Management in Collaborative network structures F. Sturm, J. Kemp, R. van Wendel de Joode. 4.4. Collaborative knowledge networks S. Evans, N. Roth. 4.5. Performance measurement and added value of networks S. Evans, N. Roth, F. Sturm. 4.6. Ethical andmoral issues facing the virtual organization S. Hawkins. 5: Information And Communication Technology Factors. 5.1. Overview. 5.2. Support infrastructures for new collaborative forms L.M. Camarinha-Matos, H. Afsarmanesh. 5.3. Agent technology V. Marik, M. Pechoucek. 5.4. ON emerging technologies for VO L.M. Camarinha-Matos, V. Tschammer, H. Afsarmanesh. 6: Foundations and Modeling. 6.1. Overview. 6.2. Emerging behavior in complex collaborative networks L.M. Camarinha-Matos, H. Afsarmanesh. 6.3. Formal modeling methods for collaborative networks L.M. Camarinha-Matos, H. Afsarmanesh. 6.4. Agent technology for virtual organizations V. Marik, M. Pechoucek. 6.5. Modeling social aspects of collaborative networks A. Lucas Soares, J. Pinho de Sousa. 6.6. The organizational semiotics normative paradigm J. Filipe. 7: An Example Roadmap. 7.1. A roadmapping methodology for strategic research on VO L.M. Camarinha-Matos, H. Afsarmanesh. 7.2. A strategic roadmap for advanced Virtual organizations L.M. Camarinha-Matos, H. Afsarmanesh, H. Loh, F. Sturm, M. Ollus. Annexes: A.1. Authors and contributors. A.2. Method of work in thinkcreative project. Subject Index. Author Index.

From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry

Abstract: From its first glimmerings in the 1950s, the software industry has evolved to become the fourth largest industrial sector of the US economy. Starting with a handful of software contractors who produced specialized programs for the few existing machines, the industry grew to include producers of corporate software packages and then makers of mass-market products and recreational software. This book tells the story of each of these types of firm, focusing on the products they developed, the business models they followed, and the markets they served. By describing the breadth of this industry, Martin Campbell-Kelly corrects the popular misconception that one firm is at the center of the software universe. He also tells the story of lucrative software products such as IBM's CICS and SAP's R/3, which, though little known to the general public, lie at the heart of today's information infrastructure. With its wealth of industry data and its thoughtful judgments, this book will become a starting point for all future investigations of this fundamental component of computer history.