Digitalization has given rise to new opportunities for small and medium-sized video game development studios. No longer bound by physical products and creative restrains, the de-veloper has been empowered with independency. This qualitative study is aimed to under-stand how a development studio develops their business model and how underlying strate-gy is formulated. Additionally we evaluate the degree of innovativeness of the business model in terms of radical and incremental innovation according to Damanpour (1991). To achieve this we present a comprehensive literature review as to gain a more theoretical un-derstanding of industry mechanics and to be able to comprehend reasoning behind existing business models. We structure the dynamics of the business model by analyzing nine busi-ness model aspects as suggested by Osterwalder, Pigneur and Clark (2010). Following our theoretical framework we gain practical input from four separate case studies. An interpret-ative research method is used to gain better understanding of reasoning and choices made. We interpret our findings following a narrative approach which shows that the digitaliza-tion has preluded a paradigm shift in the sense that development studios have started to adopt activities otherwise performed by key partners. As barriers dissipate small and me-dium-sized development studios try to make sense of the current industry, but struggle in doing so. Having to reinvent themselves we conclude that a focus towards creating thicker customer relationships is considered and the idea of seeing games as a service is acknowl-edged to depict the future of the industry. The conclusions of this study contribute to both academic science and industry practice.

Over the years, information technology has created opportunities to improve and extend businesses and to start conducting business in new ways. With the evolution of IT, all businesses and industries are becoming increasingly digitized. This process, or coevolution, of IT and business coming together is called digital transformation. One of the recent trends in this digital transformation is the use of application programmable interfaces (APIs). APIs are standardized digital communication interfaces, used for communication and exchange of information between systems, services and devices (such as computers, smartphones and connected machines). API communication is one of the foundational building blocks in recent disruptive technology trends such as mobile and cloud computing. The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of the business impact that is created in digital transformation related to the use of APIs. To investigate this novel area, an exploratory study is performed where a frame of reference with an exploratory framework is created based on established academic literature. The exploratory framework consists of three main parts which cover the research questions, including Business Drivers, Business Model Change & Innovation and Challenges & Limitations related to API-enabled digital transformation. The framework is used to gather empirical data consisting of two types, interviews (primary data) and contemporary reports (secondary data). Interviews are performed with API-utilizing companies, consulting firms and IT solution providers and contemporary reports are published by consulting and technology research and advisory firms. Two main business drivers are identified in the study. The first is Understanding & Satisfying Customer Needs which is derived from companies experiencing stronger and changing demands for automated, personalized value-adding services. This requires higher degree of integration across channels and organizations. The second driver is Business Agility, which derives from higher requirements on adapting to changing environments while maintaining operational efficiency. Cost Reduction is also mentioned as a third and secondary driver, as a positive side-effect in combination with the other drivers. The identified impact on business models is that business model innovation is mostly happening in the front-end of business model towards customers. Several examples also exist of purely API-enabled businesses that sell services or manage information exchanges over APIs. The challenges and limitations identified are mostly classic challenges of using IT in businesses and not specific to use of APIs, where the general consensus is that IT and business need to become more integrated, and that strategy and governance for API-initiatives need to be established.

This research presents the results of a qualitative and quantitative investigation into what factors are present at time zero that increase the probability that a startup will achieve long term sustainability. Survival rates for startups in the United States (U.S.) are disappointingly low and economically inefficient. The data shows that the U.S. clearly lags its peer countries in the survival rates of startups. The U.S ranked an unacceptable 11th of 14 among its peer countries in first-year survival rates in recent years. Startup failure does not only impact the entrepreneur; it also impacts creditors, vendors, community stakeholders, and employees. While it is commonly acknowledged that entrepreneurial businesses contribute to economic growth, the influential impact survival can have on economic growth within the community is often understated. The economic impact of startups on the community makes this area of research even more vital. To avoid failure and improve the sustainability of startups requires an in-depth understanding of the factors that are causal and non-causal to sustainability. While there has been significant investment and support by communities, government, and private foundations, startup failure rates remain virtually unchanged in the last two decades. Despite the many years of research in the field of entrepreneurship, U.S. failure rates within the first five years’ average 53%, regardless of the industry membership or economic cycles. Identifying factors that are causal and non-causal to the sustainability of emerging businesses is crucial to the founders and stakeholders. Within this study, both internal and external factors that may be causal to the macro survival rate of U.S. startups were studied. The external factors were studied quantitatively, using data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) and the Brookings Institute. A protocol of regression analysis and visual analytics were applied to evaluate the quantitative data. It demonstrated that external factors such as the change in real gross domestic product (RGDP), interest rates, and expansion of accelerators have had no significant effect on U.S. macro startup survival rates. Further, the findings confirm that neither geographic location nor industry membership impacted U.S. macro startup survival rates. Internal factors were studied qualitatively, using a grounded theory protocol. The qualitative research did uncover three internal factors that were causal to survival of the startups studied. Those internal factors were:  Career Autonomy – The entrepreneurs motivated by career autonomy were significantly more likely to achieve long-term sustainability.  Allies – The entrepreneurs who identify and utilized allies were more likely to survive.  Purposeful Margin of Safety model – Startups whose founders had a rigorous understanding of the margin of safety (MOS) and its underlying elements of pricing and break-even analysis were more likely to survive. This qualitative study provides significant evidence that, when these three causal factors are present, the likelihood of sustainability is high. These findings extend our knowledge on how to improve the probability of sustainability for the firms. This study demonstrates that the U.S. can and should improve its startup survival rates by focusing on the internal factors that are necessary at time zero to ensure sustainability and survival.

No description available.

Le risque de liquidité des banques reflète leur fonction de création de liquidité. Ces institutions sont fragiles par nature, exposées à la menace de ruées des créanciers de court terme. La thèse contribue par plusieurs aspects à une meilleure compréhension du risque de liquidité. Le deuxième chapitre propose une mesure de la fragilité bancaire basée sur la valeur des actifs détenus. Les résultats confirment de manière originale le caractère fragile des banques. La fonction de production de liquidité bancaire est toutefois bénéfique pour l’économie. Le troisième chapitre propose une analyse de la capacité des banques à produire de la liquidité en lien avec leurs choix d’activité et leur business model. La production d’information dans le cadre d’un modèle relationnel et la capacité à bénéficier de synergies informationnelles entre segments d’activité apparaissent comme déterminant l’efficacité de la production de liquidité bancaire. Néanmoins, l’exposition excessive des banques au risque de liquidité est à l’origine des crises. Le quatrième chapitre évalue l’exposition des banques au risque de liquidité en fonction de l’évolution des conditions générales de liquidité. Les résultats soulignent l’impact différencié des chocs de liquidité sur le risque supporté par les banques. / Bank liquidity risk reflects the function of banks to create liquidity. Banks are fragile, exposed to the possibility of runs from short-term creditors. This dissertation contributes to a better understanding of bank liquidity risk. The second chapter proposes a measure of bank fragility based on the value of the assets held by a bank. Results confirm, in an original way, the fragile nature of banks. However, bank liquidity creation benefits to the economy. The third chapter analyses the capacity of banks to produce liquidity in conjunction with their choices in terms of activity and business model. Determinants of the efficiency to produce liquidity appear to be the bank capacity to produce information through a relationship-oriented business model and to benefit from informational synergies through the activity mix. Nevertheless, excessive exposition of banks to liquidity risk results in bank liquidity crises. The fourth chapter investigates bank exposition to liquidity risk depending on the evolution of aggregate liquidity conditions. Results underline the heterogenous effect of liquidity shocks on the risk borne by banks.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate key success factors of a business model for digitally enhanced and demand driven manufacturing of personalised apparel products. Through the investigation of a questionnaire and two focus group discussions the research outlines the co-creation of customers and the company when personalising an apparel productafter individual requests. Furthermore, it examines the relationship and impacts of service experiences towards the customer journey of value-adding personalisation. Methodology: This study is based on a mixed-method design. The empirical data weregathered through an online questionnaire, which reached out to 183 participants. Furthermore, the data were collected from two focus group discussions with seven students in total. The  discussions were transcribed, coded and analysed using a comparative analysis approach. The main limitations of the research are the limited amount of questionnaire participants and focus groups as well as the focus on personalisation services regarding apparel products. Findings: The findings of the analysis point out that in order to establish a beneficial demand driven business model for the personalisation of apparel products, a company has to adopt factors such as raising awareness, ensure value-adding integration, ideal information sharing, straightforward operation, incorporate customer’s knowledge, customer satisfaction, enablevaluable personalisation as well as consider customer’s emotion. Additionally, the results illustrate that service experiences have an impact on the customer journey of a personalisation. Contribution: This paper contributes to the academia by investigating a framework for ther elationship between a customer journey and the service experiences while co-designing a product with a company. Practical contributions are made by investigating key success factors for digitally enhanced, demand driven manufacturing of personalised apparel products and by giving new insights in the integration of customers when using the service of personalisation. The generated framework and the key success factors can be principle guidelines for entrepreneurs and established businesses as well as for future investigations.

The aim of this thesis “Deconstruction 3.0” is to show how the third wave of deconstruction in fashion is deconstructing the second [postmodern] French luxury fashion system. The deconstructionists of the post-Soviet collective – Demna and Guram Gvasalia, Gosha Rubchinskiy, and Lotta Volkova – question and deconstruct the established apparatus of the postmodern fashion system and its business model. With their business strategies and with help of demand by post-postmodern consumer culture proposed and predicted by Douglas B. Holt (2002), the post-Soviet collective constructs new business models and thus we are entering a post-postmodern fashion system. I have used a twofold methodology from the disciplines of business administration and humanities. In the literature review, I have aimed to close gaps between different scholars and made a concluding section of the postmodern fashion system and its business model, a synthesis that lies in parallel with Peter Drucker’s (1957) thoughts on postmodern organisational theory. Through the empirics and analysis with help of Jacques Derrida’s (1972) concept of deconstruction, I propose, in the end, a dialectic model between the established postmodern apparatus and the new and diametrically opposed post-postmodern apparatus operated by the post-Soviet collective.

Abstract The efficiency of public service provision has been a subject of debate for several decades. Discussions that are centred around whether public or private service provision is more efficient are still active around the world and also concern water and sewage services. Additionally, waterworks are facing tightening quality and environmental requirements, while ageing infrastructure and rapidly growing repair debt must also be addressed. This study aims to identify the actions that are required to improve waterworks performance without compromising service quality. The objective is to find both internal and external factors that will improve efficiency. Despite the clear pressure for new solutions, there is only a limited amount of research on the topic, which provides further justification for this study. This dissertation has adopted a case study approach with multiple data sources in order to provide as diverse, detailed and profound information regarding the Finnish water and sewage sector. Data sources such as interviews, questionnaire and publicly available financial data were used as a basis for analysis. The results of this study indicate that the external factors that influence the performance of waterworks include legislation, environmental issues, population density and municipal topography. When benchmarking different waterworks, it is important to understand that some of these conditions are case-specific. Waterworks cannot change the external factors but they must analyse them in order for them to operate optimally. Internal factors that waterworks managers and municipal owners can influence include the selection of a suitable ownership and governance model, the roles of different decision makers, the competence of board members, asset management practices, proper maintenance of infrastructure, and operational and financial transparency. This study emphasises that municipal owners should concentrate on ownership policy and focus on their role as owners, not as operational managers. The selection of waterworks board members should prioritise management and engineering expertise. Legislators could help improve the efficiency of waterworks by promoting transparency and requiring uniform reporting practices. Making key information publicly available would enable benchmarking and planning of development activities. Waterworks managers should make long-term investment plans and systematically manage their assets. / Tiivistelmä Julkisen palvelutuotannon tehokkuus on puhuttanut tutkijoita ympäri maailmaa jo vuosikymmenien ajan. Julkisen ja yksityisen palveluntuotannon eroista on keskusteltu monella sektorilla, niin myös vesi- ja jätevesihuoltopalveluissa. Vesihuollon kiristyvät laatu- ja ympäristövaatimukset, vanheneva infrastruktuuri ja nopeasti kasvava korjausvelka yhdessä tiukkenevien tehokkuusvaatimusten kanssa asettavat monet vesihuoltolaitokset ahtaalle. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on löytää toimenpide-ehdotuksia, joiden avulla vesihuollon suoristuskykyä voidaan parantaa kuitenkaan vaarantamatta palvelun laatua. Tavoitteena on löytää sekä sisäisiä että ulkoisia tekijöitä, jotka vaikuttavat vesihuollon suorituskykyyn ja joita muuttamalla vesihuollon tehokkuutta voidaan parantaa. Tämän väitöskirjan lähestymistapa on tapaustutkimus ja siinä hyödynnetään useita erilaisia tietolähteitä, jotta pystytään luomaan monipuolinen kuvaus tutkimuskohteesta. Analyysin perustana käytettiin erilaisia tietolähteitä kuten haastatteluja, kyselylomaketta sekä julkisesti saatavissa olevia taloudellisia tietoja. Tutkimustulosten mukaan vesihuoltolaitoksen suorituskykyyn vaikuttavia ulkoisia tekijöitä ovat muun muassa lainsäädäntö, ympäristölliset seikat, kunnan topografia sekä asukastiheys. Vesihuoltolaitokset eivät voi suoraan vaikuttaa ulkoisiin tekijöihin, mutta niiden tunnistaminen ja vaikutusten analysointi on tärkeää, jotta annetuissa puitteissa voidaan toimia optimaalisesti. Sisäiset tekijät, joihin vesihuoltolaitoksen johto ja kuntaomistaja voivat vaikuttaa, ovat sopivan omistus- ja hallintomallin valinta, eri toimijoiden väliset roolit, hallituksen jäsenten pätevyys, omaisuuden hallinta sekä operationaalinen ja taloudellinen läpinäkyvyys. Tutkimustulosten mukaan vesihuoltolaitoksen kuntaomistajan tulisi keskittyä omistajapolitiikkaan ja rooliinsa omistajana eikä operatiivisena johtajana. Vesihuoltolaitoksen johtokunnan ja hallituksen jäseniä valittaessa tulisi etusijalle asettaa liikkeenjohdollinen ja tekninen osaaminen. Avoimuuden edistäminen ja yhtenäisten raportointikäytäntöjen edellyttäminen ovat lainsäätäjän mahdollisia työkaluja vesihuoltolaitoksen tehokkuuden edistämiseen. Vesihuoltolaitoksen johdon tulisi tehdä pitkän aikavälin investointisuunnitelmia sekä systemaattisesti hallita vesihuoltolaitoksen omaisuutta.

網際網路的發展加上行動裝置的普及，導致人們觀看影音媒體的方式逐漸數位化，資策會2015年報告指出，72%台灣民眾每週至少觀看一次線上影音平台。4G時代的來臨，使得網路直播成為一種新應用，世界各地也逐漸興起一股網路直播平台的風潮，多數的直播平台雖然擁有很高的用戶流量，卻沒辦法成功的把這些用戶流量轉化為金流，高額的頻寬成本造成直播平台連年虧損。然而，Twitch卻能脫穎而出，以專攻遊戲直播市場，2015年營收高達13.6億美元，更被亞馬遜以9.7億美元將其收購。究竟直播平台應該如何獲利？如何驅動營收的成長？為本研究欲探討之問題。 本研究挑選專攻遊戲直播市場的Twitch 為個案，運用多邊市場結構的概念分析Twitch的獲利模式；運用社群遞增動態循環四構面-內容、忠誠、輪廓和交易活動，分析Twitch如何驅動營收成長。 本研究發現，Twitch多元的獲利模式依賴其平台所連接之多邊市場，並且對不同的市場採取不同的獲利模式。Twitch多元的獲利模式歸納為：訂閱、廣告和交易模式。另外，直播平台想要驅動營收的成長，則需專注於核心領域、提升平台內容質量和平台成員之忠誠度，才能夠有效驅動平台多元的營收成長。 / The way of people watching media are changing to digitalization. According to Taiwan Institution for Information Industry’s report in 2015, 72 percent of population in Taiwan watch media through online video platform at least one time in a week. Also, the fourth generation of mobile telecommunications technology (4G) makes the application of online streaming popular, which leads more and more online streaming platforms came out all over the world. In fact, many online streaming platforms are losing money year after year, due to the huge cost of the Internet Bandwidth and without a successful profit model to transform the high volume of users into revenue. However, Twitch, which focus on game live streaming market, are very successful nowadays. Twitch claims 43% of market share in the gaming content industry and earned $3.8 billion in 2015. Also, Twitch was bought by Amazon for $970 million in 2014. Therefore, this research chooses Twitch as a research target, and focus on analysis of Twitch’s profit model and how Twitch increases its revenue through theoretical method This research finds that Twitch’s successful profit model is due to its multi-markets. Twitch uses different profit strategies on different markets. Twitch’s multiple profit models can be categorized into Subscription, Advertising, and Transaction Models. In addition, Twitch increases its revenue by focusing on core market, increasing the quality of platform contents and the loyalty of platform users.

文化是延續性的,文化創意產業所需的創意,絕對不是從未出現 過的「斷層式創新」,而是一種反思式的「服務創新」,所謂的服務創 新,強調以顧客為中心,透過完整的顧客服務系統,以顧客新的消費 經驗塑造為核心,創造滿足顧客的新價值。不論是文化園區或是創意 園區,在經營管理上皆是希望藉由產業群聚的效應,進而提升產業的 發展與增加經濟效益。事實也證明,諸多在經營管理上的關鍵影響因 素,皆會因為經營管理者的作為而產生不同的發展結果。仿效英國推 動創意產業政策,利用老舊工業遺址再利用,發展成創意產業園區的 模式,臺灣在 2002 年推動文化創意產業發展計畫中,將五個臺灣菸 酒公賣局舊廠址及倉庫規劃為文化創意產業園區,並以政府自營及委 外的方式進行管理營運。在不同的設置目標定位及不同的經營管理組 織運作下,各園區的發展狀況也產生截然不同的結果。本研究以多重 個案研究解析文創園區經營的服務創新及商業模式構成要素,檢視文 創園區是否符合設置規劃的期望,達成提升創意產業的價值創造,進 而增加綜效。 / Culture is continuous. Creativities required by cultural and creative industries are not unprecedented "fault-type innovation," but a kind of reflective "service innovation." The service innovation emphasizes customer orientation. Through a complete customer service system, take shaping new consumer experience as the core and create a new value satisfying customers. Both management of cultural park and creative park aims at improving industrial development and increasing economic efficiency through the effect of industrial clustering. Facts have also proved that many key impacts on management tended to generate different developments due to managers’ practices. Learn from the British creative industry policy, reuse industrial heritage, and develop the model of a creative industrial park. Taiwan promoted cultural and creative industry development plan in 2002. Five industrial heritages of Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation were planned as cultural and creative industrial parks, and they were state-owned or outsourced for management. Under various target positioning, the development of each park led to different results. By studying multiple cases, the study analyzes key factors of cultural and creative parks’ management, such as services, innovation, and business model. It reviews whether cultural and creative parks meet the planned expectation, and value to creative industries, and improve the overall benefit.