Background – In today´s globalized environment, a stronger emphasis on moving production to low-cost environments is present. Assembling a complex product usually involves multiple smaller manufacturing firms across the globe. As a result, smaller specialized firms have an important role in the market but are also strongly dependent on the demand for the final product. Hence, their business model can be dependent on a specific patch which inhibit innovation and evidently leaving them vulnerable to changes in the environment. One main challenge for companies´ business model is the question of continuous flexibility and adaption to an ever changing business context. Purpose - The purpose of this thesis is to explore dynamic capabilities as a source of business model innovation in manufacturing subcontractor SMEs in Jönköping County. The studies aim is to explore how these firms develop dynamic capabilities in order to identify and then overcome barriers for business model innovation. Method – Primary data was collected through a multiple case study of three manufacturing companies in Jönköping County. The data was later coded and findings cross-case compared with a lens of dynamic capability view in order to find similarities and dissimilarities. Conclusion- The findings from the three case companies indicates that dynamic capabilities are interdependent to each other, meaning all need to be taken into consideration for continuously successful business model innovation. Disregarding the development of one business model component can restrain others, thereby resulting in inadequate innovations. A sensing capability was identified however yet the abilities to seize and reconfigure opportunities taking the whole BM into consideration were not present for all of the three case companies. By lack of a coherent development of the BM, barriers become present and a sustained competitive advantage is unreachable. All three cases agreed upon the human resource management to be the major challenge for their organization to sustain a healthy growth.

Additive Manufacturing is a fast-developing technology that is considered to be a game changer in the manufacturing industry. However, a technological innovation itself has no single objective value for a company. Indeed, it is widely acknowledged that the key aspect of a successful commercialization of a technological innovation is the linkage of the technology and the business model. Based on a qualitative study, which presents how companies have to develop their business model to commercialize AM, we conducted interviews with two Swedish small and medium-sized enterprises, which plan to invest in Additive Manufacturing. These two companies are HGF, a manufacturer of thermoplastic elastomers and rubber products, and Tylö, a manufacturer of heaters, steam generators, saunas, steam showers, and infrared saunas. In our analysis, we decided to analyse the cases successively, according to the nine building blocks of the Business Model Canvas. Firstly, we conducted a within-case analysis to analyse each case isolated from each other, and secondly a cross-case analysis to find possible nexuses, relations or, contrasts. The chapter conclusion provides an overall discussion of the most important findings emerging from the analysis with regard to the required changes within the current business model to capture value from the technology. We could find some disparities for two building blocks (channels and revenue streams). Thus, this implies that there is no universal approach to develop the business model to introduce Additive Manufacturing. Nevertheless, most of the required adjustments show accordance. While three building blocks turned out to remain largely the same (key partnerships, cost structure, and customer segments), four building blocks require important changes (key activities, key resources, value propositions, and customer relationships. The most important implications for those building blocks are presented in the following: Key activities: Upgrade product development Key resources: Establish additional production facilities (3D-printers, etc.) Gather new knowledge about AM Value propositions: Offer customized products Customer relationships: Closer relationship with the (end) customer  Enhance customer co-creation

PURPOSE:! The! purpose! is! to! explore! the! basic! assumptions! for! innovating! the! Danish! railway! operator¿s! historic! business!model!in! an! unprecedented! institutional!crisis.!! METHOD:! A! management! survey! collects! 22,729! responses! from! 368! managers! (80%!of!the!managers!in!the!Danish!railways!with!average!seniority!of!15! years)! to! explore! these! basic! assumptions! to! specify! the! areas! of! leadership! that! have! a! significant! impact! on! facilitating! innovation! of! business!models!in!times!of!crisis.! RESULTS:! Successful!leadership!in!a!crisis!depends!on! the!articulation!of! the!basic! assumptions!and!challenges!for!the!development!of!the!current!business! model.! It! is! not! enough! to! make! goals! for! the! future,! as! the! related! challenges! should! also! be! articulated.! A! core! task! for! strengthening! the! development! in! the! railway! sector! is! to! prioritize! new! infrastructure! projects! to! innovate! the! existing! railway! operations! gradually,! rather! than!starting!new!business!ventures.! ORIGINALITY/VALUE:! Management!studies!in! times!of!crisis!are!rare.!Furthermore,! the!causes! of!the!institutional!crisis!in!the!Danish!railway!sector!have!until!now!not! been! studied! from! a! management! perspective! based! on! the! managers¿! understanding! of! the! factors! affecting! the! innovation! management! of! a! business! model! in! crisis.! The! doctoral! thesis! identifies! some! emerging! areas! of! cognitive! leadership! that! have! not! yet! received! sufficient! attention! in! the! literature! on! business! models,! but! nonetheless! the! company!managers!believe! that! the!areas!of!cognitive!leadership!have!a! significant! impact! on! the! survival! of! the! organization! and! its! future! success.! / Roldsgaard, KV. (2014). AN EMPIRICAL STUDY TO REVIEW BUSINESS MODEL THEORY IN THE DANISH RAILWAY SECTOR [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/38615 / TESIS

In recent years, the financial and economic decisions have changed which has created and utilized new methods and techniques that have led to new and different products, processes, and services. However, the changing methods and techniques have led to the movement of digital technology and enabling financial services within the financial industry. The changes have resulted in the phenomenon of FinTech that has derived from financial services. In order for companies to be competitive in the industry and create value for their customers, they need to use a business model as a conceptual tool to help improve their performance. High dynamics in technological solutions within the financial industry provides the base for business model innovation. Whilst there is little empirical insight about business model and business model innovation within the qualitative field, this study aims to explore how FinTech companies are developing their business models to enable business model innovation in Sweden, as well as what is influencing business model innovation. An explorative study with semi-structured interviews was conducted to explore how FinTech companies’ business models are built. The empirical findings were supplemented with data from the company’s websites and financial reports. This study’s findings show four key factors within the FinTech companies' business models: Technological innovations, digitization, value propositions, and human resources. All companies have developed innovative technology and software solutions and created new technical systems. Hence, all companies are innovative by creating new processes and methods through their technical development and resulting in different innovations such as API-systems and self-built algorithms. Further, business model innovation within this study has been influenced and driven by exceptional events as the market changes and problems occur within the company that forces innovations to be created for companies to overcome these obstacles. In addition, market pressure has influenced business model innovations by e.g. competitors and customers changing the market demand and making the companies adjust continuously.

Business model design and innovation has been identified as a powerful tool for creating competitive advantage, yet empirical studies which identify the mechanisms for creating this competitive advantage are largely absent in the literature. Coupled with this, innovative multi-sided platform firms that depend on the resources of partners have grown to be some of the most valuable firms in the world, disrupting entire industries in the process. However, there is a dearth of empirical studies on business model design strategies that confer competitive advantage on multi-sided platforms. This study explores the business model design and innovation strategies used by owner-managers of multi-sided platforms to create competitive advantage. Data was collected through 13 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with the owner-managers of South African multi-sided platforms. This study found that partners and customers play an important role in co-creating value and influencing the design of multi-sided platforms. In order to create competitive advantage with their business models, the owner-managers in the study used four broad, non-exclusive business model design and innovation strategies. These comprised: design differentiation strategies, value creating innovation strategies, building network effects and locking in customers and partners through relationship management strategies. This study contributes to the literature by identifying business model design strategies that are utilised to create competitive advantage. The study also highlighted the importance of “ecosystemic” thinking in creating multi-sided platforms. A framework is presented that can aid managers in creating multi-sided platform business models that confer competitive advantage. / Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Background: The public sector like all other sectors of the economy has been influenced by digitalization. Governments and policy makers are forced to rethink their operational models and business logics. Digitalization offers organizations new ways of creating, delivering and capturing values at the same time new relationships are ensured. However, to leverage these opportunities and to avoid being stagnant, organizations need to rethink their strategies and adapt their operations to suit the digital technologies. Purpose: This paper aims to understand the digitalization impact on the public organizations’ business models and managing the impact. The identified limited empirics in this context informed the purpose of this study. Design/methodology/approach: This study was designed as exploratory with a case study carried out. In total four semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives of a municipality. A combined data and concept driven strategies were used to analyse the data collected to identify how digitalization impact the way the municipality create, deliver and capture value and subsequently how they innovate their business model to adopt to digitalization Findings: The findings revealed that digitalization is relevant to the municipality and impacts the majority of the business model components of the municipality. Thus, it was identified the municipality engaged in business model innovation to be able to adapt. The strategic agility meta-capabilities appeared to be relevant in managing the changes to the business model components.

Background: How business is conducted is constantly developing and the design of the business model is a crucial part to have a clear vision of the company’s goals. Simultaneously, technologies are developed which generate new business opportunities. To fully exploit these opportunities, companies need to innovate their business model. The description of digitalization within previous literature has been mainly holistic, without much reference to specific mechanisms and activities enabling business model innovation. Little is known about the mechanisms of digitalization and their effect on business model innovation.  Purpose: The purpose of this is to understand how digitalization affects business model innovation in firms. It aims to identify mechanisms of digitalization and how they affect the underlying dimensions of business model innovation.  Method: An exploratory research design was applied within this qualitative study to fulfill the purpose. The data collection was done through nine semi-structured interviews with employees at manufacturing companies with good insight of the company’s digitalization process. Using an inductive approach, the data has been analyzed through a thematic analysis.  Conclusion: This study has shown what mechanisms of digitalization affect each of the dimensions of the business model. Further, it has contributed with an understanding of how the dimensions are affected by the mechanisms. The analysis resulted in the development of an emergent framework which depicts what the mechanisms are and how they can lead to a perceived positive effect on business operations.

For the last decades there has been a steady shift from cash to card payments and with increased smart phone penetration, payments have started to move into our mobile devices. This thesis studies how mobile payments can change the traditional payment landscape. The purpose is to assess the disruptiveness of the Swedish mobile payment market and describe key stakeholder strategies for managing a potentially disruptive change. The study has been designed as a combination of a theoretical and an empirical study where the theoretical part consisted of a literature review that hinted on a gap in terms of available literature on the disruptiveness of different mobile payment business models. Main theoretical concepts used are; disruptive innovation, business model innovation, and theories on competing solutions and dominant design. The subsequent empirical study consisted of a number of qualitative, indepth interviews with key stakeholder from the Swedish mobile payment industry: five mobile payment providers, one major merchant, and the Swedish Trade Federation. This thesis shows that two fundamentally different types of mobile C2B payments are emerging; mobile payment solutions based on existing card payment schemes and mobile payment solutions that build on new and independent payment schemes. The independent model has been defined as the most powerful disruptive force in relation to the existing market for card payments, mainly because it offers opportunities for innovative players to build simple new payment schemes that bypass traditional card payment players and therefore can be made far more cost efficient. However, many established card payment players are inhibiting this development since they are afraid it could seriously harm their existing card business.

Background Given the physical nature of the product, the automotive industry remains as one of the few industries yet to be digitized. And the transformation is happening mostly through the innovation of the Business Model. The industry is seeing a threat of new entrants from outside of the traditional automotive industry. Moreover, established players are considering new business models to serve the changing market. This is where the balance of exploiting current business models and exploring new ones comes into play. Purpose The purpose of our study is to present a framework showing how an ambidextrous approach helps in the challenge of innovating a business model or introduce new business models in the automotive industry. Moreover, we will provide insights into the challenges the business model innovation provides to this industry and propose potential implications for managers. The research will be based on the theory of business model innovation, ambidextrous organizations, and ambidexterity in business models. Method To achieve the purpose of the study, semi-structured interviews were conducted, followed by a grounded analysis. For this study, a literature review was used that generated a theoretical framework. Conclusion Our results and analysis of the interviews are presented in a framework that is based on three identified concepts: Customer and Market, Structures within the Organization, and Ability to Innovate. These three are interrelated in our framework and help us answer the initial research question proposed.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual framework and research agenda for the development of sustainable business models for companies in the software industry. Methodology – The study was implemented by using primary and secondary data in the methodology. The primary data entailed a qualitative approach where in-depth interviews with five software companies was conducted. The secondary data included a literature review of relevant topics and grey literature from the interviewed companies. Findings – This study proposes a modified set of sustainable business model archetypes for the software industry. The software-specific archetypes are Maximize energy efficiency with renewables and natural processes, Create value from waste, Deliver software as a service, Adopt a stewardship role, Encourage sustainability, Repurpose for the society/environment and Develop scale up solutions. Implications – The revised set of archetypes have been developed in order to set a theoretical framework that can be practiced by software companies to develop their sustainability work. Therefore, this study provides practitioners with a streamlined framework to develop clear sustainable guidelines, activities, principles and goals towards a sustainable business model. Originality / value – This study proposes a conceptual framework on how software companies can develop a sustainable business model with a practical and theoretical foundation. The study proposes a research approach that has not been conducted in the software industry before, using the eight archetypes as an analysis tool. The suggested framework of this study therefore presents unique industry-specific archetypes for the software industry, created by the authors of this study.