Abstract The purpose of this study is to explore the role of dynamic capability in business model change in Internet-based business start-ups and Internet-based business enterprises. This study reviews the literature on business models, business model change, and dynamic capability, and defines business model change as a dynamic capability that is expected to lead to increased speed of business change and competitive advantages over the long term. This empirical study of business model change is accomplished by the case study method. The study is based on field data of four case companies regarding entrepreneurs’, business developers’, and business leaders’ behavior and actions while they are utilizing the business model concept for the purpose of business change. This study approaches business model change as a dynamic capability from three dynamic capability cluster perspectives. It explores how businesses can use the concept of business model for business decisions as well as how they can use the concept of business model to improve the speed of business change after new business opportunities or threats are found. The analysis identifies the process of business model change and factors that affect business model change, and the outcomes are results from three dynamic capability clusters that Internet-based companies are able to follow in a fast-changing business environment. This study develops a posteriori model proposing that a dynamically capable business model change consists of sensing, seizing, and transforming activities to obtain successful business and competitive advantages over the long term. A posteriori model of business model change as a dynamic capability creates a framework to support a quick business model change, especially in a fast-changing business environment. This study adds a dynamic capability viewpoint to the business model literature pertaining to business modeling and business model change. Regarding the managerial implications, this study shows how entrepreneurs and business owners can utilize the concept of business model in order to support a quick business change and possibly gain a competitive advantage in the long term. The study results indicate that internal and external factors for business model change are company-specific and those vary between the start-up and enterprise. And thus, a successful business model change can be achieved through analyzing and further developing these company-specific factors. These factors can be seen as a micro foundation of dynamic capability, and development of these factors can improve competitive advantage. / Tiivistelmä Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan nuoreen Internet liiketoimintaan pohjautuvaan kasvuyritykseen ja kypsiin Internet liiketoimintaan pohjautuviin yrityksiin tehtyjä liiketoimintamallimuutoksia dynaamisten kyvykkyyksien näkökulmasta. Tutkimuksen aihetta lähestytään nuoren kasvuyrityksen sekä kypsien yritysten kannalta ja työn teoreettinen viitekehys rakennetaan liiketoimintamallin, liiketoimintamallimuutoksen sekä dynaamisen kyvykkyyden tutkimusjulkaisujen kautta. Työssä liiketoimintamallimuutos määritellään dynaamiseksi kyvykkyydeksi joka kehittyy eri toimintojen avulla. Tämä dynaaminen kyvykkyys voi mahdollistaa nopeamman liiketoimintamuutoksen ja pitkällä aikavälillä se voi vaikuttaa myös kilpailuedun saavuttamiseen. Työn empiirisessä osassa liiketoimintamallimuutosta tutkitaan tapaustutkimusmenetelmällä neljässä yrityksessä. Yrittäjien, liiketoimintakehittäjien, sekä johtajien käyttäytymistä ja toimenpiteitä tutkitaan liiketoimintamallikonseptin kautta muutostilanteessa. Yrittäjien, liiketoimintakehittäjien, sekä johtajien käyttäytymistä ja toimenpiteitä tutkitaan liiketoimintamallikonseptin kautta muutostilanteessa. Työssä dynaamista liiketoimintamallimuutosta lähestytään kolmen dynaamiselle kyvykkyydelle määritellyn klusterin kautta (havaitseminen, tarttuminen, sekä uhkien hallinta ja muuntautuminen). Nämä klusterit toimivat erityisesti silloin kun yritysten tulee tehdä nopeita liiketoimintapäätöksiä ja liiketoimintamuutoksia. Analyysissa tunnistetaan liiketoimintamallin muutosprosessi, sekä sisäiset ja ulkoiset tekijät joilla on vaikutusta liiketoimintamallimuutokseen. Lopputulokset ovat seuraus kolmesta dynaamisen ominaisuuden klusterista joita organisaatioiden tulisi huomioida nopeasti muuttuvassa ympäristössä. Tutkimuksessa kehitetään jälkikäteismalli jossa liiketoimintamallimuutos dynaamisena kyvykkyytenä synnytetään dynaamisen kyvykkyyden klustereissa esiintyvien toimenpiteiden kautta. Näiden toimenpiteiden avulla on mahdollista saavuttaa pitkällä aikavälillä menestystä ja mahdollisesti myös kilpailuetua. Jälkikäteismalli tukee dynaamista liiketoimintamallimuutosta nopeasti muuttuvassa liiketoimintaympäristössä. Työn teoreettinen kontribuutio on erityisesti dynaamisen kyvykkyyden näkökulma liiketoimintamallintamiseen ja liiketoimintamallimuutokseen. Työssä osoitetaan myös kuinka yrittäjät ja liiketoimintaomistajat voivat käytännössä hyödyntää liiketoimintamallikonseptia nopeasti tehtävään liiketoimintamuutokseen. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että sisäisillä ja ulkoisilla tekijöillä on vaikutusta liiketoimintamallimuutokseen. Nämä tekijät ovat yrityskohtaisia, ja nuoren kasvuyrityksen ja kypsien yritysten väliltä löytyy eroja. Sen vuoksi onnistunut liiketoimintamallimuutos voidaan tehdä näitä tekijöitä analysoimalla ja kehittämällä.

The purpose of this thesis is to uncover and examine the processes that start-up entrepreneurs go through while designing and then developing their business models. This is done with the intent of deciphering the kind of development that might ultimately lead to a unique or innovative business model. This study uses primary qualitative data generated from interviews with founding entrepreneurs and managers who still participate in running the organization. Each of these organizations participates in the men’s retail market. The research design and methodology of this research uses a grounded-theory coding procedure to analyze the data. Three questions guide this research forward and the findings are threefold. First, for these organizations two business model design paths were followed, herein referred to as the path to ‘Alleviate Pain’ and as the path to ‘Adopt and Modify.’ Second, entrepreneurial leaders tended to act as arbiters when developing their business models, mediating between the set of information accrued during operations and three identified factors. Thirdly, new research into whether or not business model innovations are the result of ex-ante insights or ex-post operational learning is presented. And the findings tend to indicate that both ex-ante insights and ex-post learning are important, but their importance is temporally induced. Lastly, a brief discussion is carried out on how this research informs the entrepreneurial business model creation process (see entrepreneurial practicum) and how it adds to the current literature on business models and business model innovation.

The business environment is constantly being challenged with growing complexity and rapid changes, usually unforeseeable, as it could be observed during the last decades. One topic growing intensively in importance is environmentally sustainable business practices, which are often driven by societal expectations and new regulations; and which, under the enormous pressure of external stakeholders, cannot be avoided by companies anymore. Circular Economy, a relatively new concept, is becoming more popular, offering businesses not only a competitive advantage, but also the possibility to operate profitably, while still contributing to a sustainable development. This thesis provides insights on how MNCs with linear business models can take advantage of dynamic capabilities in order to incorporate circular business strategies. Current literature lacks research about the connection of how dynamic capabilities can support companies with the implementation of Circular Economy principles. Startups often implement sustainable strategies from inception, but: how can traditional MNCs of complex character successfully innovate their business models and strategies, without major disruption and losing their profitability? We argue that not only these young and born circular companies will lead the markets in the future, but also existing MNCs can successfully develop and stay competitive. This study wants also to highlight what resources and capabilities both types of companies state as key for successful circular business strategies, and how they are handled and embedded in the organizational structure by managers. A qualitative case study approach provided the detailed necessary information (from different industries and degree of circularity) to address the question. The findings widen the research of business model innovation towards circular business strategies and show a clear picture of which dynamic capabilities are of importance and how they can be successfully incorporated. We conclude by indicating that the concepts of learning, knowledge, relationships, leadership and management style were perceived as the most decisive within the organizations; with remaining external barriers as challenging.

Manufacturing companies have traditionally focused their design and development activities on realizing technical and engineered aspects of physical artifacts based on performance requirements. The ever-changing business climate, with its increased pace during the past decades, has forced industries to continuously innovate their approach toward the development of new products. Pressured also by global competition, manufacturing companies need to reconsider the traditional concept of realizing value via goods production, and shift towards realizing value through product-service combinations. Companies have begun to recognize that gaining competitive advantage and expanding market shares is not achievable purely through continuous technical improvements. Rather, it is necessary to develop a closer relationship to the customer to gain a deeper understanding of expectations, needs, and perceived value. From a development perspective, the overarching problem within complex systems such as those in which cars, aircraft, and excavators are manufactured, or healthcare is provided, is that the focus on customer value is likely to become blurred since it is difficult to understand the impact a change in any single component in the overall system has on value, and to determine a new function’s impact on future scenarios. The main goals of this thesis are to provide an understanding of key challenges when considering the value different design alternatives provide in the conceptual phases of product development taking the automotive industry as case study, and to explore how to support a multi-disciplinary design team in making value-conscious decisions when dealing with new product-service offerings. The research approach has involved data collection through participation in, and facilitation of, product-service design workshops in the automotive industry. Also, it has involved follow-up meetings and interviews, as well as a review of literature on state-of-the-art methods in early conceptual design phases, which describes the advantages and disadvantages of the different frameworks. The primary finding of the study is that determination of the impact of different PSS design options on customer value becomes more challenging since new elements are introduced (e.g., new business models and services). The design team requires more holistic competences in order to more fully understand changing contexts; and new methods and tools are needed in order to establish a base to define, discuss and assess what “uncontested customer value” is, and link it to the different product-service elements of the system. Secondly, this thesis proposes a conceptual approach for value simulation and assessment of different design options, where the iterative use of personas and scenario generation is combined with value modeling and computer-based simulation techniques, enabling a quick “what-if” analysis of the various options, facilitating the identification of promising combinations of product and service elements that provide higher customer value.

The author analyzed three different perspectives of the development of new technology-based firms (NTBFs) from the resource-based view. The first article discusses how the resource base impacts the internationalization behavior of German NTBFs. Some companies go international early, some internationalize only after a few years. We argued that the resource base is a substantial factor determining if a NTBF will internationalize or not. In the second article, we analyze how the resource base impacts the survival of German NTBFs. We argued that a lack of sufficient resources can lead to early business failure. We further state that the different resources are necessary to fulfill the requirements within the development phases of the NTBF. To broaden our perspective we combined the resource-based view with the market view. In the third article, we analyzed how the resource base impacts the business model innovation of NTBFs. The business model for NTBFs must often be tailored to fulfill the requirements of potential customers or to further grow the business. A sufficient resource base is necessary to be able to change the business model and buffer the transition phase.:1 Introduction 2 Research gap 3 Different themes on NTBF research 4 The resource-based perspective 5 Corresponding research project 6 Scientific contribution for the doctoral thesis 7 Further academic and practical contributions 8 Acknowledgement 9 Literature 10 Declaration of authorship 11 Appendix

Ein zentraler Aspekt der industriellen Digitalisierung ist die Entwicklung digitaler Geschäftsmodellinnovationen (GMI), um auch zukünftig wettbewerbsfähig zu bleiben und das Potenzial der Digitalisierung vollumfänglich ausschöpfen zu können. Mit verbunden ist dabei die Frage: Wie sollten Unternehmen zielführend vorgehen, um diese zu entwickeln? In den Fokus rückt dabei der Innovationsprozess zur Entwicklung von GMI und dessen Gestaltung im Hinblick auf die industrielle Digitalisierung. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit, welche sich an der Fallstudienmethodik von Yin (Yin, R. K.: Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 5. ed., Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2014) orientiert, konnte ein fundiertes Verständnis über die Gestaltung eines Innovationsprozesses von GMI in Zeiten der Digitalisierung geschaffen werden. Wesentlicher Bestandteil des Forschungsfeldes ist die prozessuale Betrachtung zur Entwicklung von GMI, welche in der Wissenschaft durch heterogenes und zerfahrenes Wissen sowie bestehende Unklarheiten auf sich aufmerksam macht. Folglich besteht ein großer Forschungsbedarf darin, sich der Gestaltung des GMI-Prozesses und den damit verbundenen Fragestellungen zu widmen. Diesen ist die vorliegende Arbeit im Hinblick auf Struktur- und Verlaufsmerkmalen, Erfolgsfaktoren und durch eine Berücksichtigung der Digitalisierungsliteratur in der GMI-Forschung nachgekommen. Hinzukommend ermöglichen es die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse, Implikationen für die Praxis abzuleiten, wobei zu berücksichtigen gilt, dass diese aufgrund der qualitativ-empirischen Methodenwahl viel mehr als generische Handlungsoptionen für das Management und nicht als Handlungsempfehlungen zu verstehen sind. Die entwickelten Prozessmodelle für Produktionsunternehmen dienen als Vorschläge für methodische Hilfestellungen zur Entwicklung digitaler GMI. Weitere Handlungsoptionen für das Management lassen sich in Bezug auf Erfolgsfaktoren bzw. Potenziale des GMI-Prozesses konkretisieren. Dabei gilt es für Produktionsunternehmen u.a. die Integration des Kunden in den Innovationsprozess zu berücksichtigen, das Ökosystem einzubinden, mit Startups zusammenzuarbeiten, eine schnelle Prototypenentwicklung zu praktizieren und Daten auszuwerten und daraus GM-Ideen abzuleiten. Die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse bilden Anknüpfungspunkte für eine weiterführende Forschung. / The digital age is forcing manufacturing firms to innovate beyond new products and services and to professionalize their digital business model innovation (BMI) activities in order to stay competitive. While new product development (NPD) and new service development (NSD) research boasts a multiplicity of well-founded publications on process models, which contribute to increasing the likelihood of innovation, only few business model researchers have examined innovation processes for BMI. This is particularly so with digital BMI activities in manufacturing firms, as their digital BMI approach is often based on an extension of their NPD activities. This study explores how the innovation processes of manufacturing firms can be designed in order to develop novel business models to address the challenges of digitalization. Thereby, NPD-related path dependency considering the history in manufacturing firms and requirements on specific digital process characteristics are factored in. The study uses a multiple-case study approach, where data on BMI processes was collected in six manufacturing firms. The results show that the design of BMI processes in the digital age differs conceptually between B2C and B2B manufacturing firms. While BMI processes in B2C firms follow a semi-structured approach that considers experimentation, process models in B2B firms show similarities with an NPD hybrid model comprising stage-gate methods and agility. Concerning empirical and managerial implications, this study proposes two process models for digital BMI for B2C and B2B firms. Thereby, this study identifies specific digital process characteristics manufacturing firms need to consider when designing a BMI process in the digital age.

Sustainability, service innovation, and digitalization are topics discussed around the world. The three areas are each developing rapidly and are needed to be intertwined to find solutions to the environmental crisis the world is currently facing. However, how this is supposed to be done is still unclear. Therefore, this study investigates how to organize digital service offerings to make organizations move towards more sustainable practices. The study was conducted as a case study of a company operating in the IT-sector. Data collection consisted of semi structured interviews performed with the case company, the company’s customer, and with researchers from digitalization, servitization, and environmental areas. Via a thematic data analysis, it was pointed out that there is important with a holistic perspective on sustainability work, where a company must consider their impacts from a network perspective. This promotes responsible actions with trustworthy incentives for making sustainable moves that prioritizes environmental and societal aspects. The findings revealed that the business model of a company needs to be adjusted to a changing surrounding for responsible actions to take place and last over time. Therefore, business model innovation via the dimensions of value proposition, value creation, and value delivery and capture, outlines an important perspective to consider when developing new sustainability-oriented service innovations. This in turn provides beneficial circumstances for their implementation. However, the three perspectives of the business model innovation are not enough for sustainability-oriented service innovations to be implemented without a risk for putting the company into greenwashing. Therefore, this study develops models and procedures that also considers perspectives of what sustainability is about, and what risks are associated with greenwashing and how to avoid it. It is all based upon three building blocks: knowledge, awareness, and network perspectives. At last, a workflow for how to offer a climate assessment analysis (CAA) as a sustainability-oriented service innovation is presented which contributes to a company’s movement towards more sustainable practices.

The convergence of mobile and social media, enabled by the ever-changing landscape of information and communication technologies and wireless technologies, has over the last decade, transformed our world into a Socio-Mobile Economy. Looking at the disruptive impact of this convergence on the global payment market, this study investigates the incentives behind different reactions and cooperation models that have been adopted by providers in the Swedish mobile payment market. The methodology of the study has been built on a combination of both theoretical and empirical bases. The theoretical base constitutes a literature review along the line of concepts such as innovation management, disruptive innovation, business model innovation, resource-based theory of the firm and the transaction cost theories, to identify existing gaps within the literature. The empirical base constitutes of qualitative in-depth interviews with three providers in the Swedish mobile payment market. The study shows three main reactions from the Swedish mobile payment providers. These providers have reacted to disrupt the disruption, attract a critical mass of customers, and to wrap their solutions with the right context. Currently, there is no cooperation between all three key input providers of a mobile payment solution, the banks, the MNOs and the card payment systems thus there are no full-integration or partial-integration models in the Swedish mobile payment market. Three cooperation models, the all-bank-centric, the MNO-centric and the light models were also identified in this market.

There’s increasing evidence that activities from humans are affecting the earth system to a degree that is crossing the planetary boundaries. During the last decade, Circular Economy has gained attention from both academia, companies, and policymakers and is seen as one way to address economical and sustainability issues. A circular transition requires the implementation of innovative business models, but the uptake of circular business models is still slow. In Sweden, 99,9% of all companies are classified as small and medium-sized enterprises. Those companies play an important role in the circular transition, but the process is however slow due to internal factors like lack of resources and competencies alongside other barriers like regulations, market, and lack of support. Despite a lot happening in the field of circular transition for small and medium-sized enterprises, there's still little research focused on the ongoing state of circular economy in practice. In this exploratory study, semi-structured interviews have been used to explore the ongoing state in Sweden. The aim of the study is to explore how intermediaries are supporting small and medium-sized enterprises with adopting circular economy in Sweden and what kind of challenges and opportunities the intermediaries have experienced along the circular transition process. The results show that we should go beyond the general drivers and barriers for adopting a circular economy. The challenging barriers might not be a lack of resources and regulations, it might be the lack of awareness and interest from companies themselves. What became clear during the interview study was that the environmental benefits of adopting circular economy is not the driving force but rather a result of adopting circular economy. The motivation in the first place for adopting circular economy is that it can create a better and a smarter business. There was a consensus among the intermediaries that when one is workings with companies, one must highlight the business values of a circular economy: profitability, resource efficiency, loyal customers, etc. If companies don’t see the opportunities and benefits of adopting circular economy, they won’t prioritize and allocate resources for it. The complexity of a circular transition also requires collaboration on different levels: between companies, regions, business developers, municipalities, research institutes, policy developers, etc. To enable the overall collaboration, there’s a need for a comprehensive facilitator or coordinator on different levels (national, regional, and local) that can unify the national transition.

The purpose of the study is to gain deeper knowledge in the conditions of integrating coopetition(collaboration with competitors) in the business model and how it can create value for high technology firms. The study has been delimited by studying the audiobook and podcast industry and has interviewed two audiobook companies, one podcast company and used external reports about the industry as a whole for the empirical data collection. Theories of co-opetition and business models have formed the basis for the study's analysis and motivated the study's conclusions. The results of the study show that there are good conditions for companies to integrate cooperation in their business models and that it can create value for them through three key factors: technological innovations, gaining resources and competitive advantages. How a specific coopetition should be integrated in this specific case remains to be researched further, but how the conditions look for a co-opetition to take place are positive. / Syftet med studien är att få djupare kunskap om förutsättningarna för att integrera co-opetition (samarbete med konkurrenter) i affärsmodellen och hur det kan skapa värde för högteknologiska företag. Studien har avgränsats genom att studera ljudboks- och podcastbranschen och har intervjuat två ljudboksföretag, ett podcastföretag och använt externa rapporter om branschen somhelhet för den empiriska datainsamlingen. Teorier om co-opetition och affärsmodellen har legat till grund för studiens analys och motivering till studiens slutsatser. Resultatet av studien visade att det finns goda förutsättningar för företag att integrera coopetition i sina affärsmodeller och att detta kan skapa värde för dem genom tre nyckelfaktorer: tekniska innovationer, att få resurser och skapa konkurrensfördelar. Hur en specifik co-opetitionska integreras i detta fall återstår att forska vidare på, men förutsättningarna att integrera en coopetition är positiva och visar på flera fördelar.