Business model innovation

Michael Zollenkop

2006

The latest publication in our Ph.D. series, by Michael Zollenkop, is entitled "Business model innovation". The book focuses on how management can recognize external opportunities and threats in their business models early on. It will also look at how they can create business model innovations that help them safeguard their company's competitiveness.

Business models are innovative analysis and design tools used to manage and steer companies. They can also be used to create and maintain cross-company value chain partnerships and provide offerings across industries.

They are subject to numerous influences from the corporate world, which include technological and sociodemographic changes. This means business models are not indefinitely competitive. Instead, they must be actively adjusted by management to provide customers with future benefits and generate competitive advantages over the competition. Such business model innovations can also be based on components of the overall business model or on the interrelations between these components.

The work contains a host of state-of-the-art approaches that have been applied in selected industries, so they can be put to practical use in consulting. An important element is the business model check. Michael Zollenkop looks into the factors that influence and determine the business model and develops an early warning system. The latter helps him ascertain the business model's future viability and identify any possible need for action based on the opportunities and threats involved. He introduces categories of business model innovation to help develop innovative models. These can be specified on the basis of scenarios and compared with corporate reality. Finally, the newly established concept of the business model lifecycle has a major impact on the timing of an innovation to the model.