Abstract
Business models as relational devices governing transactions with the customers and stakeholders identify new rules of customer engagement and their impact on business model innovations in design-intensive industries. These industries, framed as the locus of "cultural innovation", see the customer as a product 'sense giver'. In this setting, new customer roles are explored through a case study based on a fast-growing company operating in the furniture sector. The case study highlights three main customer roles that impact business models: (i) the customer as a market bridge; (ii) the customer context as a company "showroom,"; (iii) the customer as an external company design lab.
Highlights
Business model innovation is gathering a growing attention in design and management field (Martin 2009; Osterwalder, Pigneur 2010; Battistella al. 2012)
Start-ups and new ventures are considered as the main players that introduced new business models and logics with the evolutionary waves of the digital economy
The author, going beyond the vertical integrated company concept in which the R&D exploration and exploitation are run, identifies two ways to build open business models: (i) the inside-out approach, where ideas, patents and copyrights are internally produced and licensed to external actors that take them on the market; (ii) the outside-in approach, where companies grasp ideas and technologies from external networks turning them into products to commercialize on the marketplace (Chesbrough 2006)
Summary
Business model innovation is gathering a growing attention in design and management field (Martin 2009; Osterwalder, Pigneur 2010; Battistella al. 2012). Framing business model as a ‘relational device’ the paper aims to identify business model innovation logics in design driven contexts where the relationship between product innovation and business model innovation seem to be relevant and fertile (Battistella et al 2012). To accomplish this aim, a case study based on explorative research has been conducted. The company for study was selected because it met the following three criteria: (i) had a widely acknowledged innovative business model; (ii) operates in design intensive industry where the content of innovation is based on new cultural messages and meaning conveyed by the product; (iii) generates new forms of customer relationship through new engagement roles
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