Early Phases of Business Model Innovation: An Ideation Experience Workshop in the Classroom

Abstract

ABSTRACTAs the mantra “innovate your business model or die” increases in popularity among practitioners and academics, so does the need for novel and feasible business models. In this article, we describe an ideation experience workshop, conducted in an undergraduate business course, in which students, guided by their lecturers and two industry representatives, developed business models in the early phases of a company's new blood alcohol level testing device. The students based their business models on the nine building blocks of a Business Model Canvas tool. The workshop confirmed that the three learning objectives were achieved as students acquired knowledge, created problem solutions, and presented results. The success of the workshop is attributable to the opportunity it gives students to work with an actual company, to experiment with business model innovation, and to learn from evaluators’ feedback.