Collaborative Business Models Research Articles

Engaging Paradoxical Tensions in Cross-Sectoral Collaborative Business Model Development for Sustainability: A Case Study in the Urban Energy Transition

This article presents an in-depth case study on cross-sectoral collaborative business model development (CBMD) that is pressured to produce systemic sustainability transformations. Drawing on paradox theory, we identify three paradoxical tensions—value, creativity, and consumer tensions. While engaging these tensions offers synergy and creativity potential, engagement barriers limit stakeholders’ ability to harness this potential. Stakeholder networks can access synergy potential by engaging meso-level tensions through increased trust and collaboration. Yet, macro-level engagement barriers posed by governments and society lead to a reliance on incumbent patterns and reduce creativity. This research advocates for reconsidering CBMD processes and regulatory frameworks to enable engagement with these paradoxical tensions. Our implications offer insights for industries transitioning from centralized models to more individualized, decentralized approaches. The findings underscore the necessity of promoting reciprocal interactions and engagement across different levels and the early integration and strategic orchestration of stakeholders to cultivate trust and align objectives.

Value Co-creation in a Digitalised and Dematerialised World

Due to increased digitalisation and dematerialisation, the traditional value chain concept appears to be outdated. Instead, the term value network has emerged to describe how organisations co-create value in today’s economy. However, it remains unclear what contributes to success or failure of collaborative business models in value networks. The article closes this research gap. The authors identify relevant papers through a systematic literature review process and review them using qualitative content analysis. From the 45 papers analysed, 21 critical factors contributing to success or failure of business models in value networks were extracted. They can be structured along 6 dimensions. From a theoretical perspective, the article deepens the understanding of business models in value networks and provides clear perspectives for future research. From a practical perspective, managers can use the results as target variables for strategic management to ensure success of their value network.

Collaborative digitally-enabled business models for a circular economy: Sustaining, managing and protecting value in the UK plastics sector

Designing circular business models requires a combination of systems-level and company-level approaches, highlighting the importance of collaboration. While digital technologies can enable such business models, studies that shed light on the creation of multiple types of value in collaborative and digital technology-driven environments, are currently limited. This paper, therefore, aims to explore the process of designing digitally-enabled collaborative business models, using the UK plastics sector as a context that has seen a rise in new digital technology applications to plastics mandated by new regulations. To this end, we have worked with fifteen plastics sector organisations as part of an empirical qualitative study aiming to develop collaborative business models for a future plastics circular economy system in the UK. Together with the stakeholders, we have co-designed the value-retention and data-as-a-service business models that could be enabled by digital technologies such as tags. We show that the main stakeholder tensions relate to digital technology investments, access to recyclate and data, and digital asset management. We argue that such tensions might be the key cause of delaying experimentation with circular business models and enacting collaborations at the systems level. We suggest that future research could draw on quantitative data, such as investment costs to test these circular business models, in order to inform the discourse on infrastructural investments for sustainability.

Is it wise to compete or to collaborate? Remanufacturing business models under collective extended producer responsibility legislation

Collective extended producer responsibility (CPR) legislation aims to accomplish manufacturers’ extended producer responsibility (EPR) through a common channel of product recovery activities. This work intends to study the impact of the CPR legislation system on competitive and collaborative business models of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and independent remanufacturers (IRs). Therein, we developed a two-period competitive and collaborative model considering an oligopoly market scenario for analysing optimal remanufacturing and pricing strategies of OEMs and IRs. Government subsidies promote the remanufacturing activities, and their effects are examined on optimal remanufacturing and pricing decisions for competitive and collaborative models under CPR legislation. The result highlights that competition with IRs under the CPR legislation system within oligopoly market scenarios is profitable for OEMs. Furthermore, the result indicates that a competitive business model increases consumer surplus, increasing used products collection and remanufacturing. The findings benefit OEMs of identical products from implementing a profitable business model under CPR legislation to restrict the availability of low-quality remanufactured products of IRs, thereby protecting the brand image and controlling the cannibalization effect on new products selling.

Harness collaboration between manufacturing Small and medium-sized enterprises through a collaborative platform based on the business model canvas

Innovation, open innovation, and collaborative platforms are concepts in effervescence in the last few years. Innovation’s future will observe a growing number of collaborations. The links between collaboration and collaborative platforms are known in the transport and accommodation sector (such as Uber) however are less used in manufacturing. This paper aims to identify the main challenges between manufacturing firms which intend to collaborate enabled by a prototype platform. A collaborative business model was designed using the business model canvas and tested using a real case to generate valuable collaboration. Collaboration experimentation was monitored over 21 weeks between two firms of the Quebec aerospace cluster and ended with a semi-structured interview. Six challenges were identified: partner selection, commitment and trust, intellectual property management, collaboration evaluation, collaboration symmetry and terminology difficulties. Suggested solutions included, compatibility criteria between the partners, creating a vocabulary lexicon, and establishing collaboration expectations prior to collaboration.

Operationalizing Collaborative Business Models: A Practitioner Capabilities Lens

This paper offers insight into the boundary-spanning practitioners and the operationalization of their capabilities that are critical to sustainable value co-creation, delivery, and capture within collaborative business models. Few empirical studies have focused on the concept of collaborative business models - those business models in which value is co-created, delivered, and captured between practitioners outside the boundaries of a single firm - and research into the dynamic/ordinary capabilities of their boundary-spanning practitioners appears neglected. The study is centered on three firms that form a solutions collaborative (public-private) business model. A case study methodology is deployed to examine the firms as three embedded units of analysis. The data sources consist ofsemi-structured interviews supplemented by archives of publications. The findings advance understanding of practitioner dynamic/ordinary capabilities in solutions collaborative business models that are critical to support value co-creation, delivery, and capture.

Micro-foundations of dynamic capabilities to facilitate university technology transfer.

Within the university-industry ecosystem, improvement and innovation of technology transfer involve implementing appropriate dynamic capabilities. To answer the question-What are the micro-foundations of dynamic capabilities in university technology transfer?-this study investigates in-depth organizational-level dynamic capabilities in transferring university-based knowledge to business and society. Two qualitative case studies were deployed at organizational entities at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam: the Industry Alliance Office, and the Demonstrator Lab. These two organizations stimulate science- and business-oriented university technology transfer. In this context, the micro-foundations of the dynamic capabilities "sensing", "seizing" and "reconfiguring" are identified and discussed. For "sensing", which is the university's ability to explore the opportunities in the ecosystem, the micro-foundations are "selecting internal competency" and "sensing external partners". For "seizing", which supports universities in managing complementarity with industry and society, micro-foundations include "resource co-allocation" and "collaborative business model". The micro-foundations of "reconfiguring", through which universities maintain evolutionary fitness in the innovation ecosystem, are "strategic renewal", "establishing a university technology transfer-friendly environment", and "asset orchestration". This study provides researchers with a better understanding of how dynamic capabilities facilitate university technology transfer. Industrial practitioners and policymakers can consider the suggestions of the present study when pursuing collaboration with universities.

Computation Offloading Method for Large-Scale Factory Access in Edge-Edge Collaboration Mode

Large-scale manufacturing enterprises have complex business processes in their production workshops, and the edge-edge collaborative business model cannot adapt to the traditional computation offloading methods, which leads to the problem of load imbalance. For this problem, a computation offloading algorithm based on edge-edge collaboration mode for large-scale factory access is proposed, called the edge and edge collaborative computation offloading (EECCO) algorithm. First, the method partitions the directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) on edge server and terminal industrial equipment, then updates the tasks using a synchronization policy based on set theory to improve the accuracy effectively, and finally achieves load balancing through processor allocation. The experimental results show that the method shortens the processing time by improving computational resource utilization and employs a heterogeneous distributed system to achieve high computing performance when processing large-scale task sets.

How industrial symbiosis emerges through partnerships: actors, platforms, and stakeholder processes leading to collaborative business models in port industrial areas

The present paper explores how industrial symbiosis emergence unfolds within port industrial areas. A multiple case study shows how industrial symbiosis emerges through partnering and stakeholder processes that take the form of collaborative business models. Focusing on actors, platforms for collaboration, and content of stakeholder processes, the study identifies drivers for industrial symbiosis emergence, including the importance of geographical proximity and agglomeration, which identify port industrial areas as natural habitats for industrial symbiosis. A defining characteristic of industrial symbiosis emergence within port industrial areas is the collective effort of actors to bridge economic, environmental, and social objectives across private and public sectors. Finally, the paper suggests that future research on industrial symbiosis and the emergence thereof within port industrial areas may benefit from insights into corporate social responsibility and the emerging field of servitisation.

Security enhanced collaborative business model approach using blockchain and IoT

Security enhanced collaborative business model approach using blockchain and IoT

Clean energy-based teaching industry development policy in the Pelalawan technopark area

The Teaching Industry (TI) is an institutionalized R&D and innovation activity with a collaborative business model involving local governments, universities, and industry. The development of a TI by ST2P at Technopark Pelalawan based on palm oil as commodities are important to accelerate the downstream of Palm oil product, considering the potential for Palm oil plantations in Pelalawan around 393,330 hectares. The purpose of developing this TI is to encourage local government policies in developing clean energy-based industries through the development of the CPO TI at Technopark Pelalawan. This study is a qualitative descriptive analysis method, which analyzes, describes, and summarizes various conditions, and situations from various data from interviews and field observations. The result is a CPO Teaching Industry, which produces RBDPO (Refined, Bleached, and Deodorized Palm Oil) palm oil which undergoes a refining process to remove free fatty acids and purification to remove color and odors. The challenges faced by the development of the Teaching Industry are then formulated. The recommendations for the development of the Teaching Industry at Techno Park Pelalawan include accelerating the formation of managers, preparing SOPs and blueprints, and implementing CPO refinery technology as an early stage of development.

Organising direction of innovation ecosystems for extended clean energy production

This study aims to reveal how innovation ecosystems can organise value creation without a focal firm or a platform during the pre-phases of innovation. This has been scarcely researched hitherto; therefore, a participatory action research approach is used to reveal essential phenomena emerging in collaboration with research participants. An extended approach for innovation ecosystems to create value in society is hereby revealed beyond the coordination done by a focal firm or a platform, as noted in previous research. The study was conducted from September 2017 to June 2018 in a port in the Baltic Sea. Four enterprises participated in representing complementary activities for value creation in the pre-phases of establishing a new offshore wind park within the wind-energy innovation ecosystem.The findings are summarised using in the ‘EcoValue BMI’ model. The findings highlight the essential role of value proposition in innovation ecosystems in focusing and structuring the direction of complementary independent initiatives for value creation, as noted in the middle of the model. All participating enterprises could identify the overall ecosystem value proposition.This insight into the overall value proposition is realised by organising collaborative business model innovation (BMI) to set horizontal innovation directions for exploration and exploitation of interfaces and flow among ecosystem participants for cleaner energy production.Further research is required to verify and enhance the ‘EcoValue BMI’ findings through new research conducted in similar large innovation ecosystems without a focal firm or a platform to coordinate the innovation ecosystem for value creation in society.

A Variable Neighborhood Descent Matheuristic for the Drone Routing Problem with Beehives Sharing

In contemporary urban logistics, drones will become a preferred transportation mode for last-mile deliveries, as they have shown commercial potential and triple-bottom-line performance. Drones, in fact, address many challenges related to congestion and emissions and can streamline the last leg of the supply chain, while maintaining economic performance. Despite the common conviction that drones will reshape the future of deliveries, numerous hurdles prevent practical implementation of this futuristic vision. The sharing economy, referred to as a collaborative business model that foster sharing, exchanging and renting resources, could lead to operational improvements and enhance the cost control ability and the flexibility of companies using drones. For instance, the Amazon patent for drone beehives, which are fulfilment centers where drones can be restocked before flying out again for another delivery, could be established as a shared delivery systems where different freight carriers jointly deliver goods to customers. Only a few studies have addressed the problem of operating such facilities providing services to retail companies. In this paper, we formulate the problem as a deterministic location-routing model and derive its robust counterpart under the travel time uncertainty. To tackle the computational complexity of the model caused by the non-linear energy consumption rates in drone battery, we propose a tailored matheuristic combining variable neighborhood descent with a cut generation approach. The computational experiments show the efficiency of the solution approach especially compared to the Gurobi solver.

Towards a new model of EU-China innovation cooperation: Bridging missing links between international university collaboration and international industry collaboration

This paper theoretically conceptualises and empirically explores the role of international university collaboration in building transnational university–industry co-innovation networks (TUICNs) in the EU–China context, and suggests a new model of international innovation cooperation. The theoretical framework was constructed by synthesising insights from social network theory and institutional theory. The empirical exploration was based on an analysis of interviews with 18 actors engaged in EU–China innovation cooperation. The findings suggest that international university collaboration could contribute to international industry collaboration and, therefore, to the development of TUICNs by 1) matching suitable industrial partners, 2) building trust between them, 3) giving industrial actors access to new resources, (4) enhancing the reputations of international companies in their cooperation countries, and (5) creating innovative business collaboration models. The study also addresses the following paradox in innovation studies: although the vital role of universities in national/regional innovation systems has been widely studied and the global interconnectedness of innovation networks is generally acknowledged, little attention has been given to universities’ engagement in transnational innovation (eco)systems. Based on the findings, recommendations for policymakers, universities and companies are provided in light of the shifting balance of challenges and opportunities presented by China to the EU.

Collaborative circular business models in the tyre recycling

Collaborative circular business models in the tyre recycling

How industrial symbiosis emerges through partnerships: actors, platforms, and stakeholder processes leading to collaborative business models in port industrial areas

How industrial symbiosis emerges through partnerships: actors, platforms, and stakeholder processes leading to collaborative business models in port industrial areas

Evaluation of Soft Skill Training to Strengthen Collaborative Management of National Parks in Sumatera, Indonesia

A series of soft skill training in four national parks of Sumatera Island were conducted by PILI Green Network NGO, DG of Natural Resources and Essential Ecosystem Conservation of the MoEF, and Sumateran Tiger Project-UNDP for 12 months in 2019. The training aims at improving soft skill capacity of the national park staff on conflict management and collaborative actions with the communities in the buffer zone. This paper aims 1) to evaluate the soft skill training programme achievement by employing Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model; 2) to analyse factors of Training Program participants that influence on the individual soft skill enhancement by using multiple linear regression analysis. The results show that soft skill training was effective to increase the knowledge and skill of the participating staff, especially in participatory approaches, conflict management, and development of a collaborative business model. Three factors, including work experience, the suitability of background education and similar training experience, have significant influences on the individual soft skill enhancement. Training design, which was bottom-up and participatory based on the needs of the resorts as a spearheading of national park management, contributes to the success of the training implementation. The training has created a ‘common room’ for the participating staff and the communities in terms of opening communication and development of collaborative action plans at each national park.

Adopting International Learnings to Improve the Performance of New Zealand’s Infrastructure Supply Chain

Growing interest in the productivity of the infrastructure sector has increased due to cost and time overruns in major projects. In this regard, many developed countries have failed to implement a framework to ensure that project success is met through newly available technologies and business initiatives to ensure the user is the most important beneficiary. This review paper provides a review of international research relating to the life cycle, firm-level operations, and collaborative business models of infrastructure projects. The review initially identified the importance that understanding key phases and procurement models has on the efficiency of a project’s life cycle. A key indicator of the likelihood of good performance across a supply chain lies with the ability to understand the efficiencies of the firm-level operations. The literature has noted that successful projects are able to perform well across an organizations end-to-end involvement and be able to share risks among mature organizations. This paper provides a review of how a collaborative business model can benefit a project lifecycle and firm-level operations. The global research currently has identified the need for a collaborative approach that reduces the risk within all organizations through common goals, effective end-to-end project systems and consideration of the entire project lifecycle. The paper provides a detailed review of international practices in an infrastructure supply chain that have the potential to address New Zealand’s infrastructure project failures.

Market-oriented activities and communal wine consumption events: does coopetition make a difference?

ABSTRACT Earlier work has indicated that communal wine consumption events (e.g. wine tourism) are driven through employing a market orientation, namely, the firm-wide implementation of the marketing concept. Although market-oriented activities are intended to create value for customers, many vineyards and wineries are small and lack the resources and capabilities that are needed to achieve these outcomes. Consequently, there could be merits in owner-managers employing a collaborative (rather than individualistic) business model to overcome their limited tangible and intangible assets. In practice, this could be undertaken via cooperating with their competitors (coopetition) to help them to host or participate in communal wine consumption events. Therefore, grounded in resource-based theory, this current investigation reviews the literature surrounding these issues (focusing on the wine industry) to develop a conceptual framework examining the relationship between market-oriented activities and communal wine consumption events under the moderating role of coopetition. This provides the wider alcohol-focused community of scholars with new evidence on how a market orientation can be enhanced by wine producers collaborating with rival businesses to create positive experiences for their chosen customer segments. This includes drawing upon ‘best practices’ from several wine-producing nations about how decision-makers can navigate these organisation-wide activities.

The impact of the interaction between an entrepreneurial marketing orientation and coopetition on business performance

PurposeCertain small businesses do not possess the assets needed to implement a performance-enhancing entrepreneurial marketing orientation (opportunity-driven behaviours focussed on creating value for customers). Although some entrepreneurs cooperate with their competitors (coopetition) to achieve their day-to-day and long-term goals, it is unclear whether these partnerships are advantageous in this capacity. Thus, grounded in the resource-based view, the purpose of this investigation is to examine whether coopetition positively moderates the relationship between an entrepreneurial marketing orientation and financial performance.Design/methodology/approachSurvey responses were obtained from 184 small tourism and hospitality organisations in New Zealand. Following a series of robustness checks, covariance-based structural equation modelling was used to test the elements of the conceptual model.FindingsUnique insights illustrate an entrepreneurial marketing orientation yielding a negative and significant link with financial performance. Nevertheless, this result was potentially related to the entrepreneurial marketing-oriented opportunities that owner-managers pursued within the context of their sector; in particular, situations when employing an individualistic business model constrained certain decision-makers' ability to pursue “growth-oriented” objectives. However, coopetition produced a positive and significant moderating effect, enabling owner-managers to pursue opportunities via collaborative business models facilitating mutually beneficial performance outcomes.Practical implicationsOwner-managers of under-resourced small firms should be careful when implementing entrepreneurial marketing strategies utilising an individualistic business model. For example, they might pursue opportunities that are not viable and/or become over-loaded with market intelligence that they cannot handle. By collaborating with competitors, owner-managers can learn improved ways to operate within their industries, alongside being equipped with new resources and capabilities. In doing so, coopetition can help overcome some of the potential performance-limiting issues owner-managers face by being under-resourced, namely, via employing a collaborative business model.Originality/valueThis current study contributes to the extant literature by evaluating the complexities of entrepreneurial marketing practices. That is, although earlier research has focussed on the performance-driving outcomes of an entrepreneurial marketing orientation, prior studies typically overlook certain moderating factors that could influence this association. By examining the interaction between an entrepreneurial marketing orientation and coopetition on financial performance, new evidence has emerged on how owner-managers of small firms can utilise interfirm collaboration to succeed within their markets, as opposed to struggling to cope with the challenges of an individualistic business model. Specifically, an entrepreneurial marketing orientation is likely to enhance financial performance when under-resourced companies effectively collaborate with their competitors.