A research framework for analysing eBusiness models

Business models of Polish fuel and energy companies in integrated reports

The business model is undoubtedly a new issue in scientific research and currently enjoys great popularity, in recent years, it has attracted increasing attention in relation to both financial and non-financial corporate reporting. The purpose of the article is to identify business model disclosures of fuel and energy companies in Poland presented in integrated reports. The study, which examined 70 integrated reports for 2013 and 2021, involved analysing disclosures of information about the business model, analysing the content of integrated reports of companies and checking the scope and content of disclosed information in the part of the report concerning the business model. The content analysis method was used in the study, and the Likert scale was used to measure the level/quality of disclosures. The quality assessment of business model disclosures in integrated reporting is comprised of two steps: analysis of average scores of disclosures in each of the analysed years and case study analysis to compare the practical approach to disclosing information about the business model. The findings proved that the business model disclosures are at a high level. In most cases, the companies use the capital approach, complementing the business model presentations with value creation schemes. The results of the study allow for a better understanding of the logic of running a business of fuel and energy companies for all stakeholders. The article is the result of original empirical research concerning the analysis of non-financial information disclosed by Polish companies and fills a gap in scientific research on disclosing information about the business model in integrated reports. The research presented in the article contributes to the current literature on integrated reporting by using the novel dataset. 

Business models as scientific models: The question of perspective?

BACKGROUND: In the last 15 years, theoretical discussions, and empirical research on the domain of business models have grown significantly. Different authors understand and focus on either constituencies of business models or narratives. The question remains what the predictive value of business model is. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this interdisciplinary conceptual paper is to investigate and discuss business models as scientific models. METHODS: This article is conceptual, although previous studies on business models enrich this discussion. RESULTS: A narrative perspective on business models shows that they also have a predictive value that is expressed through language not in numbers, maps, and diagrams. The process of reflexivity that is contextualised and bounded in the form of a narrative lies at the centre of designing and changing the business model. The article provides substantial discussion on business models as scientific models, and their predictive power. These concepts have not been deeply discussed yet. CONCLUSIONS: An argument is provided to support the proposition that business models can be considered as scientific models that is, however, embedded in specific organizational, cultural, and technological contexts. Future research needs to be directed towards the empirical analysis of narratives in companies.

A Survey of Data Quality Measurement and Monitoring Tools

High-quality data is key to interpretable and trustworthy data analytics and the basis for meaningful data-driven decisions. In practical scenarios, data quality is typically associated with data preprocessing, profiling, and cleansing for subsequent tasks like data integration or data analytics. However, from a scientific perspective, a lot of research has been published about the measurement (i.e., the detection) of data quality issues and different generally applicable data quality dimensions and metrics have been discussed. In this work, we close the gap between data quality research and practical implementations with a detailed investigation on how data quality measurement and monitoring concepts are implemented in state-of-the-art tools. For the first time and in contrast to all existing data quality tool surveys, we conducted a systematic search, in which we identified 667 software tools dedicated to “data quality.” To evaluate the tools, we compiled a requirements catalog with three functionality areas: (1) data profiling, (2) data quality measurement in terms of metrics, and (3) automated data quality monitoring. Using a set of predefined exclusion criteria, we selected 13 tools (8 commercial and 5 open-source tools) that provide the investigated features and are not limited to a specific domain for detailed investigation. On the one hand, this survey allows a critical discussion of concepts that are widely accepted in research, but hardly implemented in any tool observed, for example, generally applicable data quality metrics. On the other hand, it reveals potential for functional enhancement of data quality tools and supports practitioners in the selection of appropriate tools for a given use case.

Patterns for Resilient Value Creation: Perspective of the German Electrical Industry during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive, often unanticipated, external disruption for many companies. As a concept for responding to such disruption, organizational resilience has recently received great attention. In the organizational context, the overriding question is how companies can become more resilient. This study aims to contribute to answering this question by identifying, categorizing, and providing specific business model patterns for achieving resilience on the corporate level. For this purpose, a review of publications by major consulting firms was conducted. Patterns were extracted from publications until a convergence criterion indicated that no new pattern could be identified considering further publications. The 110 extracted unique patterns were clustered into 13 objectives, and additionally categorized according to resilience phases, as well as business model elements, to support the application in practice. The final catalog of patterns was validated through expert interviews and thus provides organizations, such as those in the electrical industry, with an overview and specific approaches on how to tackle industrial resilience through the adaption of their business model.

The Business Model in Sustainability Transitions: A Conceptualization

Business models direct a firm’s activity to move in coherence with the objectives of the business. Current literature suggests business models can act as vital forces to facilitate sustainability transitions and highlights the urgent research call to understand the role of business model innovations in stimulating sustainability transitions. This paper addresses this research need by investigating how firms create business model innovations for system-level transformation towards sustainability. Through a systematic literature review and deductive content analysis methodology, we identify and categorize different combinations of innovative activities in a firm’s business model. Furthermore, two cases are illustrated to demonstrate the proposed conceptual model. The proposed conceptualization bridges a significant gap in the theme of sustainability and business and presents a defensible and researchable problem for transitions literature. Specifically, we find (1) shared vision and strategic dialogues among firms in different sectors as essential to develop value propositions and leverage business opportunities for sustainability in the long run; (2) companies ensure sustainable value creation and value delivery in the medium term through creation of an interdependent network of the green supply chain and collaboration with stakeholders; (3) in the short term, companies adopt sustainable practices, controlling daily operations, conducting awareness campaigns and experimenting with collaborations to deliver values based on sustainable practices.

Digital transformation of organizations: what do we know and where to go next?

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the development of the digital transformation literature and to the systematic literature review methodology.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors run a systematic literature review, followed by a rigorous thematic analysis of both academic and grey literature dataset, in order to develop a conceptual map of organizations' digital transformation. The authors aggregate the concepts and topics identified across the literature to find that they overwhelmingly tackle digital business models. At the same time, the authors identify a major blind spot resulting from ignoring the organization itself as a unit of analysis.

Findings

The findings show that developing a digital theory of the organization or the theory of digitally transformed organization is a major challenge to management researchers. The analysis exposed numerous research gaps that can be helpful for future research directions.

Originality/value

Digital transformation research enjoys an increasingly rapid rise to recognition across many academic disciplines and strongly impacts the management domain. adopt the view that published documents reflect the collective understanding of a phenomenon. This paper contributes to filtering the digital transformation literature, clarify complex relation between digital transformations of organizations and identify the key blind points.

Determining the KPIs of the German engineering industry based on the evaluation of contemporary business models

This study determines the correlation between industry-specific success patterns of the German engineering industry and the business models applied within. In order to identify this correlation, the following objectives are addressed within the framework of this paper: (1) identification and description of business models used by the German engineering industry; (2) analysis of industry-specific success patterns of the German engineering industry by the usage of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs); and (3) determination of correlation between the KPIs and the effectiveness of the business models of the German engineering industry These objectives are mainly achieved by literature research and expert surveys. The findings highlight the KPIs (overall 41) that are relevant for the respective business models. This enables a better understanding of the interrelationships of the business model, in order to derive relevant conclusions. The paper contributes to the literature as it advances this field of research in Germany, and it is one of the first studies to examine the relationship between business models and industry-specific success patterns with relevant KPIs.

Circular Economy Model Enhanced by Intelligent Assets from Industry 4.0: The Proposition of an Innovative Tool to Analyze Case Studies

Although the circular economy (CE) is recognized as a source of value creation, there is a huge gap between the vast concept of CE and its practical applications. Particularly, the lack of information and performance indicators, in terms of economic, environmental and social aspects, does not allow for the assessment of the level of circularity of the products, processes or companies. Further development of other circular activities can be limited for this reason. In addition, intelligent assets arising with the digital transformation within the “Fourth Industrial Revolution (I4.0)” can support CE to provide these lacking aspects. Thus, the objective of this paper is to highlight how and how much the circular business models are enhanced by intelligent assets from I4.0, considering several case studies found in the literature, and through the application of an assessment tool with secondary data from the selected case studies. According to the tool, the CE principles are extended to the entire product lifecycle, from product design to product utilization, within the transition to novel business strategies. Two of the considered case studies are represented in the assessment tool, as examples, to demonstrate how intelligent assets can support circular economy in the design, assessment and comparison of circular initiatives. The visualization of existing innovative business models based on CE and enhanced by intelligent assets allows for the complete and effective evaluation of materials, products, assets and processes, due to the fact that information and indicators can be collected to measure and monitor circular efficiency.

Trust as a Key Factor in Shaping the Social Business Model of Water Supply Companies

The current principles of doing business differ radically from those that were applied a few years ago. Global economic crises have shown that business must have a more social character. This gave rise to the creation of management solutions that would guarantee the satisfaction of a wide range of corporate stakeholders. In this context, ideas based on social potential began to emerge. As a consequence, the concept of social business models was born, accompanied by an attempt to search for the best business models possible in order to build the appropriate configuration of their components. According to the authors, an attribute of trust may be such a component based on which effective social business models can be built. As water supply companies are social enterprises, they have become the object of scientific research in this case. The purpose of the article is to determine the position of trust in the construction and application of social business models of water supply companies. The scope of the article includes scientific research into water supply companies in the most industrial region of Poland, Upper Silesia, with the most extensive and dense water supply network in the country. In this article, the AHP (analytic hierarchy process) method was used to conduct research. The aim of the analysis was focusing on the issue of trust as a key factor in shaping the social business model of the company. In the questionnaires, respondents were asked to answer questions on the following issues: trust-based organizational behavior at the company; trust-based social capital at the company; trust-based relationships at the company; trust-based processes and activities at the company; trust-based risk at the company; and the trust-based business model at the company. The adopted logic of the scientific argument conducted indicates that trust and its place and role in the social business model of a water supply company have a significant impact on the social and economic performance of the water supply company, and as a consequence, on increased social responsibility towards stakeholders as well. Trust even stabilizes the organization and its business model; it is also a value catalyst and neutralizes the potentially negative impact of the organization on other entities gathered around it. Trust as a stabilizer can also affect the consistency and scalability of the social business model of a water supply company.

Enabling Factors and Strategies for the Transition Toward a Circular Economy (CE)

This study aims to identify and analyze the enabling factors and strategies for the structuring and diffusion of a circular business model. Circular model structuring involves several actors, challenges, and barriers. In this context, the present study allows discussion of the business structure in line with the principles of circularity and can contribute by mapping the factors and strategies to be worked for business development in the circular context, providing an overview and guidance for academics, businesspeople, and professionals. Through a case study method, the research allowed identification of the factors and an in-depth understanding of the strategies and drivers of circular business models; from the empirical research, it will be possible to identify opportunities that align with what is already known, but also what may be specific to the context of emerging countries to enable the circular model.

Acceptance of mobile advertising by consumers in public service institutions in Lagos, Nigeria

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the acceptance of mobile advertising by consumers in public service institutions in Lagos Nigeria from the perspective of non-permission-based nature of advertising practice in Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach

– Guided by the theory of reasoned action, data were collected from 389 respondents in a sample survey using a structured questionnaire, and the variables were measured on ordinal scale.

Findings

– The respondents reported that the mobile advertising is informative; they also strongly agreed that the media is ubiquitous but irritating. Attitude of consumers towards mobile advertising, behavioural control and subjective norm have correlations with acceptance. Irritation and informativeness significantly and positively predicted acceptance of mobile advertising, while credibility and ubiquity predicted acceptance of the technology negatively. Age has a negative relationship with acceptance; both gender (male =1) and tertiary education have a significant relationship with acceptance of mobile advertising just as marital status.

Research limitations/implications

– The study focused only on public service mobile consumers in Lagos, Nigeria.

Practical implications

– Mobile adverts are ubiquitous in Nigeria, but consumers do not trust or use the adverts, although they consider them informative. The telecomm regulatory body needs to control deployment of mobile technologies for produce and service ads, so that ads will be subject to individual choices and discretion, and thereby reducing the ubiquity and increase the trust consumers have on the strategy.

Social implications

– There is hype that mobile advert has penetrated Nigerian market, but the strategy is not credulous to the people.

Originality/value

– There is no study focusing on the acceptance of this ad strategy in the public service sector in Nigeria.

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL — UNDERSTANDING THE FRONT-END AND BACK-END OF BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION

Business model innovation is becoming a central research topic in management. However, a lack of a common understanding of the nature of the business model leads to disregarding its multifaceted structure when analyzing the business model innovation process. This article proposes a more detailed understanding of the business model innovation process by drawing on existing knowledge from new product development literature and examining the front-end and the back-end of business model innovation of three leading Danish newspapers. We studied how changes introduced during the development of digital news production and delivery have affected key components of these business models, namely value creation, proposition, delivery and capture in the period 2002–2011. Our findings suggest the need to distinguish between front-end and back-end business model innovation processes, and to recognize the importance of organizational learning when incumbents are faced with disruptive technologies.

Deployment of e-health services - a business model engineering strategy

We designed a business model for deploying a myofeedback-based teletreatment service. An iterative and combined qualitative and quantitative action design approach was used for developing the business model and the related value network. Insights from surveys, desk research, expert interviews, workshops and quantitative modelling were combined to produce the first business model and then to refine it in three design cycles. The business model engineering strategy provided important insights which led to an improved, more viable and feasible business model and related value network design. Based on this experience, we conclude that the process of early stage business model engineering reduces risk and produces substantial savings in costs and resources related to service deployment.

Análise das relações interdisciplinares das pesquisas científicas em sistemas de informação

Ao rever publicações científicas, foi construído um quadro descritivo sobre as relações interdisciplinares das pesquisas em Sistemas de Informação, delineando características, curso histórico e critérios metodológicos. Para tal, foi realizada uma análise de artigos publicados em periódicos internacionais no período entre 1985 e 2005, totalizando 105 artigos. Os resultados mostram a tendência para uma abordagem interdisciplinar entre a Ciência da Informação, a Ciência da Computação e a Ciência da Administração, configurando variáveis próprias e que interagem entre si.