0000000000674565
AUTHOR
Jukka Heikkilä
Business continuity of business models : Evaluating the resilience of business models for contingencies
Company business models are vulnerable to various contingencies in the business environment that may unexpectedly render their business logic ineffective. In particular, technological advancements, such as the Internet of things, big data, sharing economy and crowdsourcing, have enabled new forms of business models that can effectively and abruptly make traditional business models obsolete. By disrupting or even diminishing companies’ revenue streams, environmental contingencies may present a significant threat to business continuity (BC). Evaluating the resilience of business models against these contingencies should therefore be a core area of BC. However, existing BC approaches tend to f…
Collaborative Business Model Innovation Process for Networked Services
This paper presents a process framework for innovating joint business models (co-BM) for multiple companies. Our framework describes the change management that should be carried out in parallel to the rigorous analysis and development of the business model details. With two illustrative cases we show that fruitful co-BM creation process in networks requires both development of the model itself, but also organizational innovation processes including mutual learning and harmonisation of operations. We claim that by understanding this dual process and its key facets might help (1) to coordinate the practical BM creation projects better and (2) to analyse which BM related decisions contribute o…
To trust or not to trust – a case of Finnish technology industry supply network
Conference paper. Presented in the EIASM 5th Workshop on trust within and between organizations, Jan 28-29, 2010, Madrid, Spain peerReviewed
Designing for performance - a technique for business model estimation
The companies are actively using business modelling to investigate new business opportunities. They are also applying various planning tools to design their processes. Unfortunately, there is a lack of techniques that would link these two planning levels. In this article we propose a technique for operational modelling. The technique aims to analyse the business model from a resource-based viewpoint. It lists the service components and provides means for analysing the extra resources and capabilities needed for producing the service. Operational model also helps in estimating the feasibility of the business ideas: It explicitly defines the metrics for measuring the success of the business m…
The Role of Business Models in Developing Business Networks
Business models have received a substantial amount of interest recently. Also, various research studies have discussed business models, especially in the context of a single company operating in mass markets. Unfortunately, these models often are not applicable for complex products or services that build on long-term knowledge about customer tastes, facilities, and skills. Especially on global markets, the asset specificity and vast geographical distances make it difficult for any single company to provide this kind of service cost-efficiently on a large scale. Instead, it calls for cooperation among multiple firms. Creation of a joint business model for a collaborative network is a necessa…
Management dilemmas in innovative supplier networks
This paper focuses on the challenges in managing innovation within supply networks. We present an empirical study on innovation collaboration between a focal company and its supply network of small and medium sized enterprises. By analysing the case from the viewpoints of the focal company, the suppliers and investors we point out three controversial issues in innovation management within the supply network: intellectual property rights, partnering versus competition, and commitment versus independency. Furthermore, we analyse the suppliers' positions with a purchasing portfolio model and present implications for innovation management practices in supply chains. peerReviewed
Sharing for understanding and doing for learning: An Emerging Learning Business Network
Changing competitive environments are forcing companies to innovate and to renew their business models in a more value-adding and customer-centric direction. Often, a prerequisite for this is that the companies are willing to combine their knowledge by openly co-operating and by creating long-term strategic networks with each other. We illustrate the importance of a business model in this co-operative arena and use it as a starting point for our discussion. Against this backdrop we are interested in how learning and knowledge sharing develop in an emerging business network. This leads us to develop a framework that combines learning with business models in order to bridge the gap between st…
Smart ICT Support for Business Networks
Modern companies lean increasingly towards innovating and renewing their business operations in a more value-adding and customer-centric direction. As a prerequisite to this, a number of companies are willing to combine their knowledge and resources, for instance by forming strategic alliances supported by a mixture of open ICT infrastructure and proprietary and interoperable ICT applications. This study examines a network of three focal companies that are seeking cost-efficient expansion of their services. As the potential market for these complex customer services is worldwide, the objective is expected to be met only with the help of ICT. Furthermore, the view among the companies is rela…
Entrepreneurship training for new ventures
Several studies in the field of international entrepreneurship have indicated the inadequacy of public policy support for new ventures and called for more tailored training programs. This paper introduces a training program created for new ventures in Central Finland and analyzes its benefits and shortcomings using a qualitative case study. The findings reveal that the training program provided useful knowledge on how to develop a business further and how to make it understandable and attractive to a funder. However, the findings also indicate that there is a need for cultural adaptation: the training program developed originally for U.S. new ventures was not fully adapted for the needs of …
Designing information systems for eBusiness networks: The return of productivity paradox
In this paper we discuss productivity paradox and the origin of business value of ICTinvestments, especially as we see that the present approaches in building ICT-based value networksof companies raises new productivity problems. The findings indicate that the organizations can reapthe benefits of ICT-investments in terms of productivity only by managing the long term processchange both at operational and management levels to match the organizational capacity andcompetitive position. This is achieved not by building information systems only, but by balancingautomational, informational and transformational effects in the business context. We analyze threealternative approaches for informatio…
Trouble in Paradise: a Case of a Technology Industry Supply Network
The development of value networks is regarded as a necessity for achieving agility in global markets. Nowadays the focal companies often state that they are committing to more in-depth partnerships with selected suppliers, which are given more responsibility over both production and R&D. In this article we study the relationship of one focal company with its suppliers and identify the main concerns regarding governance and cooperation within the studied supply network in relation with the focal company’s strategy to enhance its innovative capabilities and ensure capacity in its supplier network. By analyzing the network relationships from three differing vantage points (the focal company, t…
Entrepreneurial Opportunities Created by Electronic Grocery Shopping
Current trading of daily consumer goods, groceries, is based on large chain masters as co-ordinators and extensive use of small companies as subcontractors, stores as customer front-ends and self-service as means for picking-up and home delivery of the goods. Our research aims at sketching what will be their role in the age of Internet storefronts and seamlessly interlinked information system. We use task analysis to reveal the areas of opportunities created for entrepreneurs by changing industry operations and structure. The analysis is based on literature on entrepreneurs, explorative survey on EGSs (Electronic Grocery Shops) around the world on the Internet, and on the experiences of the…
Entrepreneurship training for new ventures: Experiences from the training program implemented in Central Finland
Paper presented at the 36th Academy of International Business (UK and Ireland chapter) Conference (AIB-UKI), Glasgow, UK, April 2-4.2009. peerReviewed
Case of Monopolies at Stake
In this chapter, our purpose is to illustrate the complexity of the outcomes of technological change and the concerns of regulators in the European gambling markets. In 2002, the Finnish Betting and Tipping Company, Veikkaus, estimated, that Finns’ Internet gambling decreased its turnover of betting by 10%. Such leakage is a reason why politicians in different states are considering imposing restrictions of online gambling to other parties of the gambling process, such as Internet service providers, banks, and credit card companies. On the other hand, one possible way to caulk the leakage could be to improve the returns of the players, but this has an adverse effect on the social and politi…
Framework and Research Agenda for Master Data Management in Distributed Environments
Master data is the foundation for relating business transactions with business entities such as customers, products, locations etc. These entities are also referred to as domains in master data literature. The integrity, availability and timeliness of master data in single-, and growingly in multi-domain combinations is crucial in eBusiness transactions over the Internet, or in the cloud for multiple stakeholders. Distributed environments set additional challenges for the management of master data. In this idea paper, we first describe master data, management processes, responsibilities and other contemporary master data management practices aiming to ensure master data quality in different…
Conscription of Network Business Models
As enterprises focus increasingly on core competencies, the importance of collaboration and knowledge sharing between organisations is greatly enhanced. This article examines the development of knowledge sharing during the initial exploratory stages of an emerging business network. We demonstrate how the business model can serve as a tool for spanning organisational boundaries. Through developing a business model, network enterprises can learn to understand each other, create common concepts within their business network and evaluate feasibility of the endeavour. peerReviewed
Joint Development of Novel Business Models
Changing competitive environment forces companies to innovate and renew their business models towards a more value-adding and customer-centric direction. Often, a prerequisite for this is that the companies are willing to combine their capabilities by co-operating and creating long-term strategic networks with each other. The formation of networks is a cyclical learning process, along which the infrastructure and strategies emerge incrementally through mutual adjustment. We analyze such network formation process among three companies that are operating in separate but complementary industries. They are seeking to expand their service offering through the use of ICT. We reflect upon this dev…
Taking Organizational Implementation Seriously: The Case of IOS Implementation
Despite of the rapid technical development, failures in information systems implementation are common and it seems obvious that the implementation of inter-organizational systems (IOS) include all the same possibilities for failures as intra-organizational systems - and unfortunately even some more. In this paper, we present some empirically proven means for avoiding problems during the implementation of IOSs. Our argumentation is based on the idea of organizational implementation of information systems, where the phases before and after the technical implementation are considered to be the most critical ones. The data from a case study are used to illustrate and support the ideas presented.
Diffusion Models in Analysing Emerging Technology-based Services
In this article we discuss the problems of utilizing innovation diffusion (or, adoption) models in developing scenarios for mobile commerce services in three European countries: Finland, Germany, and Greece. We are not to test the various diffusion models as such, but rather to utilise the fundamental ideas of the models in determining the prerequisites for, the status of, and the pace of diffusion of mobile services in these different market areas. The estimates would serve as a starting point and as a validity check for scenario development. The early experience at the research design phase show that the ‘mainstream’ diffusion approach is vulnerable to three factors specific to the adopti…
Ristivetoa : tapaustutkimus suomalaisesta koneenrakennusverkostosta
Menestyvien tuotteiden kehittäminen edellyttää innovaatioita ja niiden hyödyntämistä. Tämän esitutkimuksen pyrkimyksenä oli hahmottaa metsäklusterin koneenrakennuksen liiketoimintaverkostoja ja toiminnan luonnetta veturiyrityksen, teknologiayritysten ja pääomasijoittajien näkökulmasta. Tunnistimme haastatteluiden avulla 3 haastavaa ongelmakohtaa, jotka tulisi ratkaista verkoston innovatiivisuuden kehittämiseksi: 1) immateriaalisista oikeuksista sopiminen verkoston jäsenten kesken, 2) rajanveto partneruuden ja kilpailutuksen välillä, sekä 3) keinot joilla edesautetaan järjestelmätoimittajia sitoutumaan ja toisaalta säilyttämään riippumattomuuden päämiehestään. Ehdotamme jatkotutkimushankkeen…
Key Issues in EA-Implementation: Case Study of Two Finnish Government Agencies
Enterprise Architecture (EA) is getting more common also in public sector as a means to ensure ‘business’ and IT alignment. This study reports a follow-up and theme interviews of the key actors/informants in two EA projects in public administration offices during and half year after the projects were completed. The early experience shows that the process of establishing a government EA is a tedious and complicated process and this study considers the root causes. Three set of factors are found hindering EA’s potential to operate as a strategic alignment tool: lack of establishing proper EA governance, insufficient support for the development, and inadequate resources to do the former two.
Collaborative Business Model Innovation Process for Networked Services
This paper presents a process framework for innovating joint business models (co-BM) for multiple companies. Our framework describes the change management that should be carried out in parallel to the rigorous analysis and development of the business model details. With two illustrative cases we show that fruitful co-BM creation process in networks requires both development of the model itself, but also organizational innovation processes including mutual learning and harmonisation of operations. We claim that by understanding this dual process and its key facets might help (1) to coordinate the practical BM creation projects better and (2) to analyse which BM related decisions contribute o…