Designing an intelligent Business Model Transformation Tool

Abstract

Global companies as well as small and medium-sized businesses have to respond to fast-changing markets and new customer demands to maintain their position in competition. Therefore, business models of companies must be able to reply flexibly to new requirements and simultaneously their execution must be ensured. However, existing business model concepts and tools are too rigid and often remain on a rather abstract level. As a consequence, they support a transformation of a company not suitable enough. Therefore, we present a design science PhD-project with the aim of designing a business model configuration tool enabling higher executability of the defined business models and support business model transformations. Based on a comprehensive problem analysis and literature study, we derive a first set of meta-requirements and design principles. Additionally, we demonstrate a first prototypical instantiation of the identified design principles. The presented tool enables practitioners as well as theorists to observe changes in business models rapidly and use to tool for a transformation of a business model. Furthermore, through the configuration character of the tool, a company-tailored business model can be defined. As a final contribution, this research fosters cooperation between strategic and executive company levels which increasingly becomes an imperative capability in today’s business environments.