In an atmosphere of rapidly changing business environments and intense competition, adequate and timely business models are crucial for companies. Current research mainly focuses on business model development that often neglects the legacy of established companies. The paper at hand addresses this research gap by a process design which allows established companies to rethink, improve, and continually innovate their business models. Following a design science research approach, requirements for improving business models are identified by the analysis of existing literature and by expert interviews. Collaboration Engineering and a multilevel evaluation are applied to create a continuous and implementable process design for business model improvement – including specific activities, instructions, and tools. The process design represents a nascent design theory in form of an “invention” type of knowledge contribution. Moreover, going beyond existing literature, the importance of collaboration between participants in a business model improvement project is highlighted. From a practical perspective, the developed process design enables companies for continuous and recurring business model improvement without the ongoing support of professional moderators or consultants.

中文翻译：

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克服持续商业模式改进的挑战

在瞬息万变的商业环境和激烈竞争的氛围中，充足、及时的商业模式对企业至关重要。目前的研究主要集中在商业模式的开发上，而往往忽略了老牌公司的遗产。手头的论文通过一种流程设计解决了这一研究空白，该流程设计允许成熟的公司重新思考、改进和不断创新其商业模式。遵循设计科学研究方法，通过对现有文献的分析和专家访谈来确定改进商业模式的要求。协作工程和多层次评估被应用于为业务模型改进创建持续且可实施的流程设计——包括特定的活动、说明和工具。流程设计以“发明”类型的知识贡献形式代表了一种新生的设计理论。此外，超越现有文献，强调了商业模式改进项目参与者之间合作的重要性。从实践的角度来看，开发的流程设计使公司能够在没有专业版主或顾问的持续支持的情况下持续和重复地改进业务模式。