Abstract
As companies engage in business model (BM) innovation, they increasingly turn to BM tools, such as the Business Model Canvas, the STOF framework, or e3-value ontology. The main advantages associated with these tools are that they establish a standard lexicon, or common language, within an organization. Despite the increasing scholarly interest in BM tools, we still lack theoretical foundations and empirical evidence for understanding their roles and uses in BM innovation. In this article, we argue for conceptualizing BM tools (i.e. models, methods, and IT support), as boundary objects that must have the capacities to overcome the knowledge boundaries between different communities of practice. Based on empirical insights from six case studies and an in-depth field study, we make three contributions: First, we identify five typical communities of practice involved in BM innovation in large organizations. Second, we analyze the knowledge boundaries between them. Third, we discuss implications for BM tool design as boundary objects with syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic capacities.
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Notes
Neutral observer means “that the people in the field situation do not perceive the researcher as being aligned with a particular individual or group within the organization, or being concerned with making money as consultants are for example […].” (Walsham, 2006)
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Appendix
Appendix
Case studies (phase 1)
Field study: BM tools
Figure 6 represents two simplified and anonymized mock-ups of BM tools used as boundary objects at SoftwareCom. It encompasses two models, a BM Canvas and an Ecosystem Canvas (left side), and a repository of general BM types (right side) that are applied at SoftwareCom. The models (left side) allow for virtual documentation of and collaboration on several BM aspects over the whole lifecycle of a BM innovation project. It allows, for instance for the creation, editing, labelling, commenting, prioritization and versioning of the BM elements in the BM canvas and the Ecosystem Canvas. The BM types (right side) include general descriptions of common BMs at SoftwareCom, their advantages, typical challenges, best practices and links to further sources and contacts. These tools are IT-enabled and used between BM innovation experts, business owners and decision boards.
Simplified representation (mock-ups) of two BM tools used as boundary objects at SoftwareCom
Field study: Data collection (phase 2)
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Schwarz, J., Legner, C. Business model tools at the boundary: exploring communities of practice and knowledge boundaries in business model innovation. Electron Markets 30, 421–445 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-019-00379-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-019-00379-2