Business Model Innovation: Perspectives and Foundations

Summary: This is a conceptual paper that aims to identify the key perspectives on business model innovation. Understanding the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of business model innovation is crucial in facilitating organisation in reinventing their business models. Through a comprehensive literature review, three perspectives are identified. Business model innovation is a complex construct. There is no single approach or method in undertaking business model innovation. Successful undertaking of business model innovation depends on a number of factors. Dynamic capabilities and internal capabilities are just two of many important factors.

Understanding the Context of L&D

Chapter 2 recognises the important role that context plays in shaping the new directions of L&D professionals. In this chapter, Robin Bell and I discuss how L&D’s role is significantly influenced by contextual factors such as the external environment, organizational life-cycle and size, business/ industry of the organization, organizational goals and senior management’s view of strategy. Irrespective of L&D’s influence on organizational strategy, which varies amongst organizations e.g. whether L&D is a ‘scope maker’ (involved in helping to set direction) or ‘scope taker’ (involved in implementation after the direction has been set), understanding the context they operate within is crucial. This chapter discusses the sources and nature of change, and its impact on industry and organizations’ business model. We also discuss how this has influenced the general nature of work, the workforce, and ultimately, their learning and development.

Social Capital in Jordan: Wasta in Employment Selection

Social capital has emerged as a concept of great interest and potential to help understand and explain how social structures and networks impact political, social and business practices at the collective and individual levels. The basic premise is: investment in social relations will yield expected returns. Extant research has largely focused on the West; our knowledge of how social capital plays out in the Middle East is limited. We marry social capital with ‘wasta’, the strong family and tribal based connections secured in networks in the Arab world, and investigate HR managers’ perceptions of wasta in employment selection in Jordan. Often use of wasta in employment selection is related to favouritism and nepotism and the many negative outcomes of not adhering to merit-based selection. Through in-depth interview data we reveal a more nuanced and multifaceted view of wasta in employment selection. When examined through the social capital lens six distinct themes emerge: (i) wasta as an enabler to get jobs, (ii) wasta as social ties/ solidarity, (iii) wasta as a method to transfer/ attain information, (iv) wasta as a guide in decision-making, (v) wasta as an exchange, and (vi) wasta as pressure. Our findings confirm that at times wasta grants individuals unfair access to employment that is beyond their qualifications, skills, knowledge and/ or abilities. However, organisational context is relevant. In banking, not all roles are open to wasta. Where the possible negative impact on the organisation poses too great a risk HR managers feel able to resist even strong wasta. Context also emerges as being of key importance with regards to the background and business model of an organisation. Family businesses tend to operate wasta more frequently and extensively using tribal connections, religious networks and geographical area based networks as a key source in hiring. Despite globalisation and international nature of banking, wasta and tribalism feature strongly in daily business conduct in Jordan. Our paper illuminates the positive effects of wasta, e.g.as a method to transfer information, together with discussion on the dangers of ‘cloning’, a (lack of diversity), and the dangers of an incompetent workforce .

It’s Cheaper than Acquiring New Ones: Retaining Members to Your Service

The benefits of retention are well known: it’s cheaper and easier to retain existing customers than it is to try to acquire new ones. Secondly, retained customers play a vital role in the acquisition of new customers through word-of-mouth. Thirdly, retained customers have a higher monetary value, due to being more susceptible to cross-selling initiatives. So, retention is important. But, it’s difficult to achieve, especially for membership organisations. Numerous organisations work on a membership-based business model, such as health clubs, trade unions, charities and even professional associations. Often, recruiting and retaining members is fundamental to the success of these enterprises which rely on membership fees as their primary revenue stream.