Describing innovative business models and evaluating their wealth potential – Cases Stora Enso and E-bay

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli analysoida liiketoimintamalleihin liittyviä teorioita ja erilaisten mallien pohjalta rakentaa selkeä teoria, jota yritykset voivat käyttää määritellessään ja analysoidessaan liiketoimintamalleja. Tutkimuksen kohteena olleet yritykset voitiin jaotella sisäisesti fokusoituneisiin ja ulkoisesti suuntautuneisiin. Jaottelun pohjalta oli mahdollista tehdä johtopäätöksiä koskien liiketoimintamallien potentiaalia. Tutkimus oli luonteeltaan kvalitatiivinen. Tutkimuksen tuloksena on liiketoimintamallien rakentamiseen ja analysointiin sopiva työkalu, jota voidaan käyttää yrityksen strategisessa suunnittelussa.

The Business Models of Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturers. Case: Cisco Systems.

Tutkielman tavoitteena oli tarkastella telekommunikaatiolaitevalmistajien liiketoimintamalleja. Tutkielma jakaantuu teoreettiseen ja empiiriseen osaan. Teoreettinen osa keskittyy lähinnä liiketoimintamallin käsitteen määrittelyyn. Olemassa olevien määritelmien, sekä liiketoimintamallin käsitteeseen läheisesti liittyvien termien, pohjalta luotiin liiketoimintamallille uusi malli. Tutkielman empiirinen osa keskittyy case-yritys Cisco Systemsin liiketoimintamallin määrittelyyn ja kehityksen kuvaamiseen. Liiketoimintamallin kehitystä seurattiin kahden vuoden ajalta perehtymällä lähinnä yrityksen lehdistötiedotteisiin, artikkeleihin ja muuhun julkiseen materiaaliin. Ciscon lisäksi empiirisessä osassa tutkittiin kahdeksan muun laitevalmistajan liiketoimintamallien kehitystä. Empiirisen osan päätavoitteena oli selvittää, miten telekommunikaatiolaitevalmistajien liiketoimintamallit kehittyvät nyt ja tulevaisuudessa.

Business models enhancing the diffusion of mobile Internet in emerging markets

Tämän tutkimuksen päätavoitteena oli selvittää, millaiset liiketoimintamallit soveltuvat mobiilin internet-liiketoiminnan harjoittamiseen kehittyvillä markkinoilla. Tavoitteena oli myös selvittää tekijöitä, jotka vaikuttavat mobiilin internetin diffuusioon. Tutkimus tehtiin käyttäen sekä kvantitatiivista että kvalitatiivista tutkimusmenetelmää. Klusterianalyysin avulla 40 Euroopan maasta muodostettiin sisäisesti homogeenisiä maaklustereita. Näiden klustereiden avulla oli mahdollista suunnitella erityyppisille markkinoille soveltuvat liiketoimintamallit. Haastatteluissa selvitettiin asiantuntijoiden näkemyksiä tekijöistä, jotka vaikuttavat mobiilin internetin diffuusioon kehittyvillä markkinoilla. Tutkimuksessa saatiin selville, että tärkeimmät liiketoimintamallin elementit kehittyvillä markkinoilla ovat hinnoittelu, arvotarjooma ja arvoverkko. Puutteellisen kiinteän verkon todettiin olevan yksi tärkeimmistä mobiilin internetin diffuusiota edistävistä tekijöistä kehittyvillä markkinoilla.

Business Models of Packaging Machinery Manufacturers – Case Study

The goal of the study was to find a proper frame to understand business models and study business models of the chosen companies in packaging machinery manufacturing. Good practices and tips are searched from business models which have helped companies to success. Packaging industry’s future is also examined in front of different kinds of changes and the influence which they have on machinery manufacturer’s business models. In the theory part business models’ history and the best frame suitable for this study are presented. The chosen case companies have been discussed according to the frame, and they have been compared to each other to point out the differences. The good practices noticed in companies and according to information from other sources, new business model has been constructed including things that should be noticed while constructing a new business model. The information sources of this study where interviews, annual reports, companies presentations and web pages. The type of study was an interpretative case study.

Analysis of electricity distribution network operation business models and capitalization of control room functions with DMS

Electricity distribution network operation (NO) models are challenged as they are expected to continue to undergo changes during the coming decades in the fairly developed and regulated Nordic electricity market. Network asset managers are to adapt to competitive technoeconomical business models regarding the operation of increasingly intelligent distribution networks. Factors driving the changes for new business models within network operation include: increased investments in distributed automation (DA), regulative frameworks for annual profit limits and quality through outage cost, increasing end-customer demands, climatic changes and increasing use of data system tools, such as Distribution Management System (DMS). The doctoral thesis addresses the questions a) whether there exist conditions and qualifications for competitive markets within electricity distribution network operation and b) if so, identification of limitations and required business mechanisms. This doctoral thesis aims to provide an analytical business framework, primarily for electric utilities, for evaluation and development purposes of dedicated network operation models to meet future market dynamics within network operation. In the thesis, the generic build-up of a business model has been addressed through the use of the strategicbusiness hierarchy levels of mission, vision and strategy for definition of the strategic direction of the business followed by the planning, management and process execution levels of enterprisestrategy execution. Research questions within electricity distribution network operation are addressed at the specified hierarchy levels. The results of the research represent interdisciplinary findings in the areas of electrical engineering and production economics. The main scientific contributions include further development of the extended transaction cost economics (TCE) for government decisions within electricity networks and validation of the usability of the methodology for the electricity distribution industry. Moreover, DMS benefit evaluations in the thesis based on the outage cost calculations propose theoretical maximum benefits of DMS applications equalling roughly 25% of the annual outage costs and 10% of the respective operative costs in the case electric utility. Hence, the annual measurable theoretical benefits from the use of DMS applications are considerable. The theoretical results in the thesis are generally validated by surveys and questionnaires.

Media Library Online (MLOL). Business Models for E-Book Lending in Libraries

Esitys Kirjastoverkkopäivillä 23.10.2012 Helsingissä

Comparative Analysis of Solar PV Business Models

The goal of the thesis is to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of solar PV business model and point out key factors that affect the efficiency of business model, the results are expected to help in creating new business strategy. The methodology of case study research is chosen as theoretical background to structure the design of the thesis indicating how to choose the right research method and conduction of a case study research. Business model canvas is adopted as the tool for analyzing the case studies of SolarCity and Sungevity. The results are presented through the comparison between the cases studies. Solar services and products, cost in customer acquisition, intellectual resource and powerful sales channels are identified as the major factors for TPO model.

OA business models for Finnish scholarly journals?

Presentation given at the Nordic Open Access Forum meeting in Copenhagen, June 24, 2014.

Sustainable Business models for Open Access Services

Panel at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

New business models for open research

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Future of Newspaper Business Models in Finland

The purpose of this Master’s thesis was to study the business model development in Finnish newspaper industry during the next then years through scenario planning. The objective was to see how will the business models develop amidst the many changes in the industry, what factors are affecting the change, what are the implications of these changes for the players in the industry and how should the Finnish newspaper companies evolve in order to succeed in the future. In this thesis the business model change is studied based on all the elements of business models, as it was discovered that the industry is too often focusing on changes in only few of those elements and a more broader view can provide valuable information for the companies. The results revealed that the industry is affected by many changes during the next ten years. Scenario planning provides a good tool for analyzing this change and for developing valuable options for businesses. After conducting series of interviews and discovering forces affecting the change, four different scenarios were developed centered on the role that newspaper will take and the level at which they are providing the content in the future. These scenarios indicated that there are varieties of options in the way the business models may develop and that companies should start making decisions proactively in order to succeed. As the business model elements are interdepended, changes made in the other elements will affect the whole model, making these decisions about the role and level of content important for the companies. In the future, it is likely that the Finnish newspaper industry will include many different kinds of business models, some of which can be drastically different from the current ones and some of which can still be similar, but take better into account the new kind of media environment.

NEW BUSINESS MODELS – Sustainability as a main focus

A business model is a structure frame of an organization that can bring significant benefits and competitive advantage when structured properly. The aim of this paper was to observe and describe development of business models’ and identify factors and elements of a business model that are in a key role from the perspective of an organizational sustainability. One is striving to bring out in this thesis how should truly sustainable business model look like and what are main characteristics of it. Additionally, some recommendations that could be helpful in order to build sustainable and balanced business model in a company are presented in this work. The meaning was to make theoretical and in some extent practical acquaintance with such new business models as open business model and sustainable business model. Long-term sustainability achievement in a company was in a centric role and used as a main criteria when constructing sustainable business model structure. The main research question in this study aims to answer: What a firm should consider in order to develop profitable and sustainable business model? This study is qualitative in nature and it was conducted using content analyze as a main method of this research. The perspective of the target data in this study is an outlook of its producers of how sustainability is reached in an organization throw business model and which practices are important and has to be taken into account. The material was gathered mainly from secondary sources and the theoretical framework was outright built based on secondary data. The secondary data that have been mostly dissertations, academic writings, cases, academic journals and academic books have been analyzed from the point of view of sustainability perspective. As a result it became evident that a structure of a business model and its implementation along with a strategy is often what leads companies to success. However, for the most part, overall business environment decides and delimits how the most optimal business model should be constructed in order to be effective and sustainable. The evaluation of key factors and elements in business model leading organization to sustainability should be examined throw triple bottom line perspective, where key dimensions are environmental, social and economic. It was concluded that dimensions should be evaluated as equal in order to attain total long lasting sustainability, contradicting traditional perspective in business where profit production is seen as only main goal of a business.