Article: Visual tools for business model innovation

15 important questions on Article: Visual tools for business model innovation

What are the 2 main schools of thought with regards to the nature of business models?

1. Business models are something real that exist outside managers' cognition
2. Business models are cognitively constructed representations that exist in the heads of managers

What are the main 2 views within the "business models are real" school?

1. Business models are purposely designed systems
2. Business models emerge and change in an evolutionary manner

What are the 3 phases of business model innovation?

1. Initiation - understand key value logic of current BM, its potential limitations and understand firm's environment
2. Ideation - generate/select creative ideas to innovate BM
3. Integration - develop complete/consistent BM dat specifies all relevant aspects in a holistic manner
(4. Implementation)
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What are the key barriers in the 3 BMI stages?

Initiation: complexity of BM concept
Ideation: overcoming dominant business logic
Integration: aligning everything and sharing knowledge across intra- and inter-organisational boundaries

What cognitive abilities can be used to overcome the barriers in the 3 BMI phases?

Initiation: absorb complexity and reframe design problem
Ideation: take distance from dominant logic
Integration: focus attention on missing info and communicate effectively with others

What are visuals business model representations?

Self-contained, purposefully designed, two-dimensional images that contain graphic and textual elements to convey info about a business model (understanding).

What are the 2 dimensions on which VBMRs are defined?

1. Content - type of info VBMR conveys through symbols and notations
2. Graphic form - looks at graphic form the VBMR uses

What are the 3 views in the content dimension of VBMRs?

1. Elements view - visually convey a number of predefined elements, that need to be filled out with text
2. Transactional view - boxed objects (mostly actors) connected through arrows. Shows transactions.
3. Causal view - arrows connect textual elements in a causal fashion

In what groups can the graphic forms be categorised?

1. Graphic organisers (dominant, provide visual structure to textual info, such as tables)
2. Brainstorming webs (almost only used in practitioners' view, open-ended and used for out-of-the-box thinking)
3. Conceptual maps (has concepts (usually enclosed in circles/boxes, and lines that indicate a link between two concepts. Combination of graphic and webs, predefined but open-ended)

What are the 4 main takeaways from the categorising of the visualisations?

1. The majority of the visualisations use an elements view
2. Only a few focus on firm's transactions with partner organisations
3. The number of individual components ranges from 4 to more than 20 elements
4. Practice usually takes elements view, and is less strict in use of VBMRs

What are the main differences between the practitioners'  and academic view?

1. Practitioners apply a more one-sided approach that focuses on a pure elements view
2. Practitioners rarely draw on formal notations (e.g. Causal-loop diagrams)
3. Practitioners use wider boundaries, including elements from the operational or strategy layer too (despite BM being seen as the intermediate layer between these 2)

What are the characteristics of conceptual maps?

1. Describe diagrams that depict relationships between concepts, objects or ideas to organise and structure knowledge
2. Support analytical thinking
3. Mainly used in initiation phase
4. Uses boxes and bubbles, and connectors and arrows to link
5. Complementary content in causal or transactional view

What are the characteristics of brainstorming webs?

1. Describe radial diagrams that represent concepts hierarchically in an open-ended framework
2. Fosters creativity
3. Mainly used in ideation phase (possible support for initiation)
4. Uses central topic bubble and others descending hierarchically and branches
5. Complementary content in elements view

What are the main characteristics of graphic organisers?

1. Describe diagrams with pre-defined visual arrangements
2. Provide structure and focus attention
3. Mainly used in integration phase (possible support for initiation)
4. Uses labeled boxes/other graphic forms with description forms that need to be filled out
5. Complementary content mainly in the elements view

What are the main findings about graphic forms of VBMRs?

1. Graphic organisers are used the most (tabulation and boxed elements especially)
2. Few VBMRs fall in brainstorming category
3. How conceptual mapping is used, varies widely

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