Business model innovations in China: A focus on value propositions

Prior studies that examine business model innovations lack consideration on how value propositions are best developed in specific contexts or how restructuring other components can deliver on value propositions. This article first identifies three types of Chinese consumption behaviors—imitation-based “good-enough” consumption, renqing consumption, and face consumption—and their corresponding value propositions based on value-hierarchy theory. We then look at Chinese companies that illustrate how business model innovations that focus on the targeted value propositions are initiated, formulated, and implemented. In particular, we identify four types of business model innovations: imitation-based “good-enough” business models, renqing business models, face business models, and hybrid business models. We conclude with practical implications for conducting and implementing business model innovations in China.     

Doing business in China II. Investing and managing in china—how to dance with the dragon

This article presents the second part of a comprehensive analysis of the key issues involved in conducting business in China. It provides practical advice and recommendations on how to invest and manage successfully in the world's most complex market (“know‐how”). Topics include investment strategies, market‐entry options, key factors for success in management, as well as functional strategies for optimizing the value chain. Chinese business practices and culture, as well as different opportunities and threats, also are discussed. A key theme is that foreign investors and businessmen entering China and managing on the ground have to devise and execute intelligent strategic approaches that fully leverage new “third growth wave” opportunities in China and create a market niche in an extremely competitive environment. Otherwise, they will produce similarly disappointing results as most foreign investment in the Central Kingdom so far. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Establishing a system for innovation in a professional services firm

Professional service firms are facing new competitive challenges in a global market with more value-focused clients, service commoditization, regulatory changes, and new Internet-enabled business models. They increasingly need to improve competitiveness through sustained innovation of the value they provide and the efficiency with which they provide it. But how can firms establish an effective and sustainable innovation system? This Executive Digest shares a best practice model for innovation based on academic research and honed by a decade of practical experience in application across professional service firms in consulting projects. This work covers how to develop innovation strategies by establishing processes and organization to support innovation, providing innovation training, developing new services, and re-engineering existing services. The author, Alastair Ross, details the practices required and shares some of the challenges encountered in realizing them. This article draws heavily on his latest book, Innovating professional services: Transforming value and efficiency.     

“Managing” Corporate Community Involvement

In academic research, many attempts have been undertaken to legitimize corporate community involvement by showing a business case for it. However, much less attention has been devoted to building understanding about the actual dynamics and challenges of managing CCI in the business context. As an alternative to existing predominantly static and top-down approaches, this paper introduces a social movement framework for analyzing CCI management. Based on the analysis of qualitative case study data, we argue that the active role of employees pressuring for CCI policies and practices, as well as the organization audience responses to their efforts, are at the core of the challenges involved in managing CCI. These challenges also pose limits to how far CCI can be extended to a “business as usual” activity.     

The virtual reality value chain

Virtual reality (VR) technology is predicted to become indispensable in the business world, as it fundamentally reimagines the ways in which firms interact with customers. This technology has sparked a VR ecosystem, with multiple types of firms and other stakeholders interacting to create value. Firms need to define their roles in this ecosystem in order to capitalize on the opportunities and address the challenges they face when navigating its complexities. This article develops a VR value chain that illustrates how the use of VR technologies adds value to key stakeholders. It also provides an understanding of the current state of the VR ecosystem and serves as a source for strategic managerial decision making and future VR research.     

Will the new competitive landscape cause your firm's decline? It depends on your mindset

A view of the new competitive landscape shows globalization, rapid technological change, and hypercompetition as conduits leading to either organizational decline or organizational growth. In this article we explain how managers can use four mindsets to convert potential threats posed by these environmental challenges into pathways of prosperity, instead of pathways of decline. A global mindset, or the ability to view the world using a broad perspective, converts globalization threats into growth opportunities by thinking beyond geographic boundaries, valuing integration across borders, and appreciating regional and cultural diversity. An innovation mindset, meaning a mental framework that fosters development and implementation of new ideas, transforms rapid technological change threats into opportunities by valuing constant generation of new ideas and business models, realizing sources of new ideas, and stressing next practices rather than best practices. A virtual mindset, or the ability of managers to hand over their firms’ activities to external providers, turns hypercompetition into prospects for growth by facilitating flexibility and responsiveness. Finally, a collaboration mindset, meaning a willingness to engage in business partnerships, converts all three challenges into opportunities by allowing firms to form successful partnerships that can lead to synergy by combining business complementarities.     

Balancing acts: Managing employees and reputation in social media

Abstract

Although previous studies have shown that social-media platforms offer companies new ways to gain business value, they have also identified fundamental brand-related challenges in social media. The purpose of this paper is to complement the extant literature by addressing the ways in which companies manage their reputation in social media, focusing on the role of employees. We first illustrate how social-media environments amplify the need for distinct corporate reputation-management practices and, second, how challenges and solutions vary across companies in different sectors and businesses. We contribute to prior research by conceptualising corporate reputation management in social media as balancing acts, which take place in relation to different, contradictory, and sometimes paradoxical priorities related to branding and managing employees.     

Responsible Marketing: Can Social Enterprises Show the Way?

In this article, the authors present a new perspective on responsible marketing. We discuss if and how social enterprises can present a new understanding of responsible marketing. Relevant publications (14 on social entrepreneurship, 40 on marketing in non-profit organizations and social enterprises and 41 papers on marketing) are selected and reviewed. The result of the literature analysis and synthesis show that social enterprises can gain from a more formal, systematic approach to marketing. Since social enterprises prioritize social goals over business results, successful adoption of marketing policies and practices can help then create a blueprint for responsible marketing. Marketing of socially relevant products and services by social enterprises thus create a new paradigm of responsible marketing. Such models can also be useful for larger corporations who look at social business and shared value creation as part of their business and marketing strategy.     

Artificial intelligence and machine learning as business tools: A framework for diagnosing value destruction potential

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) may save money and improve the efficiency of business processes, but these technologies can also destroy business value, sometimes with grave consequences. The inability to identify and manage that risk can lead some managers to delay the adoption of these technologies and thus prevent them from realizing their potential. This article proposes a new framework by which to map the components of an AI solution and to identify and manage the value-destruction potential of AI and ML for businesses. We show how the defining characteristics of AI and ML can threaten the integrity of the AI system’s inputs, processes, and outcomes. We then draw from the concepts of value-creation content and value-creation process to show how these risks may hinder value creation or even result in value destruction. Finally, we illustrate the application of our framework with an example of the deployment of an AI-powered chatbot in customer service, and we discuss how to remedy the problems that arise.     

Fine tuning market oriented practices

Being more market oriented—in other words, getting closer to customers while keeping a wary eye on competitors in order to respond quickly and effectively to changing market conditions—has long been viewed as a key way of improving competitive advantage. However, there is still a lack of understanding about how to optimize the implementation of market oriented business strategies, particularly in the service sector. This article addresses that gap by investigating how customer and competitor focused practices can be fine tuned to create differential advantages. An in-depth qualitative study of professional, financial, and business service firms in New Zealand suggests that how well market oriented practices are implemented is much more important than the range of practices that are adopted.     

Preparing the Human Capital for the New Millennium Using Information Technology

Abstract

Information technology is transforming the economy at a breathtaking speed. The effect of technology on global business practices is profound and pervasive. These trends are changing and shaping the global economic landscape in the new millennium. These developments have major implications for the knowledge skills required for success in business in the information age. Students must be prepared for the challenges and opportunities that each of these trends represents. Therefore, the new knowledge economy demands changes in the models of global business education. Based on our experiences at our respective universities, this article describes how we are changing not only the way we teach, but also what we teach-as well as altering the way our universities do business.     

A Comparative Study of Web-Based Technology Applications in Corporations

Due to the complexity of international trade and intense global competition, businesses today are facing challenges that were unthinkable a decade ago. To effectively respond to these challenges, companies continue to explore new ways to measure and extend value to their existing and new customer base. In the past, business practices have used expensive and time consuming tools to manage day-to-day operations. However, with technology advancing at a rapid speed, companies are forced to incorporate new technologies into their organizational decision processes to remain competitive and to maintain or expand market share. One technological tool that has become increasingly valuable to business firms is the internet. The evolution of the internet has resulted in numerous web-based tools that have proven to be flexible and data rich enhancements in a wide variety of business applications. This research examines how corporations utilize the internet in their internal and external business decision processes. The study highlights the benefits, similarities, and differences between SMEs and large firms with regard to the applications of these technologies.     

How blockchain technologies impact your business model

Much of the attention surrounding blockchain today is focused on financial services, with very little discussion about nonfinancial services firms and how blockchain technology may affect organizations, their business models, and how they create and deliver value. In addition, some confusion remains between the blockchain (with definite article) and blockchain (no article), distributed ledger technologies, and their applications. Our article offers a primer on blockchain technology aimed at general managers and executives. The key contributions of this article lie in providing an explanation of blockchain, including how a blockchain transaction works and a clarification of terms, and outlining different types of blockchain technologies. We also discuss how different types of blockchain impact business models. Building on the well-established business model framework by Osterwalder and Pigneur, we outline the effect that blockchain technologies can have on each element of the business model, along with illustrations from firms developing blockchain technology.     

Innovative ways of raising funds and adding value: A stakeholder approach to whole business securitization

Whole business (WB) securitization is a corporate fundraising strategy that allows companies to realize the full value of their operating assets in cooperation with their stakeholders. In a WB securitization, the company raises funds by issuing securitization bonds backed by its operating assets. A characteristic feature of this funding strategy is that it allows investors to impose operating conditions which obligate the company to develop its business strategy and operations. Hence, investors can influence the branding and customer service practices, as well as the stakeholder relationships of the company. Herein, we outline how managers of the securitized assets and investors can add value by adopting a stakeholder approach to whole business securitization.     

Choose wisely: Crowdfunding through the stages of the startup life cycle

Crowdfunding is attractive to startups as an alternative funding source and offers nonmonetary resources through organizational learning. It encompasses the outsourcing of an organizational function, through IT, to a strategically defined network of actors (i.e., the crowd) in the form of an open call—specifically, requesting monetary contributions toward a commercial or social business goal. Nonetheless, many startups are hesitant to consider crowdfunding because little guidance exists on how the various types of crowdfunding add value in different life cycle stages and which type is best suited for which stage. In response to this gap, this article introduces a typology of crowdfunding, the benefits it offers, and how specific benefits relate to the identified crowdfunding types. On this basis, we present a framework for choosing the right crowdfunding type for each stage in the startup life cycle, in addition to providing practical advice on crowdfunding best practices. The best practices outlined have shown demonstrable contributions toward achieving funding goals and are likely to prove valuable for startups.     

Implementing new business models: What challenges lie ahead?

What strategic choices do business leaders make when implementing new business models? This study tries to answer this question by analyzing the development of several business model innovations that were new to the industry. We find that business model innovators face four strategic trade-offs and accompanying tensions during the implementation of their business model innovation process: (1) the level of independence granted to the developer (independence vs. dependence), (2) the degree to which the roadmap is planned in advance (discovery vs. planned execution), (3) the degree to which the value proposition challenges the status quo (challenging vs. maintaining status quo), and (4) the rigor to which business model innovators preserve the logic of the initial value proposition (solid vs. fluid logic). Our in-depth analysis reveals that business model innovators make pragmatic decisions that may deviate from the guidelines offered by existing literature, and we offer insights into the drivers behind these decisions.     

Digital transformation: Five recommendations for the digitally conscious firm

Digital transformation is one of the key challenges facing contemporary businesses. The need to leverage digital technology to develop and implement new business models forces firms to reevaluate existing capabilities, structures, and culture in order to identify what technologies are relevant and how they will be enacted in organizational processes and business offerings. More often than not, these profound changes require firms to revisit old truths as they develop strategies that thread the needle between beneficial innovation and harmful disruption. This article uses the Internet of Things (IoT) as a backdrop to demonstrate the concerns associated with transformative technologies and offers five recommendations as to how firms can develop the strategies needed for digital transformation and become digitally conscious: (1) Start small and build on firsthand benefits; (2) team up and create competitive advantage from brand recognition; (3) engage in standardization efforts; (4) take responsibility for data ownership and ethics; and (5) own the change and ensure organization-wide commitment. As such, this article shows that digital transformation should be a top management priority and a defining trait of corporate business strategy, and that by becoming digitally conscious, firms may get a head start on their transformation journey.     

Responsible Leadership in Global Business: A New Approach to Leadership and Its Multi-Level Outcomes

The article advances an understanding of responsible leadership in global business and offers an agenda for future research in this field. Our conceptualization of responsible leadership draws on deliberative practices and discursive conflict resolution, combining the macro-view of the business firm as a political actor with the micro-view of leadership. We discuss the concept in relation to existing research in leadership. Further, we propose a new model of responsible leadership that shows how such an understanding of leadership can address the challenges of globalization. We thereby propose positive outcomes of responsible leadership across levels of analysis. The model offers research opportunities for responsible leadership in global business.     

A decentralized token economy: How blockchain and cryptocurrency can revolutionize business

As the underlying technology of bitcoin, blockchain is expected to create a new economic system by revolutionizing the way we communicate over the internet. Blockchain seeks to improve information security and transparency by sharing encrypted data among peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Due to its emphasis on security and trust, there is increased demand for blockchain’s application in a variety of business sectors. The decentralized nature of blockchain creates the new concept of a token economy in which the community’s revenue can be allocated to the actual content producers and service users who create value. This article looks at how blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are evolving and interconnected, creating a token economy through different business models. Blockchain is expected to be a key technology that enables new protocols for the establishment of a token economy in the future, leading to a new economic paradigm.