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Defines clear steps for growth planning that support answers to the crucial question: How and where are you planning to scale up the business and what talent do you need to implement this?

As the “Business model value matrix” shows, having ‘happy customers’ is only one determinant of a business model’s success. The other essential block of diagnostic questions deals with the current state and prospects of the firm’s growth.

We found that companies that have found ways to keep their business models in a winner’s state can provide clear, evidence-based answers to questions about growth opportunities and risks, while their less successful peers have difficulty addressing the issues. Continuous collecting and analyzing of this information allows successful companies to embrace the strategy-as-learning model of development, built around active learning and proactive adjustment to evolving environment.

To develop a strategy for moving to and sustaining the Winner state, managers must clearly articulate and test a set of hypotheses about the mechanisms of their company’s growth. The first step on this path is related to obtaining a clear view on the factors that underpin the current financial performance.

High-performance cultures make sure that each manager has the clear answers to the questions of value, growth and digitization in order to learn, experiment and implement the company business model agenda. The unproductive cultures, on the other hand, are sustained by managerial teams that usually do not have the answers to these crucial questions, but are very good at political games.

Business models and the business model concept have become a fixture of scholarly and managerial attention. With a focus on how actors create, capture and disseminate value, business model research holds the promise to inform the tourism sector’s search for ways to innovate and change outdated business practices. Yet, the concept has inspired little research tackling the contingencies of the tourism context. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap in this review and research agenda on business models in tourism.

In this paper, the authors review and synthesize contributions from publications in EBSCO, Emerald Insight, ProQuest and Science Direct databases, that make explicit use of the business model concept in tourism (anytime up to September 2016). We conceptualize the identified articles as a coherent body of knowledge on business models in tourism with the objective of identifying common themes that characterize existing contributions.

From the review of 28 qualified articles, the authors identify four emergent themes: sector-specific configurations, the role of different value types, design themes for consistency and regulatory contingencies. These themes inform three domains in which the authors present avenues for tourism-specific studies on business models, as well as their management and innovation that the authors position in relation to the general business model literature.

This review details how researchers across disciplines conceptualize the business model. Together with the identified directions for further research, this literature review thus establishes a common conceptual basis and stock of knowledge for the study of business models in tourism research.

The concept of modularity has gained considerable traction in technology studies as a way to conceive, describe, and innovate complex systems, such as product design or organizational structures. In the recent literature, technological modularity has often been intertwined with business model innovation, and scholarship has started investigating how modularity in technology affects changes in business models, both at the cognitive and activity system levels. Yet we still lack a theoretical definition of what modularity is in the business model domain. Business model innovation also encompasses different possibilities of modelling businesses, which are not clearly understood nor classified. We ask when, how, and if modularity theory can be extended to business models in order to enable effective and efficient modelling. We distinguish theoretically between modularity for technology and for business models, and investigate the key processes of modularization and manipulation. We introduce the basic operations of business modelling via modular operators adapted from the technological modularity domain, using iconic examples to develop an analogical reasoning between modularity in technology and in business models. Finally, we discuss opportunities for using modularity theory to foster the understanding of business models and modelling, and develop a challenging research agenda for future investigations.

This paper aims to review and synthesise the recent advancements in the business model literature and explore how firms approach business model innovation.

A systematic review of business model innovation literature was carried out by analysing 219 papers published between 2010 and 2016.

Evidence reviewed suggests that rather than taking either an evolutionary process of continuous revision, adaptation and fine-tuning of the existing business model or a revolutionary process of replacing the existing business model, firms can explore alternative business models through experimentation, open and disruptive innovations. It was also found that changing business models encompasses modifying a single element, altering multiple elements simultaneously, and/or changing the interactions between elements in four areas of innovation: value proposition, operational value, human capital and financial value.

The conflicting approaches exist in the literature on how firms change their business models, this review synthesises these approaches and provide a clear guidance as to the ways through which business model innovation can be undertaken.

The Physical Internet (PI) is an emerging concept that applies the Digital Internet as a design metaphor for the development of sustainable, interoperable and collaborative freight transport. With the aim of aiding researchers and policy makers in their future efforts to develop efficient logistics systems, the purpose of this paper is to present a review of the existing literature on the PI, to critically discuss the concept and to outline a research agenda.

The literature review investigates scientific papers, project reports, specifications and other publications related to PI. In total, 46 publications were finally analyzed. The approach used in this paper is technology adoption by firms. The authors examine the PI based on four factors: organizational readiness (technological blueprints), external pressure (promised effects), perceived benefits (business model) and adoption.

A growing number of strategies, blueprints and specifications have been developed for PI, yet there are no currently developed models that illustrate how the move from the entrenched logistics business models to the PI could ensue. There is a lack of understanding of the business models needed that can involve critical actors and promote the adoption of the PI concept.

While using the internet as a metaphor for reimagining physical transports is certainly exciting, this review and analysis suggest that several research questions need to be addressed before further PI blueprint work is carried out.

The “grand challenge” of sustainability in logistics needs to be addressed and improved, but the authors’ analysis suggests that, to some extent, it is uncertain how the PI will contribute to improving sustainability, and why logistics service providers should engage in PI. Policy makers and practitioners are provided with critical issues to consider in the practical development and adoption of the concept.

This paper provides an outsider and technology-adoption perspective of PI research, as well as important implications for policy makers and researchers.

This paper aims to reflect on different issues and perspectives on returns on investments made by MNEs towards social development. Need for an inclusive society drives accountable and effective cooperation between different actors in a market. Although multinational enterprises (MNEs) that operate in developing markets invest in social development, their managers find it very challenging to incorporate social development agenda into their business practices. Therefore, academics should develop business models which can guide thoughts and actions of managers of MNEs towards social development while allowing them to hold on to the business objectives and targets.

A review of current literature with available anecdotes about business practices helped the author to form a viewpoint and make recommendations.

The objective of the eighth millennium development goal is to promote global partnership between MNEs and domestic firms with or without intervention of a subsidiary. Addressing the particular needs of developing countries, such as capability enhancement or poverty reduction by managers of MNEs in a global setting, becomes a very complex issue. Investments by MNEs in developing countries towards these objectives are driven by different factors such as operational transparency, technological efficiency, investment types, innovation capability, branding strategy, quality assurance, public–private partnership, market-based pricing, reciprocity, distribution for penetration, etc., apart from linkages they create for developing resource-based competencies required for survival in a competitive market.

Empirical investigation of the viewpoint presented here will be required to convert recommendations into models applicable by managers of MNEs.

This study will help to enable managers of MNEs to perform need-based socially responsible actions.

This study will facilitate participation of MNEs in social development through their contributions towards poverty reduction and capability enhancement.

This paper pushes managers and academic scholars to think about the strategies required to incorporate social agenda into business models of MNEs benefiting from developing markets.

The article describes how a well-functioning, competent system of self-evaluation of customer value creation and delivery can be an essential part of a corporate initiative to reach or sustain the winner state.”

The true value the firm’s customers are obtaining from interactions with the firm can be assessed by obtaining candid answers to the following three strategic value-focused business model questions: 10;(1)9;How do you make sure you are offering the benefits your customers really appreciate most? 10;(2)9;What group of customers is the primary focus of your efforts? 10;(3)9;How do you help your customers fully appreciate the delivery of the benefits offered? 10;These three questions were derived from an in-depth investigation of the business models of real-world firms that succeeded in moving to and remaining in the winner state, an ongoing longitudinal study undertaken by the authors’ team in North America, Southeast Asia and Europe.

Based on the authors’ research, companies with sustainable winning business models institutionalize the processes of systematic, ongoing collection of the information about customer value, integrating it into the strategic decision making processes.

To be effective, according to our research, the analysis needs to consider value proposition (what is promised), value targeting (who is the primary recipient) and value delivery (how the promise is fulfilled) separately, which most companies don’t do.

The article offers top executives, marketing executives and board members process for updating and adjusting the business model so that it continues to produce superior revenue, operating profit and ongoing customer and shareholder satisfaction.

Business‐model innovation is critical to success in today's increasingly complex and fast‐changing environment. So corporate leaders need to understand when to adapt the business model and how to execute the change. This paper aims to address this issue.

Data from IBM's Global CEO Study 2008 and an analysis of 28 successful business‐model innovators, produced insights into both the best timing and process for business model innovation.

The IBM researchers identified a set of characteristics that strong business‐model innovators demonstrate consistently.

A set of characteristics, which the IBM researchers call the “Three A's,” are critical to the successful design and execution of business‐model innovation: Aligned – Leverage core capabilities and design consistency across all dimensions of the business model, both internally and externally, that build customer value; Analytical – Use information strategically to create foresight, and prioritize actions while measuring and tracking for rapid course correction; and Adaptable – Link innovative leadership with the ability to effect change and institutionalize operational flexibility.

The paper answers two questions that can help companies develop their innovation strategy and transformation approach for the new economic environment: Under what conditions should companies adapt their business model?; and What capabilities and characteristics support the design and execution of successful business‐model innovation?