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This study aims to understand their emergence and types of business models in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems.

The paper builds upon a systematic literature review of IoT ecosystems and business models to construct a conceptual framework on IoT business models, and uses qualitative research methods to analyze seven industry cases.

The study identifies four types of IoT business models: value chain efficiency, industry collaboration, horizontal market and platform. Moreover, it discusses three evolutionary paths of new business model emergence: opening up the ecosystem for industry collaboration, replicating the solution in multiple services and return to closed ecosystem as technology matures.

Identifying business models in rapidly evolving fields such as the IoT based on a small number of case studies may result in biased findings compared to large-scale surveys and globally distributed samples. However, it provides more thorough interpretations.

The study provides a framework for analyzing the types and emergence of IoT business models, and forwards the concept of “value design” as an ecosystem business model.

This paper identifies four archetypical IoT business models based on a novel framework that is independent of any specific industry, and argues that IoT business models follow an evolutionary path from closed to open, and reversely to closed ecosystems, and the value created in the networks of organizations and things will be shareable value rather than exchange value.

This study aims to focus on living labs as a means of achieving radical innovation by discussing the differences in their network structure and its effect on the type of innovation outcome.

This research analyses 24 living labs in four countries using qualitative methods.

A specific network structure referred to as a distributed multiplex supports radical innovation in living labs, while distributed and centralized network structures support incremental innovations. Also, the results suggest that radical innovation depends on the driving actor and objectives in a living lab.

A bias on the perceived novelty of innovation may exist when analyzing data collected through interviews with a limited number of living lab participants compared to a large number of informants. This study proposes a two-dimensional framework based on the network structure to investigate innovation in living labs.

This paper offers a classification tool to identify, categorize and make sense of organizations’ participation in open innovation networks and in living labs.

The study provides evidence that, although the distributed multiplex network structure supports the emergence of radical innovations, the distributed and centralized network structures support incremental innovation. A combination of a provider- or utilizer-driven living lab and a distributed multiplex network structure, with a clearly defined and future-oriented strategic objective, offers good potential for radical innovation to occur.

This study sets out to examine the relationship between firms' learning orientation and network collaboration. The aim is to investigate how learning orientation enhances network collaboration and to discuss the role of the co‐innovation focus in the learning orientation‐network collaboration relationship.

Based on a partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling analysis of 90 small and medium‐sized industrial firms (SMEs), the study tests hypotheses regarding how two diverse learning orientations – i.e. exploration and exploitation – precede firms' network collaboration.

The analysis shows that learning drives firms' co‐innovation focus in terms of product and process co‐innovation. In particular, the explorative learning orientation is found to foster firms' network collaboration through product co‐innovation. Exploitative learning orientation promotes process innovations but discourages networking.

A key implication for business practitioners is the understanding that SMEs' explorative learning approaches drive their network collaboration. The development of novel product innovation calls for learning with partners in inter‐organizational networks, whereas process improvements rely on the firm's intra‐organizational learning.

The paper provides evidence of the connection between firms' learning orientation, co‐innovation focus, and networking. Thus, it contributes to the literature on organizational learning, innovation management, and business networks by explicating how learning drives a firm's networking through its co‐innovation focus.

This paper seeks to explore how market orientation facilitates the strategic flexibility of business models grounded in open innovation. The authors suggest that the new paradigm of open innovation may impact a firm's adaptability and responsiveness under conditions of environmental flux. However, extending innovation capacity by opening the innovation process poses major challenges for firms. The aims of this study are to explore the characteristics of open innovation activity and to contemplate the role of strategic flexibility in the design of business models based upon open innovation.

The study draws upon a qualitative research approach through a longitudinal case study in the field of open source software (OSS). The empirical case illustrates how an OSS firm utilizes signals in its environment to flexibly alter its business model.

A business model that embodies open innovation raises dilemmas between open and closed innovation paradigms. However, the authors' case highlights that an ambidextrous approach that combines market orientation with the principles of open innovation increases profitability, shortens time to market through effective market access, and enhances innovation capability.

The results have profound implications for industrial marketers, managers, management consultants and business educators. They can use the insights gleaned from this research to guide the development of business models that involve open innovation. The results indicate that firms involved in open innovation need reactive strategic flexibility to cope with the environmental diversity and variability. However, this study analyzes a single case in the field of OSS and one should be cautious when generalizing the findings.

This paper improves the understanding of the relationship between flexibility and market orientation. It combines two areas that have previously been discussed separately, i.e. market orientation and open innovation.

Purchasing has emerged as a key source of competitive advantage. This paper aims to explore how different purchasing strategies are connected to complex supply relationships and to the goal of purchasing.

The study draws on the literature on industrial network theory and industrial buying behaviour.

The contribution describes six types of purchasing strategies that firms exert. These strategies depend on the complexity of supply relationships and the buyer's purchasing goal. Conventional products and services are bought through transactional exchange relationships, whereas strategically important items are purchased through intentional supply networks.

Purchasing strategies of a firm emphasise either efficiency or effectiveness of operation. The type of exchange varies according to the nature of supply relationships: it is either transactional or relational. A key implication for managers is that they should recognise the goal of buying, the strategic importance of the object of purchasing, and choose accordingly between the different types of supplier structures.

The paper shows that firms' purchasing strategies depend on the nature of their supply relationships and the motive for purchasing. Different strategies emphasise different aspects and events that ultimately manifest themselves in the firms' business models.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key capabilities required in supply net management.

Uses the Management Capability Framework to break down supply net management into different modes and identify capabilities required in them.

Reveals that the supply activity of companies increasingly takes place in intentionally developed strategic networks called supply nets. These networks pose distinctive challenges for supply chain management. Identifies four diverse but simultaneously extant modes of management in the supply net context, and discusses the key managerial capabilities in each mode.

Provides a conceptual framework to fulfill the identified need to understand management in the network management context. This paper enables researchers and business practitioners to identify the strategic focus and key capabilities required in managing supply nets.

Technology‐related issues have an increasing impact on business. The alignment between overall business objectives and technology‐related decisions, such as decisions on application service acquisitions, resurfaces occasionally in the intense academic discussion on information systems (IS). Prior research indicates that the alignment of business and IS decisions remains a major concern for business practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors that drive the consistency in technology‐related decisions and result in diverse modes of business‐IS alignment.

This study investigates application service acquisitions among the top 200 firms in Finland. In this quantitative empirical study, principal component analysis with varimax rotation method is used to examine the companies' drivers for business‐IS alignment. Moreover, the firms are categorized using the cluster analysis method.

This study identifies four factors that drive the achievement of business‐IS alignment. These factors are: awareness of the impact and risks of IS decisions, efficacy of IS management, systematic decision making process, and business development orientation of IS management. Moreover, the study identifies four clusters of firms that illustrate diverse modes of business‐IS alignment: ad‐hoc alignment, business‐driven alignment, consensual alignment, and technology‐driven alignment.

The value of the study lies in revealing the key factors influencing the alignment of vital IS investments and the overall business strategy. The study identifies four clearly different approaches to business‐IS alignment. Moreover, the paper suggests that business‐IS alignment stems from several factors, including the collective development of strategies that reflect the combined knowledge of business and IS managers.