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The purpose of this paper is to provide guidelines for practitioners in choosing the right response to potential threats by open business models.

The study focuses on identifying the dimensions of open business models. It consisted of 32 interviews with experts on open business models complemented by panel discussions with a selection of experts to validate the findings.

Five dimensions of open business models are identified: motivation, object, community, action and governance. Based on those dimensions, three responding strategies are proposed.

This paper offers insights for strategists and entrepreneurs who consider developing open business models or are attacked by competitors or other market players with open business models.

Complementing previous research, this paper highlights how the five dimensions of open business model can serve as a tool to design appropriate strategies when confronted with new forms of competition.

The economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has had significant consequences on the activities of companies worldwide. This study aims to unveil how open innovation fostered business model innovation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) during the pandemic.

The research adopts a qualitative approach, involving a multiple case study methodology, and focusses on six SMEs operating in various traditional sectors.

The findings highlight the impact of the external stimulus, COVID-19, on business model innovation and the key role of open innovation management in pursuing the business model innovation, which may also involve a digital transformation.

While some studies have examined how the pandemic has fostered business model transformation, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study analysing the pivotal role of open innovation in driving business model innovation during challenging times, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper aims to analyse the open data business models (ODBMs) as a source of knowledge and innovation to generate economic and social value. A framework for understanding ODBMs is presented. First, the knowledge structure of the ODBMs literature is identified. Second, a conceptual model for analysing the ODBMs is proposed. And finally, the future trends in ODBMs research are discussed.

In this paper, co-word analysis is performed to identify the topics related with ODBMs.

The ODBMs structure of knowledge is articulated in five themes: business model, smart city, business ecosystem, decision-making and innovation. Based on these results, a five-step model for analysing ODBMs is proposed. Finally, a discussion of the future trends of ODBMs focussed on a knowledge management perspective, open data ecosystems and business intelligence is presented.

The paper presents a picture of what, where, for whom and for what ODBMs have been studied and develops a new model to explain the value creation process of ODBMs. Taking a step further, applying the principles and models of knowledge management and business intelligence to ODBMs is also recommended in order to transfer and transform open data into valuable knowledge that can be used for developing apps. In that context, the importance of encouraging collaboration between different agents in the so-called open data ecosystem is presented.

This study aims to examine how open innovation can be effective in changing organizational inertia to create business model innovation and improve firm performance. It also seeks to explore whether the existence of open innovation has a mediating effect and influence.

This study constructs a theoretical model to explore the relationship between latent variables and uses a questionnaire to collect research data. In the conceptual framework, organizational inertia is a second-order latent variable and comprises three first-order latent variables: insight inertia, action inertia, and psychological inertia. Open innovation is also a second-order latent variable, and consists of two first-order latent variables: outbound and inbound open innovation. To clarify the relationship between these latent variables, structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to test the goodness of fit of the theoretical model and research hypotheses. This study uses 141 small to medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan as the research subjects.

The SEM analysis revealed that open innovation has a significant mediating effect on the relationship between organizational inertia and business model innovation, and the relationship between organizational inertia and firm performance; business model innovation also has a positive influence on firm performance.

This study contributes the empirical analysis of SMEs to illustrate the role of open innovation on business model innovation processes.

The purpose of this study is to figure out the factors for sustainable growth of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

In all, 27 SMEs in the area of IT (Information Technology) in Korea were analysed through interview method basically.

It is found that sustainable development of SMEs requires two kinds of open innovation which are knowledge strategy and business model. According to developing process, SMEs change their open innovation strategy in knowledge strategy and business model. The highest growth limit of SMEs depends on open innovation in knowledge strategy and business model in sequence from closed innovation in both, through open innovation in both, to open innovation in knowledge strategy and closed innovation in business model and to closed innovation in knowledge strategy and open innovation in business model.

First, the present study was conducted with IT sector SMEs in Korea. It is true that the IT sector is one of the most rapidly changing industrial sectors and is one of representative business types of SMEs in which manufacturing and service industries coexist and diverse sizes of SMEs exist (Malerba, 2002). Second, the present study relies on case study methods. It is true that case study is a method that gives excellent qualitative analysis in firm studies (Yin, 2008).

SMEs cannot survive if they do not accept open innovation in knowledge strategy and business model. SMEs that show absolute limitations in resources and manpower should absolutely implement open innovation strategies to secure more diverse resources from markets and external knowledge bases rather than preparing all resources and capabilities by themselves (Van de Vrande et al., 2009; Yun and Mohan, 2012a, 2012b).

SMEs should bear in mind the two different levels of open innovation, such as knowledge strategies and business models (Chesbrough, 2007; Chesbrough and Appleyard, 2007).

SMEs should not confuse between temporally sustainable development and infinite sustainable development. Firms that take closed innovation strategies in both knowledge strategies and business models can also grow for some time. However, because of the deepening of knowledge-based economy, not only the amount of knowledge existing in the world and the speed of knowledge distribution increased but also the customers’ demands and expectations have been observed to increase in the market immediately through social networking sites (SNS), etc. (Yun and Ryu, 2012).

This study aims at exploring how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can implement a more open and co-creational business model by actively collaborating with startups.

Because of the novelty of the SME–startup collaboration phenomenon and to the depth of the investigation required to grasp the mechanisms and logic of an open and co-creational business model, a single-case study has been performed related to investigating a collaboration between an SME and a startup.

The authors provide detailed empirical evidence on how SMEs may structure a “systematic” approach to design and execute an open business model enabled by startup collaboration. Moreover, this study suggests that the business model innovation process represents a necessary forerunner of an open business model. Finally, the authors contend that research on open business models should entail a broader perspective beyond the innovation process, to include business model validation through testing approaches like the lean startup.

This study takes as the locus of investigation the original perspective of the external partner of a focal firm willing to innovate. This study offers a unique contribution because, to date, few studies adopted such view within a relevant and under-remarked empirical setting linking SMEs and innovative startups.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to report on an action research project with two emergent micro-businesses that explored how their business model connected with the principles of open source.

The authors first gained initial qualitative data to establish the core values of each micro-business, which the authors then explored in the context of open source and business models in two design workshops with each organisation.

The authors developed the open source guild business model, which has the elements of: building a focal micro-business with resources secured through the guild, promoting learning and development through apprenticeship, promoting shared values through a commons of experience and capturing value by protecting key intellectual property.

This research was undertaken with two emergent micro-businesses in the North West of England. Further research will be needed to establish the wider applicability of the open source guild model.

The open source guild model can be a mechanism for an emergent micro-business to create a community around their values and grow their business without conventional external investment of resources.

This research contributes to the literature on business models based on open source and how these models can be sustainable in terms of the quadruple bottom line, which extends the triple bottom line to include personal values and meaning.

This study aims to recognize the growing importance of Open Innovation (OI) theory and practice in the broader fields of Management and Information Systems, and focuse on the relationship existing between OI and a firm’s Business Strategy. Hence, the study aims at investigating the multifaceted OI – Strategy nexus at a business level, assessing how OI initiatives influence Strategy within the Mobile Telecommunications Industry and thus contributing to framing and classifying such inherent relationship.

A data-driven research approach is used, based on 45 qualitative interviews on firms operating in the Mobile Industry and involved in OI initiatives.

Six cross-themes the OI–Strategy relationship in the Mobile Industry revolves around are identified, i.e. OI and Competitive Advantage; OI and Strategic Positioning; OI and Business Models; OI in Networks; OI and Co-opetition; and OI and Resilient Business Advantages. For each theme, examples from the sample of interviewed Mobile firms are organized and reported. The key managerial issues emerging in the attempt to relate OI initiatives and the firm’s overarching Strategy are also underscored and organized in three streams, namely, designing an open business model; achieving competitive advantage through value capture; and nurturing OI as a dynamic capability.

The proposed reorganization of real-world OI and strategic initiatives in the Mobile Industry, together with the underscoring of key managerial issues, constitutes a comprehensive research agenda or roadmap, with value for both academics and practitioners.

Whilst previous chapters have considered the nature and benefits of open education (OE) initiatives, a fundamental question remains as to the sustainability and viability of such practices over the medium to long term.

The existing literature suggests a considerable diversity of models of OE in organisational and funding terms, and there is the need to gain a better understanding of the distinctive pathways to sustainability that are linked to specific organising and funding logics.

However, this very diversity and the insufficiently developed notion of sustainability in this context hamper the efforts aimed at categorising and comparing different models, and this chapter considers these questions in more depth.

To this aim, we analyse and categorise the main funding arrangements by first identifying the key components of each distinctive OE system in the Section ‘System Elements’, whilst reflecting in parallel on the notion of sustainability.

In the Section ‘System Configurations’, we offer a detailed description and analysis of the most prominent funding models of OE to illustrate the diversity of funding arrangements and distinctive organisational logics underpinning them. We explore the logic of these business models by unpacking each distinctive form of organising around four key aspects: customer offer, value chain configuration, funding and profit formula, and strategic positioning.

In the Section ‘Sustainability’, we seek to refine our understanding of the concept of sustainability in the context of OE, giving due consideration to non-economic definitions of this concept and to some of the core objectives attached to OE. We suggest that sustainability can be ultimately apprehended and defined through a number of key variables.

The section ‘Open Education: Motives and Implications’ examines the motives behind the OE movement, its wide-ranging implications, and considers how OE fits in with the trends in the higher education (HE) sector as a whole. We discuss the future for this radical innovation, emphasising the central role of communities of practice and the need for institutional support. We argue that the development of sustainable communities is the fundamental basis of any OE model and that reflexivity is required in order to ensure the sustainability of this innovative practice. Similarly, the systematic development of collaborative practices and networks between the main actors at community, institutional and national levels is considered key to the development and embedding of OE initiatives within the overall educational sector.

The concluding section brings together the various strands of our argument on the nature and characteristics of the various OE business models, their sustainability and the way forward.