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How to Settle the Tussle Between Business Model Innovation Approaches

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How to Settle the Tussle Between Business Model Innovation Approaches How to Settle the Tussle between Business Model Innovation Approaches Exploring the Automotive industry using a dual case study of Fiat and Tata Motors Authors: Mennatullah Elsalhy Arifulla Shariff Supervisor: Sujith Nair Student Umeå School of Business & Economics Autumn semester 2013 Master thesis, 15 hp ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to everyone who directly or indirectly supported us during this study. Fore mostly, we would like to thank our supervisor Sujith Nair for his guidance and support right from the first day of our study by providing us with continuous feedback to nourish our idea development process. We would like to whole-heartedly thankful our interviewees Maurizio Consalvo (Fiat), Rakesh Bhat (Tata Motors) and Ramacharda P Madiwale (Tata Motors) for providing us insights with their respective companies to foster our data analysis. Also, we are very obliged from Professor Antonio Calabrese’s assistance to find industry contacts. We were honoured to be part of MSPME and Erasmus Mundus organization, we thank the program directors Professor Amos Haniff (Heriot-Watt University - UK), Professor Antonio Calabrese (MIP Politecnico Di Milano – Italy), and Professor Tomas Blomquist (Umeå University – Sweden) for their efforts with this year’s edition. We would also like to extend our acknowledgement to all our professors who contributed to nurture our knowledge acumen on project management discipline during this Master’s program, especially Professor Collin Turner (Heriot-Watt University - UK) for introducing us to Business models and Business model innovation, and also Professor Marco Giorgini and Professor Mauro Mancini (MIP Politecnico Di Milano – Italy) for teaching us Finance and Project Management with practical comprehensions. Furthermore, we would like to appreciate our MSPME classmates for their support and enthusiasm to make a memorable journey, and we would like to thank our families and friends for their ever-lasting support. Last but not the least, this thesis is an endeavor of mutual efforts, so we would like to appreciate each other’s contribution to make this study/project happen. Mennatullah Elsalhy Arifulla Shariff i ABSTRACT This study investigates the drivers and forms of business model innovation. It is built on the business model innovation typology proposed by Koen et al. (2011), we have developed its dimensions into Hurdle rate, technology, partners value network and customer value network. The study used these dimensions as a base to differentiate between the two approaches of the business model innovation which were identified as innovating the existing business model approach and multiple business model approach. The study used qualitative analysis, through a dual case study approach in the automotive industry, consequently Fiat and Tata Motors were selected as case studies. Furthermore, the study foundation is secondary data supported by primary data (i.e. interviews) to investigate how each of these two organizations has implemented business model innovation in each case study, by highlighting and contrasting their different approaches of business model innovation. The results of the study showed that each of the two approaches of business model innovation implies open innovation and expands the organization’s value network. However, innovating the existing business model focuses on improving the organizations’ performance, and sustaining innovation. On the other hand, the multiple business model approach aims to disrupt the industry or a competitor (i.e. New entrant), through disruptive innovation. Moreover, the study proposed a process based framework and a checklist on business model innovation, to assist the decision makers in organizations while choosing between innovating their existing business model or designing a new one. Keywords: Business Model Innovation; Open Innovation; Automotive Industry; Fiat; Tata Motors; Tata Nano; Re-innovating Existing Business Model; Multiple Business Model; Value network; Technology Innovation; Innovative Leadership. ii iii GLOSSARY Co-opetition - Is a strategic alliance between two organizations that exploits the benefits of collaboration on one product whereas they stay as competitors for some other product. (Gnyawali & Park, 2011, p. 651) Radical Innovation – “Introduces a new concept that helps to create that depart significantly from past practices and help create products or process based on a different set of engineering or scientific principles and often open-up entirely new markets and potential applications.” (Carayannis et al., 2003, p. 120) Incremental Innovation – that incrementally leads to the creation of a new product or system but it is not as different as radical innovation. (Carayannis et al., 2003, p. 120) Architectural Innovation –“Serve to extend the radical-incremental classification of innovation and introduce the notion of changes in the way which the components of a product or system are linked together.” (Carayannis et al., 2003, p. 120) Disruptive Innovation – Provides an opportunity for building new markets by replacing the existing dominant technology in the market. (Garcia, 2010, p. 93) Sustaining Innovation – Creates an opportunity to incumbent firms to reinforce their core competences by improve their performance levels of established or existing products. (Garcia, 2010, p. 93) Boundary Spanning – “Refers to all inter-organizational activities between the firms.” It plays an important role of linking between internal sources of the firm to the external world. (Luo, 1999) iv Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...........................................................................................................i ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................... ii GLOSSARY .......................................................................................................................... iv Chapter 1 – INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background ................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research Purpose & Objectives .................................................................................... 3 1.3 Research Question ......................................................................................................... 3 1.4 Architecture of the Research ......................................................................................... 4 1.4.1 Phase 1: Project Initiation ..................................................................................... 4 1.4.2 Phase 2: Project Planning ...................................................................................... 4 1.4.3 Phase 3: Project Execution .................................................................................... 4 1.4.4 Phase 4: Project Closeout ...................................................................................... 5 Chapter 2 – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ............................................................................... 6 2.1 Research Philosophy ..................................................................................................... 6 2.2 Research Approach ....................................................................................................... 6 2.3 Locating our Research ................................................................................................... 7 2.4 Research Strategy .......................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 3 – LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................... 9 3.1 Definition of Business Model ....................................................................................... 9 3.1.1 Business Model Dimensions ................................................................................. 9 3.2 Business Environment ................................................................................................. 10 3.3 Business Model vs Strategy ........................................................................................ 11 3.4 Traditional Business Model Limitations ..................................................................... 11 3.5 Business Model Innovation ......................................................................................... 12 3.5.1 Business Model Innovation Definitions .............................................................. 13 3.5.2 Business Model Innovation Features .................................................................. 14 3.5.3 Business Model Innovation Typology ................................................................ 15 3.6 Business Model Innovation Approaches ..................................................................... 16 3.6.1 Innovating the Existing Business Model ............................................................. 16 3.6.2 Multiple Business Models ................................................................................... 19 3.7 Summary ..................................................................................................................... 20 v 3.7.1 Literature Review Propositions ........................................................................... 22 Chapter 4 – RESEARCH DESIGN
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