Business Models in the Eyes of National Culture: A Cross-Cultural Study I n a u g u r a l d i s s e r t a t i o n zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades „Doktor der Wirtschaftswissenschaften“ (Dr. rer. pol.) eingereicht an der Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Europa-Universität Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) 09/07/2020 von Yassir Yahya Al-Masoudi Frankfurt (Oder) Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Jochen Koch Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) Prof. Dr. Heinz-Theo Wagner German Graduate School of Management and Law Heilbronn Disputationstermin: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My PhD dissertation has been a long and arduous journey characterized by inner maturation on both professional and personal levels. Indeed, I believe that the path to obtaining my PhD has been a formative and memorable experience whereby I have grown as an independent and self-confident researcher. However, it would have been impossible to complete my PhD dissertation without the full support and great help of many individuals. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to extend my heartfelt thanks and express my profound gratitude to all of them. First, I am grateful to Allah for all the blessings that He has given me. Indeed, “And my success is not but through Allah. In Him do I put my trust and to Him do I always turn” (Qur'an 11:88). I am greatly indebted to my supervisors, Prof. Dr. Jochen Koch and Prof. Dr. Heinz- Theo Wagner, for their supervision and guidance. Prof. Dr. Koch’s illuminating views, friendly advice, and, of course, considerable expertise in qualitative research have been absolutely essential for the completion of this dissertation. Prof. Dr. Wagner has always been available for feedback on both the initial draft of my PhD project or on other projects. Undoubtedly, without their constructive criticism, infinite patience, and precious time, this PhD would not have been done. I would also like to acknowledge the Dynamic Capabilities and Relationships (DCR) faculty members, Prof. Dr. Albrecht Söllner, Prof. Dr. Martin Eisend, Prof. Dr. Markus Vodosek, Prof. Dr. Tomás Bayón, and my supervisors for their informative research method courses and seminars, as well as their constructive comments during the proposal conferences. Further, I would like to express my appreciation to my fellow doctoral students for their fruitful discussion and intellectual companionship. Indeed, I have learned a great deal from them. In addition, I would like to thank the DCR administrative staff for their support. In particular, I would like to say “Danke Schön” to Ms. Anja Rillcke for her considerable help and prompt responses regarding the different issues that arose during my PhD journey. I would also like to express my sense of gratitude towards the managers and informants in the three restaurants. Despite the fact that they were very busy, they generously managed to find time for my interviews and follow-up questions. They further allowed me to make direct observations and provided access to a range of materials during the data collection process. My grateful thanks also go to Mr. Belal Alsanhani for his assistance in facilitating the process of data collection at the Hadramout restaurant in Jordan. My PhD study has been fully funded by the Dieter Schwarz Foundation. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the foundation in appreciation of their generous support. Last but not least, I would like to thank my family and my friends for their emotional support. Despite the current critical situation in Yemen, my family members—parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, uncles, and mother-in-law—kept providing me with emotional support. May Allah bless my mother Iman and my father Yahya and keep all my family members safe. Of course, I am lucky to have my beloved wife Halah and my fine son Sam with me in Germany. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you, Halah, for giving me power and motivation. The fact that you keep believing in me is the source of my strength and confidence. May Allah reward you and help you fulfill your aspirations. My thanks go to my father-in-law, brother-in-law, and, especially, my sister-in-law Hanoaf for their emotional support. Finally, I give my thanks to my friends, particularly those who kept asking me the same question: When will you submit your PhD dissertation? DEDICATION For my two late brothers, Hussein and Abdelsalam, whose surprising and tragic death occurred while I was doing my PhD. May their souls rest in peace. For my son, Sam, who was born while I was doing my PhD. I sincerely wish that one day he will draw a lesson from his father’s story to create his own future. ABSTRACT Despite a vast body of work published on the business model—a concept used to generally refer to how a firm conducts business and how it creates and captures value —remarkably, the literature to date has not yet explored the business model from a national culture perspective. Therefore, this PhD dissertation seeks to explore the business model concept through the lens of national culture, posing the following research questions: Do actors in different cultural settings experience their concepts of business (“their business models") differently? If they do, what are the differences, and how and why do these differences occur? To address these research questions, I adopt a qualitative multiple case study of three restaurants: a German restaurant in Germany, an Arab Yemeni restaurant in Jordan, and an Arab Syrian restaurant in Germany. My analysis is based on data collected from a range of sources, including 34 semi- structured interviews, informal follow-up interviews, direct observations, restaurants’ documents, and archival materials, such as press coverage, restaurants’ websites, restaurants’ social media postings, and video excerpts. The emergent findings reveal eight dimensions and their constitutive themes, which shed light on how German and Arab actors experience the business models. While German and Arab actors show a common understanding of some themes relevant to the business model concept, they differ significantly in many themes, suggesting considerable differences in pursuing value creation and capture. Overall, this PhD dissertation makes several contributions to the business model and national culture literatures. More specifically, I contribute to the business model literature by delineating the nature of activities and classifying them into structured and semi-structured activities performed by German and Arab actors, respectively, refining the revenue concept, introducing the concepts of Al-Niyyah (good intention) and fated revenues, and providing insights into the different relationships between the business model participants. In addition, this PhD dissertation adds to the limited antecedent literature of business model innovation by indicating that a firm operating in a new national culture is more likely to innovate its business model. Further, this IV PhD dissertation provides insights into the national culture literature by suggesting that Arab culture seems to be a culture of intention, fatalism, and particularism. Finally, this PhD dissertation offers insights for practitioners and concludes with limitations and suggestions for future research. Keywords: business models, national culture, German culture, Arab culture, business model innovation, value creation, value capture, external value networks, al-Niyyah, qualitative data V TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................. III DEDICATION ......................................................................................................................... V ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................ IV List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... IX List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... X CHAPTER 1: INRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 1 1.1 Motivation ................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research Objectives and Research Questions ............................................................. 4 1.3 Methodological Approach ........................................................................................... 4 1.4 Emergent Findings and Main Contributions ............................................................... 6 1.5 Structure of the Dissertation ...................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................ 13 2.1 The Business Model Concept .................................................................................... 13 2.1.1 Origin and Emergence of the Business Model Concept .................................... 13 2.1.2 Semantic reflections on the business model concept ......................................... 17 2.1.3 Analogic reflections on the business model concept.......................................... 19 2.1.4 Definitions of the business model concept ......................................................... 20 2.1.5 Components of the business model concept .....................................................