Continuous situation-specific development of business models: knowledge provision, method composition, and method enactment

• Published in: Software and systems modeling Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 47 - 73
• Main Authors: Gottschalk, Sebastian, Yigitbas, Enes, Nowosad, Alexander, Engels, Gregor
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.02.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Business models; Compilers; Computer Science; Domains; Engineering; Engineers; Flexibility; Fragments; Information Systems Applications (incl.Internet); Interpreters; Interviews; IT in Business; Knowledge; Methods; Programming Languages; Programming Techniques; Repositories; Situational awareness; Small business; Software Engineering; Software Engineering/Programming and Operating Systems; Special Section Paper; Startups; Subject specialists; Continuous development; Situational method engineering; Situation-specific; Business model development; Business model canvas
• ISSN: 1619-1366; 1619-1374
• DOI: 10.1007/s10270-022-01018-9

The development of new business models is essential for startups to become successful, as well as for established companies to explore new business opportunities. However, developing such business models is a continuous challenging activity where different tasks need to be performed, and business decisions need to be made. Both have to fit the constantly changeable situation in which the business model is developed to reduce the risk of developing ineffective business models with low market penetration. Therefore, a method for developing situation-specific business models is needed. As a solution, we refine the concept of situational method engineering (SME) to business model development. SME, in turn, provides means to construct situation-specific development methods out of fragments from a method repository. We develop a concept for the continuous situation-specific development of business models based on design science. The approach uses the roles of a domain expert, a method engineer, and a business developer together with a repository with method fragments for developing business models and a repository with modeling artifacts for supporting the development. Both repositories are filled by utilizing the experience of domain experts. Out of these repositories, situation-specific development methods for developing business models can be continuously composed based on the changeable situation by the method engineer and enacted by the business developer. We implement it as an open-source tool and evaluate its applicability in an industrial case study of developing a business model for a local event platform. Our results show that situation awareness supports the continuous development of business models.