Reflections  and  adjustments  of  business  model  framework

The discussion of the business model framework has led to several alterations of the business model framework. These alterations are observed in all units of the business model

framework. The alterations that have been discussed in section 9.2 are incorporated in the business model framework, which is re-introduced in Figure 13.

Chapter 9: Discussion and adjustments of business model framework

Figure 13 presents the adjusted business model framework. Two of the drivers of sharing economy, technological drivers and trust drivers, have been removed and an extra component, clusters, has been added to the business model.

The analysis of the primary data and subsequent discussion highlighted a number of concerns regarding the generic business models that need to be addressed. These concerns are primarily related to whether the elements that are included in the components should in fact be

classified as generic. While some elements must be included in a business model for sharing economy, others are too product or service dependent to be included in the generic models and their inclusion must be evaluated on an individual basis. Therefore, although the results might indicate that it is difficult to create generic business models suited for sharing economy, it might still be possible to create a foundation that existing companies can use to base their secondary business models on. The results of the primary data have led to a new suggestion of a foundation that companies can use. This new foundation is provided in Table 7 and provides a compilation of the elements that a company can use in a step-wise fashion when

constructing a secondary business model for sharing economy. These elements are divided into three groups, “Fundamental elements”, “Elements independent of product/service characteristics ” and “Elements dependent on product/service characteristics or context dependent”.

Value Proposition Operational Value

Chain

Financial Model Clusters

Secondary business model

for sharing economy Societal

driver

Economic driver

Figure 13. Adjusted business model framework for sharing economy

Table 7. Adjusted contents of the business model for sharing economy Business model

Component

Fundamental elements

Elements independent of product/service characteristics

Elements dependent on product/service characteristics or context dependent Value proposition • Accessibility over

ownership

• Networking-co-creation of value

• Economic

incentive, either by spending less money than buying to own, or by obtaining access to more products or services for the same amount

• Flexibility

• Opportunity for unique experiences

• Environmental benefits

• Released storage capacity

Operational value chain • Technological solutions

• Contractual/Legal solutions

• Sales/Marketing division

• Special business unit

• New service unit

• Delivery of storage solution

• Financial solutions

Cluster • Demographics of

consumers in the cluster

• Assessment of the clusters needs

• Critical mass

Financial model • Which payment solutions are suitable?

• For example, pay per usage, subscription fees etc.

The first column shows the components that should be included in the secondary business model suited for sharing economy. These components include the original three components from the framework in Figure 3 with the addition of the new cluster component. The second column specifies the fundamental elements of the components that must always be included in all secondary business models for sharing economy despite the product or service

characteristics. These elements have been verified by both the primary data and the secondary data. The third column details elements that are universal and independent of the specific characteristics of the product or service in question. Some of these elements were suggested by the literature to be fundamental elements, however this assumption was not supported by the feedback from the interviews. The potential inclusion in a business model of the elements detailed in the fourth and final column will be heavily dependent on the exact nature of the product or service characteristics and the context in which they are consumed. Again, whilst

Chapter 9: Discussion and adjustments of business model framework

the literature implicated these elements as fundamental parts of a business model for sharing economy, this was not borne out in the interview responses. This table therefore represents the new foundation that the authors of this thesis suggest companies can use in order to form company specific secondary business models and replaces the generic business models presented in chapter 7.

As noted above, the revisions to the business model framework and the business models are based on the results of the findings from the primary data. As mentioned in chapter 2, the sample size of the primary data was too small to be truly representative of the population.

Therefore the results from the primary data can only be used to draw limited conclusions. For example, this has resulted in two elements of the generic business models being included despite not being thoroughly validated. These are “opportunity for unique experiences” and

“financial solution”. Furthermore the element “flexibility” has been added as a result of the primary data. Thus whilst it has not been possible within the scope of this thesis to arrive at a fully finalised and validated model, the primary data still provides a wealth of valuable insights and guidance that are exemplified in the table above and are relevant for existing companies looking to to create specific business models suited for sharing economy.