Business Model Development: A Customer-Oriented Perspective

Purpose: This study provides a business model development framework that explicitly focuses on the customer as well as integrating customer knowledge into the development process for enhanced value creation. The proposed framework shall enhance our understanding about this phenomenon and present a helpful guidance for researchers and practitioners.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The study follows a conceptual approach that is based on insights from prevailing literature. The deduced findings are illustrated with supplementary context from a prominent case study.

Findings: The findings underline the importance of customer-orientation for successful business model development.
Furthermore, business model development should follow an actively managed, systematic approach that takes into account distinctive customer groups, business model change intensity, and business model development types. The presented framework provides fruitful avenues for future research and valuable guidance for management.

Practical Implications: The presented framework provides managers with a tool to plan and organize their business model development process.

Research limitations: Given the vast amount of academic journals, it is unlikely that every applicable scientific
publication is included in the analysis. The illustrative example is descriptive in nature, and thus, does not possess empirical validity.

Originality/Value: The main contribution of the study is the explicit transfer of important aspects of the market orientation literature to the business model development phenomena and the strict integration of the customer into the associated process. Thus, this study provides a customer-oriented framework on business model development that supports the field’s conceptual progress. Furthermore, the study supports the normative debate in the business model literature.