New business development concerns all the activities involved in realizing new business

opportunities, including product or service design, business model design, and marketing. When
splitting business development into two parts, we have: ‘business’ and ‘development’. The first
things that come into mind when looking at business are: economics, finance, managerial activities,
competition, prices, marketing, etc. All of these keywords are related to risk and entrepreneurship
and clearly indicate the primary scope of the term ‘business development’. Development is very
abstract and can be linked with some of the following keywords: technological improvement, cost
reduction, general welfare, improved relations, movement in a (positive) direction, etc.
In the traditional definition of Business development, Business Development is mostly seen as
growing an enterprise, with a number of techniques. The mentioned techniques differ, but in fact all
of them are about traditional marketing. The main question in these issues is: how to find, reach and
approach customers and how to make/keep them satisfied, possibly with new products.[1] Since this
definition is limited and lacks some essential factors in business developing, a complete new
definition of Business Development will be introduced. Of course, the theory on “traditional”
marketing is still correct and can be adopted from the old definition. When supplying a solution, it is
important to focus on the total offering you give instead of only focusing on the product or service.
An offering is a package consisting of different proportions of physical product, service, advice,
delivery and the costs, including price that are involved in using it. Hereby the advice, adaptation to
the customer and the costs are the most important factors to get the right combination within the
offering. [2]
Drawing on contingency theory, an idea central to new business development is that different
product-market- technology combinations can require different marketing strategiesand business
models to make them a success (Tidd et al., 2005). To chart the factors that are involved and create
synergy between them, new business development draws heavily upon the fields
of technology and business networks. The new business development process is to recognize
chances and opportunities in a fast changing technological environment. Often uncertainty arises
because of new technology and their new markets.

 2Business networks
 3References
 4Further reading

Technology of Business
Innovative technology provide important opportunities for new business development. For a
company it is important to keep products and processes up to date, to stay competitive (Ford et al.,
2006). Continuous investment in innovation for both products and processes makes it more difficult
for others to offer a large technological functionality advantage (Schilling, 2003). Many companies
need technological development to stay competitive. Technological development can occur through
making decisions about acquiring, exploiting and managing technologies. These decisions should be
made by involving the research and development staff, purchasing staff and marketers. (Ford et al.,
2006) The customers are also important (Schilling, 2003; Ford et al., 2006).
Furthermore technology can be analyzed by the concept/framework of value configuration as
introduced by Norwegian academics Stabell and Fjedstad (1998).[3] The framework consists of three
value configurations, which are an extension of the value chain model developed by Michael Porter:

 the value chain (transformation of inputs in products),

 the value shop (solving customer problems), and
 the value network (linking customers).
These configurations overcome some of the issues with the traditional value chain model, which is
only helpful for traditional manufacturing companies. In practice, firms are not pure instances of a
single distinct value configuration, multiple combinations of configurations can be found within one
firm.
The value creation process can also be understood from the perspective of Schilling. Schilling talks
about value in the sense of technological functionality, installed base and complementary goods of a
product. (Schilling, 2003). It may be clear that technology plays an important role in this value
creation process, and in general contributes to the process of renewing the match between problem
and solution.