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for “business modeling”. In this initial search, we found eight systematic literature re-
views ([19–21,52–56]). These reviews were published between 2004 and 2017, and contain
complete reviews of business model publications. Since the selected reviews covered publi-
cations until 2017, we decided to conduct a complementary search to fill the gap between
2017 and 2020. The results however did not show a relatively new relevant approach.
In contrast, the complementary search showed a trend in using existing MBMs in new
contexts like circular economy and dynamics, or defining new MBMs in relation to other
models like the strategy model. These types of publications exceed the limits of this paper
and so, they were discarded.
Based on the eight literature reviews selected from the database search, we proceeded
to list the authors mentioned in each one of them. This led to a list of 59 unique authors. It
must be noted that some authors were recognized in different reviews with different publi-
cations as in the case of [57] in [52], and [27] in [53]. In this case we counted “Osterwalder”
as a single author, regardless of the publication mentioned in the review as the authors
always refer to the same MBM. We applied a series of filters to the list of 59 authors based
on the number of reviews that mentioned the author and the formality of the MBM. Out
of the 59 authors, 10 met the criteria of being highly recognized in the literature reviews
and containing formal MBMs. The final list of 10 authors are [23,24,27,38,58–63]. Their
publications date between 2000 and 2010 as shown in Figure 3. With the list of 10 authors
we then identified 4 items per author: the name given to the MBM, the definition of the
business model granted by the author, the concepts defined in the MBM and the graphical
notation proposed to portray a business model, as shown in Figure 4.
Hamel
Mahadevan
Gordijn Magretta Chesbrough Johnson Osterwalder
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Textual description based on Textual description based on Textual description based on Textual description based on Textual description based on
compontent identification compontent identification compontent identification compontent identification compontent identification
Value Exchange
We also derived the relations between the identified clusters since the MBM defines
the concepts in the business model and the relations among them. To do so, we examined
the definitions given by the authors to the concepts, and established whether another
element was referenced in the definition. For example, in [27] the definition of Channels
is: “how a company communicates with and reaches its Customer Segments to deliver a Value
Proposition.” Since channels is part of the Channel cluster, Customer Segments is part
of the Agent cluster and Value Proposition belongs to the Value cluster, we can derive
a relation from Channel to Value and from Channel to Agent. The analysis led to the
J. Open Innov. Technol. Mark. Complex. 2021, 7, 86 8 of 32
relationships presented in Figure 6. The figure also shows the concepts in each cluster
differentiated by their corresponding author.
Value Object-Money
Margin Model Value Streams
Profit Revenue Streams
Customer value proposition (Value).
Revenue Sources Cost
Customer value (Product)
Cost Structure
Revenue Model Value Value Object
Revenue Streams Value Proposition
Cost Structure Money
Customer Benefits (Value) Market Segment
Revenue sources Money
Cost structure Value Proposition, Value Network (Suppliers)
Goods
Value Network ( Partners)
Value Proposition
Value Network
Customer Customer
Value Customer Segments
Actor
Customer Interface (Channels) Market
Implementation (People)
Partners
Channels Agent
Scope (Market segment)
Parties
Customer Interface (Relationships)
Channels
Business model Composite Actor
Relationships Key Processes
Activities
Links Value Interface
Action Sequence
Value Port Exchange Mechanism
Activities
Customer Relationships Connected activities
Configuration of Activities
Funding Model
Information Resource Value Offering
Customer Interface Knowledge) Capabilities Capabilities (Competencies)
Logistical Streams Value Exchange
Information Assets
Value Object-Information Resources Value Chain
Knowledge Control Capabilities
Information Capabilities (Resources) Value Activity
Resource Velocity (Metrics) Delivery Model
Key Resources
Resources
Our analysis resulted in 9 clusters that represent the types of value that a business
can create and hand, and that can be used to characterize and classify the value offering of
any business in order to define it with more precision. We defined each one of the clusters
as follows: Physical product corresponds to consumer goods like clothes and food that
do not have an extended product lifetime. Digital product like e-books and software are
digital elements that can be used permanently or temporarily by a client. Durable items
correspond to assets with a prolonged life-span like real estate and vehicles. Money relates
to value in the form of cash or payments like dividends. Human asset is value translated
into temporal workforce to fulfill a task. Information, like unprocessed data, is value in
the form of data for a client to use it. Service is the ability of the business to perform a task
for a client such as consulting or education. Marketplace relates to the use of a physical or
digital platforms, as in the case of social networks. Finally, a Result is an outcome expected
by the client from the business’ execution of certain tasks, for instance a haircut or a tattoo.
Intermediation (Service)
Transaction (Service)
Product
Product Service Service
Product Information Service
Product
Digital Product Information Service Service Market
S Product
Product
Product Digital Product
Asset
Asset
Money Data
Intangible Asset (Service)
Market
Market
Information
Product Service
Service Service
Physical Product
Service
Service
Intangible (Service)
Intermediation
Transaction Service
Get the Job Done (Termination)
Service Service
Experience Service
Service
Money Service Service
Result Service
Financial Product Service
Money Experience Property
Product Product
Product
Product Product
3. NCB Meta-Model
The third, fourth and fifth stage in the construction of our MBM describes to construc-
tion process for the NCB meta-model along with a graphical notation to portray NCBs.
Given the concepts identified in the second stage, we built our MBM aiming to establish a
structure that serves to portray the complex network that characterizes NCBs. To guide our
approach we defined five requirements that had to be met by the meta-model and by the
notation. The obtained results, our final MBM, and the notation is presented trough-out
this section.
Business Model
*
Activities Resource
id: String id: String
* name: String * name: String Customer
description: String
*
Actor
id: String
*
name: String
Partner
Channel *
*
id: String
* name: String
type: ChannelType
* « Enumeration »
ChannelType
ExchangedItem
Communication
id: String
Sales
name: String
Distribution
structure, should allow the minimum possible efforts when modeling. To guarantee that
our MBM met the desired outcomes, in terms of expressiveness and ease of use, and the
characteristics of useful and effective models [66] we defined the following requirements:
R1: The MBM should have the expressive power to represent NCBs precisely enough
to describe and analyze them
One of the main limitations in the use of existing MBMs to describe complex business
models is their lack of precision. In particular, as most MBMs rely on textual representa-
tions [54], the vagueness derived from linguistic descriptions [44] diminish their precision
as components can have a range of values instead of just one. Since NCBs are characterized
by their circular structures in which multiple elements relate to each other, describing the
resulting network and the dependencies within it can hardly be achieved by means of text.
For instance, in the case of businesses that recycle their own packages to make new ones,
two value flows are established: one that goes from the business to the client, and one that
goes from the client to the business. These flows define a loop in which actions like waste
collection are essential to recapture value, however describing them like “collect waste
from clients” or even as detailed as “collect used packages from clients placing collection
points”, does not provide a precise representation of the relations and components between
the business and the clients, and what is involved in the waste collection. Moreover, these
descriptions limit the conceptualization of the key elements in the business model as there
is no formal way to establish what is a concept and what is just additional information in
the description. Consequently, our meta-business model should provide the concepts and
structure needed to portray NCB networks and conceptualize their elements with precision
and without relying solely on textual notations.
R2: The MBM should manage multiple abstraction levels
The characteristics of NCBs can result in great quantities of information derived
from the number of elements and relations in their structures and the corresponding
descriptions, which are essential to understand how value, information, and money are
exchanged between these elements. Recalling our example of businesses that utilize their
used packages to create new ones, we can tell that these businesses generate value from
a product and from the packages in which it is sold. To do so, there must be activities
dedicated to the production of the sold product and from the recycling of used packages.
In the first case, activities can include the transformation of the raw material, placing the
product in packages and labeling the packages. In the case of the recycling of the package,
activities can relate to the collection of the used packages, cleaning and transforming
them into new ones. Each one of these activities is performed by one or more actors,
and requires various resources like warehouses and machinery. Attempting to portray
all this information can lead to highly complex models (both in terms of the number
of concepts and relations, and in the artifacts themselves) that will require an immense
effort to be understood and used. As we are interested in keeping this information to
achieve a precise description, our MBM should deal with the resulting complexity. Thus, it
should include different abstraction levels, in which elements and details can be hidden
without losing information. To do so, it should be possible to group concepts in terms of
hierarchical relations (for instance if a business has stores with warehouses in them they
could be grouped in a single component). These abstraction levels can be used to conceal
the complexity of the network or show more details if needed.
R3: The MBM should have the minimum number of concepts needed to model NCBs
while maintaining expressiveness
Managing the complexity inherent to NCBs demands extra efforts in the construction
and use of any MBM. In our case, the complexity of the businesses, that are going to be
represented, should be balanced out by the structure proposed in our MBM and by the
number of concepts and rules in it. In particular, the structure should have the minimum
number of concepts required to portray the different elements in an NCB’s network. This
too applies for the construction rules, in which case the number should be just enough
J. Open Innov. Technol. Mark. Complex. 2021, 7, 86 12 of 32
to portray the network with precision. A starting point to identify this minimum, is the
average number of concepts identified in the MBM’s studied in Section 2.1 which was 7
concepts per MBM.
R4: The MBM should foster the cognitive skills required for open innovation in NCBs
MBMs are essential to support open innovation as they guide related design and
thought processes. Based on the work of [67] MBMs that define visual business model
representations are especially useful as they foster the cognitive skills that are essential to
analyze and design businesses. The most common visualizations correspond to graphic
organizers like the business model canvas, which portray the business in terms of elements.
It has been shown however that while these representations are used for innovation,
they are not very effective in sparking creativity and are not well suited to support the
skills required for business model ideation. Conceptual maps on the other hand, are
better suited to foster said skill, since they disclose previously intuited relations and
clearly portray the transaction network of the business models. Working with this type
of representations, however, is subject to a user-friendly approach. With this in mind, our
MBM and its corresponding artifacts should contribute to fostering the skills required for
open innovation in accordance with a conceptual map-based approach.
R5: The MBM should be easy to use
To guarantee that our MBM is effective and useful we should also make it easy to use.
This means that the time and effort required to portray an NCB with our MBM should be
minimal in spite of the complexity of the portrayed businesses. To minimize these efforts
we should base our representation on an effective graphical notation. This notation should
be intuitive, and should manage few symbols and graphic variables while still managing
to represent the concepts and relations that result from requirement R3.
On the other hand, actors like employees, automated systems or any other actor within the
business do not accumulate items, instead they execute the activities in the channels and
are referred to as roles.
Depending on the components related to a channel, the type of activities performed in
the channel, and the items that are exchanged in it, a channel can be classified into 5 types:
Supply (S), Transformation (T), Distribution (D), Relationship (R) and Monetization (M).
Supply channels connect suppliers with the business, and group the activities necessary
to supply goods as well as the value, information, and money involved in said activities.
Transformation channels connect internal components in the business, and represent how
value is created and produced. This type of channel includes all the activities necessary
to produce value like transforming raw material or assembling the parts of a product,
hence value and information are exchanged in it. Distribution channels connect internal
components in the business, or the business with its client. This type of channel comprises
the activities necessary to deliver value within the components or the business (for instance
from a main warehouse to a store deposit) or from the business to its clients. This channel
exchanges both value and information items. Relationship channels connect the business
and its clients and includes the activities necessary to relate to them, ranging from pre-
sales to customer service. Relationship channels enable the exchange of information.
Finally, Monetization channels connect the business and its clients, and group the activities
necessary to exchange value for money. The money that a client pays for value is exchanged
through this channel, along with the information required to make the payment. Regardless
of the channel type, items can be exchanged both ways, and depending on the business
model the structure will only include certain types of channels. In particular, businesses
whose value is not classified as a product or result should not exhibit transformation
channel as there is no value transformation.
barley and hops order which is delivered by the supplier. Upon receiving it, a warehouse
agent checks the order, stores the barley and the hops, and pays for the order. On the
other hand, to order bottles the production agent uses an ordering system to forecast its
bottle demands based on previous orders and the current number of recycled bottles in
store. With this in mind, the agent places an order in the system and pays for it using the
brewery’s bank application. Once it is delivered, a warehouse assistant stores the bottles.
The brewing process is divided into 9 steps which are executed by production op-
erators. First, the barley is unpacked and grounded using a mill. The residue and the
grounded barley are picked and stored in their corresponding deposits. Then, the ground
barley is transferred to a tun where water is added and mixed with the barley until a mash
is obtained. The mash is tested to determine its quality. This mash is later pumped into
a lauter tun in which temperature is risen to separate the wort. The fourth step consists
of collecting the wort from the tun in a kettle, adding the hops to the wort and boiling
the mixture. When the mixture is boiled, the wort is separated and cleared from residues,
and placed to cool in a whirlpool. The cooled wort is then used to fill a vessel in which
yeast is added, thus beginning the fermentation process. Once fermentation is over, the fer-
mentation residue is collected and transferred to a deposit. The fermented beer or green
beer is stored in a container to begin the maturation process. The amount of time the beer
is stored depends on the type of beer being produced. Once the beer is mature, it is filtered
while being transferred to a tank, where it is carbonatized by adding CO2 . The beer is then
prepared for the packaging step. In this step the brewery prepares the bottles and the bottle
caps, fills each bottle with beer and seals it tightly. The bottles are taken to a bottle deposit
and then packed in crates and stored in a warehouse.
Alps Brewery beer has three main types of clients: convenience stores, bars and people
who buy in the brewery’s stores. In the case of the convenience store, the brewery has
a database in which the information of stores is managed. When a store is interested
in selling Alps Brewery beers it is registered in the database. Each month the brewery
takes the store’s orders, offers products to new stores and schedules visits to interested
stores to show them the product portfolio. Monthly orders are delivered by picking the
corresponding crates from the warehouse, loading the brewery’s truck, delivering the
crates to the convenience store, and unloading the truck to hand them. The store pays for
the order and the brewery hands the receipt.
The bars that buy beer from the brewery interact in a similar way to the convenience
stores. When a bar is interested in the brewery’s product it is registered and each month
bar’s orders are taken, products are offered to new bars, and in case a bar is interested
in tasting the products the corresponding tasting is scheduled. Promotional pieces are
also sent to bars for display. Orders to bars are dispatched each month for which crates
are picked, loaded into the truck, and delivered to the bar where they are unloaded from
the truck.
The brewery also serves clients in the brewery’s stores. In this case, the brewery
calculates the order of bottles for each store, it picks the crates from the crates warehouse,
packs them and delivers them to each store. The store receives the crates and stores them
in their warehouses. When a client arrives to the store, a waiter takes the client’s order
and registers its information in the brewery’s database if the client approves. The waiter
then picks the bottles from the store warehouse, opens and hands the bottles to the client.
When the client has finished the beer, the waiter collects the empty bottles and stores them.
Lastly, the waiter generates a receipt and collects the client’s payment. In the store, clients
are offered discounts and the chance to enroll in the brewery’s customer loyalty program.
In spite of beer being the core of the business, Alps Brewery has managed to create a
more sustainable business model by taking advantage of barley and fermentation residues
and by recycling its bottles and unsold beer. For the residues of the milling and the
fermentation step, the brewery collects, packs, and stores them to sell them to local farms as
food to feed stock and poultry. The relationship with local farms works in a similar fashion
to beer clients. The brewery also manages a database where local farms are registered.
J. Open Innov. Technol. Mark. Complex. 2021, 7, 86 17 of 32
Each month their order is taken, and discounts are also offered. To deliver a farm’s order,
the brewery picks the packed residues, loads the truck and delivers the packs to the farms.
Farms pay for the corresponding order and the brewery hands a receipt.
Sustainability is also achieved by recycling bottles. In this case the brewery recycles
used bottles to refill them or to turn them into new bottles. A bottle can be refilled up to
20 times, after this number of refills, the bottle is sent to the bottle supplier to make new
ones. To guarantee the re-utilization of bottles convenience stores, bars, and stores accumu-
late their used bottles. The brewery is then in charge of picking them up when delivering
new orders, loading them in a truck, delivering them to the main plant, and storing them
in a used bottle deposit. If they can be refilled again, they are cleaned and stored in the
supplies deposit. On the other hand, if the bottles are past 20 refills, they are stored in
crates which are delivered once a month to the bottle supplier who makes new bottles out
of them.
Finally, Alps Brewery has also taken a sustainability approach from unsold beers of
their warehouse, stores, and clients. As in the case of used bottles, the brewery also picks up
the unsold beer from convenience stores, bars and brewery stores. Unsold beers correspond
to beer bottles with close expiration dates. Unsold beer is transferred to the main plant in
which they are stored in an unsold beer deposit along with the unsold beer from the crate
warehouse. The beer is then collected from the bottles in containers, and the bottles are sent
to the used bottle deposit. The beer containers are sold to a local distillery that uses it to
make craft beverages. Every month the distillery picks the containers from the main plant.
Before picking them up, the distillery calls the brewery to confirm the name of the person
who is picking up the containers and the expected arrival hour. The distillery contributes
to the recycling of bottles by sending their own used bottles to the bottle supplier who
recycles the glass to make new bottles for the brewery.
ID D4 NAMEFigure 17 presents
Convenience
the Store Distribution
fermentation channel whichTYPE Distribution
constitutes one of the steps in the
ACTIVITIES
beer elaboration process. The activities in the channel describe what has to be done to
obtain fermented beer as well as the collection of debris to store in theRESOURCES
RESPONSIBLE residue deposit.
ID NAME AND DESCRIPTION
ID NAME ID NAME
ID T6 NAME Fermentation TYPE Transformation
D4.1 Load beer crates in the truck RO3 Truck Driver R3 Truck
ACTIVITIES
D4.2 Dispatch truck RO3 Truck Driver R3 Truck
RESPONSIBLE RESOURCES
D4.3
ID Unload crates
NAME AND DESCRIPTION RO3 Truck Driver
ID NAME ID NAME
D4.4 Hand bottle crates RO3 Truck Driver
T6.1 Fill vessel with wort RO4 Production Operator R4 Vessel
D4.5 Pick used bottles RO3 Truck Driver
T6.2 Add yeast RO4 Production Operator R5 Yeast
D4.6 Pick unsold beer RO3 Truck Driver
T6.3 Allow fermentation
D4.7 Load used bottles and unsold beer RO3 Truck Driver R3 Truck
T6.4 Remove fermentation debris RO4 Production Operator
D4.8 Deliver bottles RO3 Truck Driver R3 Truck
D4.9 Store used and unsold beer RO2T6 Catalogue.
Figure 17. Warehouse Assistant
In order to guarantee an adequate selection of the sample that would perform the
experiments we defined the target population of our MBM. In general, our MBM should be
used by business modelers and business analysts, however since the size of this population
J. Open Innov. Technol. Mark. Complex. 2021, 7, 86 22 of 32
is difficult to estimate, we chose the minimum sample size that could lead to accurate results
with a 90% confidence level and an accepted confidence interval of 13.5% based on [82].
This led to a sample population of 37 subjects. We invited 72 subjects to participate and got
a response from 38 of them. All of them were undergraduate engineering students who
had previous modeling experience with other languages like UML and BPMN. Subjects
were able to choose which experiment to execute. In total, 18 subjects did the modeling
experiment and 18 the interpretation one. Prior to the experiments all the subjects were
introduced to our MBM and the corresponding notation.
Insufficient (Below or
equal to 17.3 points)
28%
33%
Sufficient (17.3, 25.53]
Good (25.53,27.16]
The figure shows that 100% of the participants were able to represent the business
model using our MBM. Moreover, 39% of the participants obtained scores classified as
good and 28% as excellent. Aside from the overall score, we also analyzed and classified
the scores obtained in the structure and in the channel model criteria as shown in Figure 21.
On one hand, the structure scores results show that 100% of the participants were able
to build it, and 55% of them presented a good or excellent structure. The channel model
scores, on the other hand, show that 67% of the participants were able to build the channel
model; 23% of the participants obtained good or excellent scores.
J. Open Innov. Technol. Mark. Complex. 2021, 7, 86 23 of 32
INTERPRETATION SCORES
5%
6% Insufficient (Below or
equal to 21 points)
Good (36,39]
50%
Excellent (More than 39
points)
Figure 24 shows the scores from the beer production description and the supplier identi-
fication. In the case of the description, scores were also classified in four levels (insufficient,
sufficient, good and excellent), and the obtained results show that 83% of the participants
were able to provide a description (28% gave a good description and 17% an excellent one).
Figure 24 also shows that 100% of the participants were able to identify some of the suppli-
ers and supplies of the brewery, and 72% of the participants were able to identify the two
suppliers and their corresponding supplies.
Identified 1 of
17%
Could Identify 22% the products
39%
the Type Identified 2
Could not products
Identify the Type Identified 3
83% 39%
products
Finally, Figure 25 shows the results obtained in the description of the four scenarios.
In this case results were classified in three levels: did not provide a description, provided
a partial description or provided a complete description. Accordingly, results show that
for the beer sale scenario 83% of the participants were able to provide a description (39%
provided a complete one.) In the recycling scenario 72% of the participants provided a
description (39% gave a complete one). Finally, both in the unsold beer scenario and in
the brewing residue management scenario 61% of the participants provided a description,
in the residue management scenario 50% gave a complete description.
J. Open Innov. Technol. Mark. Complex. 2021, 7, 86 25 of 32
50%
33% 11%
40%
44%
30%
Did not p ro vid e a description of the scenario Provided a partial description Provided a satisfactory descrip tion
R1 R2
Business
Buyer
Seller
M1 M2
At the end, the MBM presented in this paper should serve as a tool to describe, ana-
lyze, design and evaluate NCBs, its application however can be extended to any scenario
in which one desires to understand the structure of a business model. Moreover, we
expect that with our MBM it will be possible to achieve a better understanding of the com-
plex structures upon which business models based on sustainability, digital technologies,
and collaboration are founded, and to foster the skills required for open innovation. While
the complexity behind these business models and their networks is unquestionable, repre-
senting them with textual or informal descriptions prevents a complete comprehension of
the elements within the network that are essential to create and deliver value and to define
a disruptive and sustainable business model.
Author Contributions: All authors contributed to the work in this manuscript. All authors were in-
volved in the conceptualization, methodology, validation, analysis and data collection. The manuscript
was edited and reviewed by the three authors. All authors have read and agreed to the published
version of the manuscript.
Funding: This research received no external funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement: The data presented in this study can be found in https://github.com/
roms1092/MBM-Validation.git (accessed on 28 October 2020).
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Abbreviations
The following abbreviations are used in this manuscript:
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