95628 - Business Models

Learning outcomes

This course provides a relevant knowledge for designing new business models from scratch and for designing experiments concerned with innovating existing business models. At the end of this course students will be able to: - comprehend the basic foundations of business models, their elements and relationships to other management concepts and how to describe and communicate about them on different levels of abstraction - understand what it means to innovate business models versus other types of innovation and understand the relationship between business models, digital technologies and data - acquire and apply design-thinking tools and techniques to design and innovate business models

Course contents

The purpose of the course is to give the students an insight in applied business modelling, both as a descriptive discipline for existing business and an innovation discipline for new business.The learning objectives are:

Knowledge:

• The student will be able to understand the different elements of the business model as well as the internal connections between the elements of the model.

• The student will be able to distinguish between different business models applied in different industries

Skills:

• The student will be able to develop the most suitable business model for a new business based on data collected through desk- and field research

• The student will be able to distinguish between different business model configurations and describe the implications of adopting a new business model within an existing business

• The student will be able to use the business model as a strategic tool of communication within new business creation

• The student will be able to unfold different scenarios through business model prototyping

Competences:

• The student will be able to analyze and develop new business with both an external and internal perspective through a business modeling approach

The lessons of the module will contain the following themes:
• The elements of the business model

• Business model taxonomies

• Business modeling and strategic communication

• Business models and scenario planning

Readings/Bibliography

Lund, M., & Nielsen, C. (2014). The evolution of network-based business models illustrated through the case study of an entrepreneurship project, Journal of Business Models, Vol. 2, No. 1., pp. 105-121.Magretta, J. 2002. Why Business Models Matter. Harvard Business Review, Vol. 80, No. 5 May, pp. 86-Montemari, M., & Nielsen, C. 2013. The role of causal maps in intellectual capital measurement and management. Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol. 14, No. 4. Morris, L. 2003. Business Model Warfare: The Strategy of Business Breakthroughs, InnovationLabs White Paper, prepared & published jointly with A-CASA, The University of PennsylvaniaNielsen, C., & Lund, M. (2018). Building Scalable Business Models. MIT Sloan Management Review, 59(2), 65-69.Nielsen, C., Montemari, M., Paolone, F., Massaro M., Dumay J. and M. Lund. (2018). Business Models: A Research Overview. London, Routledge.Osterwalder, A. and Y. Pigneur. 2009. Business Model Generation. Hoboken NJ: John Wiley and Sons.Porter, M.E. 2001, Strategy and the Internet. Harvard Business Review, Vol. 79, No. 3 March, pp. 62-79.Taran, Y., Nielsen, C., Thomsen, P., Montemari, M., and Paolone, F. (2016), “Business model configurations: a five-V framework to map out potential innovation routes”, European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 19. No. 4, pp. 492-527.Marco Montemari, Yariv Taran, Stefan Schaper, Christian Nielsen, Peter Thomsen & Jesper Sort (2022) Business model innovation or Business model imitation – That is the question, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, DOI: 10.1080/09537325.2022.2034780Roslender, R. & C. Nielsen (2022), Accounting for the value expectations of customers: re-imagining the Integrated Reporting initiative, forthcoming in Critical Perspectives on Accounting.Aagaard, A. & C. Nielsen (2021), The fifth stage of business model research: The role of business models in times of uncertainty, Journal of Business Models, Vol. 9, No. 1, 77-90Nielsen, C., H. Zaheer, Y. Breyer, F. Paolone, M. Montemari, & M. Lund (2019), Market Traction: A Manual for Accelerating your Business Model, Aalborg: Business Research and Business Design publishing.

Teaching methods

The teaching is organised into a series of lectures and workshops that first provide the students with a theoretical knowledge of business modelling tools and methods, and then let the students apply the relevant tools and methods to an organisation.

Assessment methods

18-23: the student has sufficient preparation and analytical skills, spread however, over just few topics taught in the course, the overall jargon is correct

24-27: the student shows an adequate preparation at a technical level with some doubts over the topics. Good, yet not too articulated analytical skills with the use of a correct jargon

28-30: Great knowledge about most of the topics taught in the course, good critical and analytical skills, good usage of the specific jargon

30L: excellent and in depth knowledge of all the topics in the course, excellent critical and analytical skills, excellent usage of specific jargon.

Teaching tools

The course in business models uses MS Teams, Padlet, Peergrade and a Learning Management software that allows for online development processes and problem-solving to take place in teams. In addition, a number of workshop tools including the Business Model Canvas and the Value Proposition Canvas will be used to analyze business models. 

Office hours

See the website of Jens Christian Nielsen