Value Co-Creation & Proposition in Service Business Models & Eco-Systems – Interactions, Perspectives, Roles : 20 Manager Interviews in SMEs & MNCs 3 Case Studies from IBM (Leadership, Strategy, Technology, Services)

Abstract:

The academic and business understanding of how Business Models through Service Logic co-creates, proposes, and captures value in extensive and complex Networked Systems is at its first daylight, specifically in the context of Service Systems with their Ecologies. With the complexity emerging in the Service Economies along with the advances in Information and Communication Technology such as the Cloud and Big Data, to describe and define the business operations, units, and value propositions consequently is done by business modeling and innovation of the company to acquire a current or new capitalization strategy, control and execution. Open Business Models such as the Business Model Canvas are easily integrated in existing or new Enterprises and Service Systems, and aim to facilitate the development of private as well as public entities in adapting, accessing, and integrating operant and operand resources by the ever-so-more used Service Logic.

A Service Business Model has the academia and business recognized Service-Dominant Logic (S-D Logic) as a foundation for sensemaking in complex Networked Systems and Service Economies. The authors have conducted 20 face-to-face interviews with private and public company managers at all levels, review of literature in the Business Model and Service Logic fields, and also reviewed case studies from IBM on Business Models and its Leadership, Strategy and Technology (and Services) – which is a natural extension of our Interdisciplinary and Systems Sciences studies with S-D Logic at Karlstad Business School and Karlstad University for the past four years. The author’s research, interviews and IBM’s case studies show a need for further conceptualization and sensemaking of the Value Co-Creations and Propositions in Service Eco-System settings – and also decision-making assistance for managers designing, innovating and using Service Business Models to create sustainable Ecologies.

Moreover, a Leadership perspective with a systems level strategy in Service Eco-Systems through externally-faced Value Propositions with the ability to create opportunities needs to be developed through a systems thinking. Furthermore, the quality of interaction, shared information, and influence in Dyad Perspective to facilitate Triad Relationships captures value – which is facilitated by the new Service Canvas Business Model. We argue for a multiple perspective in Service Business Models to cater both partner and customer perspective with internally- and externally-faced Value Propositions to Co-Create or Capture Value – we see that this requires an objective (objectification) foundation for consensus; the 4C model.

We contend that Service Eco-Systems cannot scale or sustain without the proper use of Technology specifically Communication but also Information, which determine most of the quality in modern and digital service interactions and perspectives. Our interviews, reviews, and cumulative research in Service Business Models and Eco-Systems with IBM case studies are all strong foundations for current and future research but also for business practice today.