How Multinational Companies Create and Capture Value From Innovation Through Business Model Dynamics

Willing to answer to the research question of how multinational companies succeed in creating and capturing value from a new technology, this chapter aimed at filling the gaps in the existing literature with regards to defining business model dynamics and demonstrating business model dynamics in practice. Through a case study of Monsanto, and of the way the company's subsidiary managed to successfully adapt and innovate in Brazil, this chapter showed that external pressures such as new technology, the need to respond to the customers' demand for information concerning the company's new value proposition, existing regulation (among other external pressures) forced the multinational company to implement changes and create new elements in some of the business model components. Results also showed that to capture part of the value created with a new technology it might be necessary to complete business model design and evaluation with the analysis of the external environment.

The Interdisciplinarity of the Information Science

This chapter presents the conceptual evolution of interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, and discipline under information science from a theoretical framework. The text is a research whose primary purpose is to analyze scientific research developed in the context of interdisciplinary information science with participation in more than one area of knowledge. Using the concepts presented and those that contemporary authors studied in different areas for composition of the conceptual framework that presents itself, the results of the research have enabled profiling of research in the area about the use of different approaches and concluded that different forms and levels of interaction are found in information science. It is, therefore, concluded that the concepts have changed and that caused significant changes in their meanings. These changes lead to an ongoing re-evaluation and updating in the context of information science and its implications because it is an interdisciplinary science.

Performing Enterprise Architectures Through Gamified Business Models

The profitability of performance and the reduction of turnover are the main challenges of the big companies of the professional services sector. While it is not always possible to achieve all the goals of the large multinationals in each country, it is necessary to assess their development in order to do so. In this way, the steps are identified, going to the new version of new business models, under an organization perspective that can be accompanied by interesting results with a different structure. However, for the sake of management, in order to ensure the cohesion between the teams, it is necessary to create mechanisms for obtaining high income, in order to support the enterprise architecture and the intended business model, which highlights the use of the concept of gamification as one of these mechanisms. This chapter aims to review the literature on the use of architectures and performance demonstrations. In addition to using the gamification concept, the profitability of capital invested in different business activities and the improvement of employee engagement are used. It is intended to consolidate good practices for the implementation of architectures through business models.

The Value of Choices

Scholars and practitioners have proposed different frameworks to make business model representation easier. However, more information is still required to understand their applicability, especially concerning value perspective. This chapter focus on three of them: the Choices/Consequences, the RCOV, and the Business Model Canvas. This chapter (1) provides a comparative analysis; (2) discusses their design under the concept of value creation; (3) synthesises a new structure which contemplates their core elements, goes beyond their limitations and constitutes an alternative and useful tool. The new framework is called ‘(the) value of choice's (VoC). It points out – but is not limited to – the value offering architecture and enables strategic analysts to keep focus on a broad range of value outcomes: created value, appropriated value, generative value, and distributed value. The VoC is illustrated with a Brazilian tourism company's case.

Innovation in Laboratory Medicine

Laboratory medicine has a unique capability to evaluate the correct management of a medical test, its results, and the decisions it can determine. Therefore, laboratory medicine should try to improve patient outcomes, while improving quality and productivity, so that innovation in healthcare may proceed. Innovation in laboratory medicine demands an adequate identification of the unmet clinical need, evidence of clinical and cost-effectiveness of laboratory tests, and a managed implementation that takes into account the process change, appropriate resource management, and monitoring of outcomes. The main objectives of this chapter are to elucidate the role of innovation in laboratory medicine, identifying its main issues and the barriers it faces; to define a value proposition for laboratory tests and to point out several outcome measures that can be adopted in laboratory medicine.

Reflecting on the Orchestra Metaphor

This chapter discusses the potentialities and limitations of metaphors, as simulation techniques applied for decision-making businesses process. A special look is given to the orchestra metaphor, as it is possible to consider one of the most cited method for decades. Approaching orchestra formation definitions, a study of orchestra characteristics and peculiarities was conducted, resulting in an interesting inside view of the orchestra. A brief theoretical analysis about modelling techniques and its application in business process is also developed, allowing, at the end, to discuss how the orchestra metaphor can be applied in a useful way, encompassing several of the aspects we pointed in the text. This results as an orientation for the reader to understand how this specific technique – orchestra metaphor – can be effectively applied in decision-making processes of any level for organizations, escaping from mistakes usually committed when simple views for musical orchestras are adopted.

Firm Performance and Business Models Based on Exports

This chapter aims to contrast if internationalization is a key element to explain the performance of a company, especially focusing on small and medium-size entreprises (SMEs), and to identify if a business model (BM) based on exports leads to more successful companies. There is a broad theoretical body and a representative set of methodological approaches in this area of knowledge; however, the conclusions reached are very different and in many cases hardly comparable, being limited to a specific temporal and geographical scope. For the purpose of giving a step further in the investigation of BM based on exports, the SMEs from the Autonomous Community of Galicia (Spain) are analyzed through an exploratory research over the 2002-2013 period. The empirical analysis takes into account a range of firm variables linked to both firm management and fixed factors, such as the type of sector, the location, and the economic situation.

Mindset of Design as a Tool for Alignment Between the Brands' Business Model and Their Value Delivered

Business models are an important basis for defining how companies structure the way they create, deliver, and capture value. It is an important business management activity, but it often does not receive due attention from the executives of the brands. This gap promotes, frequently, incongruities between companies' business models and what they deliver to their consumers. The lack of resources to evaluate business models and a clear understanding of how to do this activity might be as reasons for the lack of the business models' management. Thus, this chapter approaches a study about the use of a management oriented by the design. This approach can be a relevant guide the efforts in the evaluation and rebalancing between business model of the brands and their deliverables (products and services).

The Role of Dynamic Capabilities as Influencers of Organizational Intelligence

Dynamic markets have made it extremely difficult for firms to sustain their competitive advantages. Adapting with the reconfiguration of its internal resources has become essential for the survival of firms. In the midst of these changes in the market, the concepts of Dynamic Capability (DC) and Organizational Intelligence (OI) arise, theories that, despite their different approaches to the use of firms' resources, have as their ultimate objective the creation and maintenance of a sustainable competitive advantage. So, in order to better understand the influence of these theories on the activities of firms, this chapter approaches the relationship between both theories, analyzing their common points, and the way DC influence OI.

Business Models

The objective of this chapter is threefold: (a) assessing the development of the business model (BM) concept, pointing out efforts scholars have made to close eventual inconsistencies; (b) analyzing those shortcomings implications to the concept understanding; and (c) raising convergent themes around which future studies can be built to bring cohesion to the field. The chapter reviews BM research over the last 20 years. It indicates that BM literature still displays a discrepant use of the concept, and that divergence still constitutes an obstacle to common language development and integrated research efforts concerning BM structure and management. However, instead of justifying those gaps in literature relative newness, research and future applications can strengthen convergent themes to move forward. Four themes are identified: BM as a cognitive representation, a value reference frame, a business dynamic tool, and a two-sided view of strategy.