Computing Reviews
Today's Issue Hot Topics Search Browse Recommended My Account Log In
Review Help
Search
Business model innovation in the era of the Internet of Things : studies on the aspects of evaluation, decision making and tooling
Tesch J., Springer International Publishing, New York, NY, 2019. 257 pp. Type: Book (978-3-319987-22-4)
Date Reviewed: May 18 2020

Being myself responsible for innovation at a large software firm in the Internet of Things (IoT) domain, this book sounded like a perfect match for me and my role. It certainly provides a selected set of good and new insights; nonetheless, it also suffers from a few annoying characteristics unnecessarily complicating access to the novel concepts.

The underlying reason for my criticism lies in the fact that the book, in reality, is a collection of seven thematically related but otherwise completely standalone research papers that made up the editor’s 2017 dissertation. In a grossly misleading manner, this fact is not shown on the outside of the book or the publisher’s digital twin. These seven pieces are propped up by a (decent and readable) introduction and an unconvincing summary part.

Part 1 is a methodological introduction to the editor’s thesis, a good read for other graduate students or researchers, and the theoretical background. The latter lucidly explains basic terms, for instance, business model, business model innovation, and (a bit more superficially) IoT. Because these terms (including citations) are used in all subsequent chapters in slight variations, the reader will encounter them again and again.

Chapter 3, the first research paper, investigates the extent that the well-known stage-gate innovation process applies to business model innovation in IoT. An analysis of 27 expert interviews of practitioners who worked in 13 different use cases reveals significant differences to a classic approach. Their approaches were much more iterative and trial-and-error-based and typically only included two decision gates: decision point 1 secures funding for the development of a prototype or proof of concept, and decision point 2 commits (or not) the organization to actually rolling out the new business model.

Chapter 4 identifies 21 qualitative and quantitative methods for evaluating business models based on a literature survey. This is also interesting for a practitioner, although the authors, contrary to the book’s title, did not restrict the search to IoT or digitization at all. Note that no description of the evaluation methods is provided.

Similarly, the following chapter 5 compiles and very briefly describes an exhaustive list of 182 distinct business model patterns (for example, “agent model,” “bricks & clicks,” “buying club”) based on a wide literature survey. A very helpful 22-page summary shortly explains each pattern, shows selected companies that have applied it, and points to the relevant scientific sources.

In the same vein, chapter 6 isolates ten independent so-called “business model innovation levers” (for example, usage-based pricing, level of individualization) from various real-world use cases. According to the analysis, these levers should constitute the conditional factors rendering the surveyed “innovative companies, and their respective business models, so unique.”

In chapter 7, the authors investigate the conditions under which nine predefined IoT profit-driving business model patterns (out of the 182 found earlier) are applicable in real-world (but not yet productive!) projects. Results border on the trivial, for instance, that services/products need to have a high degree of usability to fit well into the “self-service” pattern, or that applicability depends on every involved stakeholder.

Chapter 8 vividly explicates how to thoroughly apply a conjoint analysis as a quantitative evaluation tool in the course of a business model innovation project in the smart home context.

The last research paper develops a scenario planning project blueprint and applies and validates it in three real-world IoT business model innovation projects.

Chapter 10 recapitulates the findings and results of the previous seven research papers in the form of elaborated abstracts with nice tables reiterating the title of the study, the core research question, and the core contribution. Besides the trivial fact that all of this is already contained in the original chapter, the low degree of coherence between the papers leaves this as a fairly superfluous exercise.

In vain, the editor tries to inflate the findings of the first two research papers (chapters 3 and 4) in the form of an “integrated framework for IoT business model innovation” in chapter 11. In fact, it is just a three-and-a-half-page summary of the content presented earlier. Misleadingly, this idea also features prominently on the back cover.

Finally, chapter 12, to the credit of the editor, openly acknowledges various limitations of the contents, for example, that many (if not all) case studies did not yet reach their full commercial build-out, that all real-world experiences actually came from German-speaking countries, and that some findings do not particularly focus on IoT. Several potential further avenues of research conclude the book.

Even though the editor’s claim to have produced “a leap into the understanding of business model innovation in the era of the IoT” may be somewhat exaggerated, the work does contain a lot of real-world examples, thoroughly researched theoretical results, and some true novel findings that are also relevant and applicable to the practitioner. For instance, I very much like the expositions of chapters 8 and 9 because they directly enable experienced consultants to almost immediately employ conjoint analysis and scenario planning in their projects.

Disregarding the identified shortcomings (including the fact that the book does not contain an index), I can recommend this book to researchers or practitioners in the areas of innovation and corporate strategy alike, not necessarily confined to the IoT domain.

Reviewer:  Christoph F. Strnadl Review #: CR146971 (2011-0261)
Bookmark and Share
  Reviewer Selected
Featured Reviewer
 
 
Business (J.1 ... )
 
 
Decision Problems (F.4.2 ... )
 
 
Real-Time And Embedded Systems (C.3 ... )
 
 
General (I.0 )
 
Would you recommend this review?
yes
no
Other reviews under "Business": Date
Business decisions with computers
Schutzer D., Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, NY, 1991. Type: Book (9780442318796)
Feb 1 1992
Microcomputers: software and applications
Curtin D. (ed), Porter L., Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1986. Type: Book (9789780135802427)
Apr 1 1988
R&D project selection
Liberatore M. Telematics and Informatics 3(4): 289-300, 1986. Type: Article
Apr 1 1988
more...

E-Mail This Printer-Friendly
Send Your Comments
Contact Us
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.   Copyright 1999-2024 ThinkLoud®
Terms of Use
| Privacy Policy