Participatory business modelling

Abstract

How to generate business is at play in most innovation projects today. Not only Internet-based businesses, but also traditional manufacturing companies with conventional product sales are currently challenged to consider alternative business models: service design, project sales, direct sales, etc. In participatory innovation the core assumption is that a broad spectrum of people, including users, can contribute to innovation. But is it possible to open up the process of business model innovation to participation from a wider circle than those marketing managers who typically devise new business schemes? In this article we discuss two participatory approaches to business modelling that move beyond spreadsheets and Post-it® Notes: one of using tangible objects to redefine business elements, and another of people themselves role-playing how an organisation can create, deliver and capture value. These approaches were developed in companies and educational settings and have proven extraordinarily successful in initiating conversations about how to innovate business in cross-disciplinary and cross-functional groups of participants. Relying on design theory, we study the ‘moves’ that participants make towards a new network configuration; in particular as such conceptual ‘moves’ are likely to be associated with the concrete, physical movements of people and objects. We claim that these approaches prove very engaging because business model innovation needs a focus on redefining the concepts we use and the roles that actors play in relation to each other.

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