Charles Baden-Fuller
Centenary Professor of Strategy
Cass Business School
City University London
http://www.baden-fuller.com/
Friday, Sept 18, 2015
10:00am – 11:30am Speakman Hall 200
Seminar Title: Business Models: Ideal Types, Values, Profits and Technologies
Abstract
We construct ideal types of business models that describe a firm’s relationship with its customers that in turn gives value to creative or technical knowledge. We pay particular attention to two possibilities: the dyadic and the triadic business model. Within the dyadic category we find well-known often discussed sub-categories (sub-types) of work-for-hire, simple product, servitized-product, and razor-blade business model, and within the triadic we find the market-matchmaking and multisided business models. We carefully define each business model category (and sub-category) from a conceptual-principled point of view, and explore the differences between these idealized categories in terms of value for the users and profits or surplus for the suppliers; and we also relate these ideal types to different technological arrangements. Our paper draws on and extends the current literature in economics, strategy and platform-technology.