Digital business models: to investigate the extent to which firms implement and capture value from digital business models

Business models provide the rationale for how an organisation creates, delivers, and captures value, and as such, are seen as the route to competitiveness, growth and profitability. The possibilities for bundling resources into capabilities through its underlying business models have been fuelled with the appearance of the new internet and digital technology led economy. The nature of those technologies has changed the way economic agents produce, interact and commercialize their offerings, leading to novel digitalized product-services business models. The impact of digitization on businesses and society is broad, but challenging to assess empirically.
Digital business models have been implemented in a wide variety of industries including manufacturing, hardware, retailing, publishing or broadcasting. Some companies have achieved tremendous success developing, implementing and internationalizing these technology-enabled business models affecting local and global value chains. An example of this transformation is the case of Uber who developed a novel taxi booking system. The Uber application can be used by both licensed and unlicensed cabs, dramatically increasing the competition in the industry and considerably affecting the ability of incumbents to appropriate value. Another example is the eruption of big data which is impacting global production processes and the relationships between businesses and consumers. The aim of this research doctoral research proposal is to investigate the extent to which firms implement and capture value from digital business models. To this end, the project pursues to develop a better understanding of how consumers perceive value of digitalized goods (i.e. ebooks, streaming…) through the exploitation of large consumer databases.

This doctoral project will be developed in the framework of the Global Value Chain research cluster in the Birmingham Business School. This is a dynamic research group that has already gained international visibility as a centre of excellence in research on issues related to globalisation, governance, innovation, sustainability and policy. The project forms part of an Horizon 2020- Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions project called MAKERS on Smart Manufacturing for EU Growth and Prosperity. The project will run for three years from January 2016. The H2020-MAKERS grant might be able to fund the successful candidate to engage with industry partners by paying travel and living expenses for a period of 6-12 month for fieldwork in a European Partner.