Search results

Established firms are increasingly under pressure to develop new business models (BM) in a continuous manner to cope with competitive constraints and changing market requirements. Business model innovation (BMI) is widely accepted as a viable means to stay ahead of competition. Yet, firms struggle with successful BMI. The barriers to BMI is a widely discussed topic in academia and practice but with little reference to the barriers a firm is confronted with when operating multiple BMs in a corporate portfolio.

This paper investigates the implications for a firm operating a multitude of BMs concurrently. By combining the results of a literature analysis and 15 expert interviews from the fields of corporate strategy, business modelling and consulting, this paper presents and discusses the opportunities and challenges related to BM diversification.

The findings show that a strategic BM portfolio can be installed for enhanced value creation. However, managing multiple BMs and finding the right balance between existing and new business pose a major challenge for many established firms. With these results, the paper contributes to the existing literature in the fields of BMI and BM portfolio management. The findings clearly show the emerging importance of a strategic corporate BM portfolio for both research and practice and may provide an impetus for management discussions involving strategic BM portfolio decisions.

By building on and adding to existing literature and discussing existing works, this paper aims to giving a structured and comprehensive overview of enhancing and impeding factors on value creation when operating multiple BMs in a corporate portfolio.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how a methodological coupling of visualisations of trace data and interview methods can be utilised for information practices studies.

Trace data visualisation enquiry is suggested as the coupling of visualising exported data from an information system and using these visualisations as basis for interview guides and elicitation in information practices research. The methodology is illustrated and applied through a small-scale empirical study of a citizen science project.

The study found that trace data visualisation enquiry enabled fine-grained investigations of temporal aspects of information practices and to compare and explore temporal and geographical aspects of practices. Moreover, the methodology made possible inquiries for understanding information practices through trace data that were discussed through elicitation with participants. The study also found that it can aid a researcher of gaining a simultaneous overarching and close picture of information practices, which can lead to theoretical and methodological implications for information practices research.

Trace data visualisation enquiry extends current methods for investigating information practices as it enables focus to be placed on the traces of practices as recorded through interactions with information systems and study participants' accounts of activities.

Although frequently discussed as a singular policy, there is tremendous variation in the laws and regulations surrounding so-called decriminalization policies adopted by Western countries, with many jurisdictions adopting depenalization policies rather than policies that actually change the criminal status of cannabis possession offences. This paper provides a discussion of the liberalization policies being adopted in Western countries, highlighting distinct elements about particular policies that are important for proper analysis and interpretation of the policies. It then discusses some of the environmental factors that also shape these policies, and hence influence their potential impact, using data from the U.S.A. as a particular example. The results clearly show that researchers should be careful conducting intra- or international comparisons of policies because important aspects of these policies are frequently ignored.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between housing markets and new firm formation in six different industries in all 284 municipalities in Sweden.

The authors have used data from Statistics Sweden and The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth to develop a model to analyze the relationship between house prices and industry-specific new firm formation, with the interaction effect of financial infrastructure.

In the data, stable high house prices have no effect on entrepreneurship. However, a market with rising house prices has a positive effect on new firm formation, in retail, construction, business-to-business services and miscellaneous sectors, but produced no effect in either mining, agriculture and fishing or in manufacturing. The interaction between rising house prices and financial infrastructure does not change the positive effect on retail, business-to-business services and miscellaneous sectors, but within the construction industry, the positive effect on new firm formation disappears. In manufacturing, the authors observe the opposite – a positive effect, instead of no effect previously.

The contribution of this study is to provide evidence of how house prices are associated with entrepreneurship in different industries, as well as analyzing how the interaction between house prices and financial infrastructure is associated with entrepreneurship. By separating observations in time, endogeneity is controlled and a causal relationship where higher house prices is postulated, which leads to an increase in entrepreneurial activity in different industries. By using a spatial Durbin model, the authors control for spatial dependency.

Corporate real estate management (CREM) is the most important minor matter in nonproperty companies. Therefore CREM must commit to and deliver significant financial results in order to improve core business competitiveness. Ultimate valid criteria for success are contributions to earnings per share (EPS) and free cash flow. Pragmatic ‘on‐site’ solutions are required by business units within their planning horizons, thus speed is key to success. This Aventis Real Estate case study presents an example of how a ‘non‐core activity’ has become an ‘other‐core activity’ within a globally operating pharmaceutical company. This paper demonstrates how measurable results can be repetitively delivered with a lean team and optimised financial deployment.

In a globalised economy, the EU, being self-confident, could shape international standards by defending and promoting its own socioeconomic model. Social democratic parties rhetorically confess the need for a ‘European social model’, but meanings and ways to achieve it differ largely. In a comparative case study on the programmatic positioning of the German Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands and the Spanish Partido Socialista Obrero Español, the parties' perspectives on the integration mode and their handling of the Economic and Monetary Union framework and its crisis over the last decade are traced. Although similar paths from neoliberal convictions of the ‘third way’ to a positive integration process in a fiscal union setting are found, the scope and levels vary, illustrating the abilities of both parties to meet new transnational challenges. The crisis of the Eurozone was a definitive turning point for the positioning of the Social Democrats in Spain in favour of more political and fiscal integration. In contrast, their German comrades already advocated increased social integration of the EU since 2005 but remained very cautious regarding reforms of the economic framework established by the Eurozone.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).