Course info

Business Models in the Digital Era 

Rationale: Leveraging technological change is a particularly challenging task for several reasons. The first reason relates to the unpredictability of the evolution of the technology. From the time a technology starts emerging, decades can pass until it has become stabilised enough so that subsequent developments are (relatively) predictable. A second reason is that technological change renders existing business models obsolete, and while business model innovation is a necessity, there is not only a strong inertia associated with business models (especially when they have been successful), but also a strong uncertainty, due to a lack of adequate tools. A third reason relates to the fact that leveraging technological change can seldom be done on one’s own. Instead, innovation ecosystems are highly instrumental in enabling firms to take advantage of the opportunities provided by new technologies. A final issue is that scenarios built around the usage of a new technology are generally too much anchored in the past, which means that firms have difficulties to apprehend the most disruptive usages of the new technology. Overcoming the hurdles and traps of technological change thus requires having the tools to overcome simultaneously all these issues.

4 ECTS

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Business Models in the Digital Era 

Rationale: Leveraging technological change is a particularly challenging task for several reasons. The first reason relates to the unpredictability of the evolution of the technology. From the time a technology starts emerging, decades can pass until it has become stabilised enough so that subsequent developments are (relatively) predictable. A second reason is that technological change renders existing business models obsolete, and while business model innovation is a necessity, there is not only a strong inertia associated with business models (especially when they have been successful), but also a strong uncertainty, due to a lack of adequate tools. A third reason relates to the fact that leveraging technological change can seldom be done on one’s own. Instead, innovation ecosystems are highly instrumental in enabling firms to take advantage of the opportunities provided by new technologies. A final issue is that scenarios built around the usage of a new technology are generally too much anchored in the past, which means that firms have difficulties to apprehend the most disruptive usages of the new technology. Overcoming the hurdles and traps of technological change thus requires having the tools to overcome simultaneously all these issues.