Business Model Innovation in the Digital and New Media Economy

This paper outlines the increasing challenges of Business Model Innovation in the Digital and New Media Economy. It describes drivers of change, impacts on the innovation and business landscape, consequences for business modeling and the innovation process, as well as the implications for organizational adaptation. It presents in-depth observations from empirical research on 12 business cases in the Digital and Media Economy in Germany.

Our findings show that business modeling in the Digital Economy needs to be continuously cross-linked to the innovation process to adapt to the ever changing business environment. It becomes clear that Business Models in the Digital Economy need to be “open” so as to be able to continuously embed them into the firm’s surrounding communities, and to ensure knowledge transfer and learning. We will align our arguments with earlier research on Open Innovation and Innovation 3.0 - which we have earlier called “Embedded Innovation” - taking a more practical view on the implementation of new Business Models.