Robots at the construction site: An adjusted business model for construction companies

Context - After the recession of 2008, the real estate market is picking up again. Amongst others due to the urbanisation and the increasing world population the real estate demand is growing. However, the current scarcity of workforce in the construction industry might become a huge issue in the future. In order to deal with the future real...

Experiences of consortia for scaling up nearly zero-energy renovations of single-family homes

On average 64 % of the dwellings in Europe are owner-occupied. Although there is an enormous potential to reduce their energy use and hence CO2 emissions, the current average renovation rate is just around 1,2 %. The development of one-stop-shops is expected to increase the market uptake of home renovation. Developing emerging frontrunner...

The changing role of Dutch property developers in urban development

In recent years Dutch real estate developers have been subject to some societal market trends that force them to change roles (Heurkens, 2013). The decreased demand for office space, limited debt funding, challenging user demands, stalling public investments, and increased competition from new companies, necessitate developer to deploy more new...

Business Model Innovation in European SMEs: some preliminary findings

Business Models have been on the research agenda since the emergence of ecommerce and ebusiness in late last century. Although a lot of attention has been paid to the concept, ontologies, taxonomies and approach in the field of strategic management, information systems, digital business and high-tech entrepreneurship research, empirical research...

Business model metrics: An open repository

Development of successful business models has become a necessity in turbulent business environments, but compared to research on business modeling tools, attention to the role of metrics in designing business models in literature is limited. Building on existing approaches to business models and performance measurement literature, we develop a...

Value creation through network infrastructure automation: The Software-Defined Networking Technology and its business model from the IT service provider’s perspective

Our research is exploring how the computer network technology of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) can benefit an IT service provider. SDN is a novel technology that is capable of managing a whole network based on a single centralized entity. As a result an SDN enabled network becomes more flexible, automatable and programmable to satisfy users’...

Exploring business model innovation in professional service firms: Insights from architecture

Business model innovation may be a significant source of competitive advantage and firm performance. New ways of doing business have become increasingly important in the professional service sector. This research specifically focuses on business model innovation by architecture firms, which are suffering from the current financial crisis and...

Getting DRS Albatross on the road: The story of an instrumented introduction strategy

Chard Safety BV (CS) is a company in automotive crash safety systems. The patented Deceleration Responsive vehicle-Seat (DRS) Albatross is their main concept. The seat is able to drastically reduce forces on the occupant during a crash and claims to eliminate whiplash. It could also be made lighter compared to current car seats, because of its...

One Stop Shop: Development of Supply Chain Collaboration for Integrated Housing Retrofit