In the times of emerging technologies and rising individuals’ awareness more light is shed on privacy and associated risks. This does not go unnoticed by regulators, that develop and enforce tighter requirements towards organisations. Simultaneously, outsourcing relationships develop and offshoring as well as nearshoring are still popular among cost-optimisation methods. While many security methods are discovered and developed and numerous standards and best practices exist that talk about information security management systems, there is only limited literature on how to develop and implement these controls so that they bring the expected value. The goal of this research was to present guidelines for designing and implementing information security management system controls on basis of identified risks and issues with controls existing at the time. This was to support existing financial institutions with improving their internal controls for information security when engaging in offshoring relationships. The goal was achieved through qualitative methods: case study observation followed by a questionnaire that was distributed among and answered by information security advisors and specialists with extensive experience in financial sector. Case study is a Swiss globally operating bank that outsources its processes to a number of offshore and nearshore locations. The bank has had a number of controls and processes already well established at the time of the research. This research confirms that financial institutions face various obstacles and issues at different phases of offshoring. The most commonly identified included: dispersed responsibilities, issues arising at the time of offshoring that could be identified prior to decision to outsource and finally – lack of power to enforce technical controls over vendors. The guidelines developed include but are not limited to: focus on additional areas when preparing for offshoring initative, establishing and defining responsibilities across different teams in the organisation and with the vendor and defining detailed contractual clauses. The findings from this thesis also open opportunities for further research – to investigate the relationship between these guidelines and efficiency of information security management system or to quantify impact of these guidelines in order to prioritise them. Similar research could also be conducted in other sectors and organisations to provide evidence for the research generalization.

As the insurance industry engages in numerous processes which are characterized by the exchange of data which is updated by multiple parties; a blockchain, as a single source of truth, has the potential to increase efficiency and reduce the complexity of these processes. However, the complexity, uncertainty, transforming potential and barriers to adoption associated with blockchain technology make it hard to assess its impact on insurers. Therefore, this research aims to help insurance industry business decision makers to anticipate the impact of blockchain technology on their business models, by finding the most important parts of the business model that need to be addressed. It does so by means of expert interviews and a business model stress test workshop. In this workshop, experts assess the impact of uncertain future developments on an insurance reference business model which is described using the STOF business model ontology. It has been found that currently, enterprise-grade blockchain solutions that meet the requirements of the insurance industry regarding governance, privacy, scalability, identity and access management, security and reliability are not available. Besides no concrete insurance use cases that will actually realize benefits have been found. Therefore, it is hard to justify investments that are specifically targeted at blockchain technology. However, there are two investments insurers should make that are not specifically targeted at blockchain technology, but will prepare insurers for technological innovation, whether blockchain will reach maturity in the near future or not. The first and most important investment is related to standardization. The workshops led to the insight that the most crucial uncertainty outcome is the strength of cooperation. The standardization of data formats and field descriptions is a prerequisite for this cooperation. Insurers just started this standardization in order to facilitate data exchange with other insurers. Insurers should continue their standardization efforts, as it will facilitate data exchange in the insurance value chain and being compliant with GDPR, regardless whether blockchain will be implemented. The second investment is related to rationalization, it will enable insurers to respond more quickly to changes in IT and be compliant with regulation. Blockchain can be a driver for thinking about how systems can be developed to support decentralization, a division of roles and agility, however, the rationalization process should not be targeted to a specific blockchain platform, as it is hard to choose from the scattered field of blockchain platforms.

Although aligning business models with enterprise architecture concepts can provide insights into business model implementation aspects, current approaches that facilitate business model enterprise architecture have several limitations: they often lack a network perspective, facilitate one level analysis of the business model implementation, are heavyweight or have an informal approach. Therefore, this research presents a formal representation for business model – enterprise architecture alignment, which is developed though an iterative design process with researchers and practitioners. Findings of this study have resulted in a formal business metamodel, a formal business model – enterprise architecture metamodel, two target metamodels and a corresponding modelling procedure. These metamodels facilitate a multi-level description, visualization and analysis of the technological implementation of business models through enterprise architecture concepts. The metamodels are subsequently applied to the Industry 4.0 domain. Main contributions of this study are the formal approach, the development of an intermediate lightweight metamodel to bridge the gap between business models and enterprise architectures, and the proposal of various extensions to enterprise architecture modelling language ArchiMate. Lastly, this study also provides some first insights into Industry 4.0 business model implementation aspects. Further research could focus on the inclusion of a quantitative financial analysis in the business model implementation approach.

The concept of business model innovation (BMI) has taken off significantly over the last decade in the academic as well as the business environment. It is seen as an important source of competitive advantage and is increasingly being used to achieve superior firm performance. Nevertheless, the field is yet to embrace the organizational dimension, especially in the BMI implementation phase. There is more focus given towards the technical aspect than the people aspect of BM implementation. Therefore, this research draws attention towards the people-side of implementing BMI, more specifically the role of employee motivation, development and readiness to change during BM implementation and how it influences the link between BMI and firm performance. First, a set of propositions, based on literature review, are used to develop a conceptual model that depicts the role of employee’s motivation, development and readiness to change in the BMI process. Thereafter, this model is used to analyze two cases of BMI in SMEs using a semi-structured interview method, to attest and refine the propositions. Besides obtaining a better understanding of the role of employees during BM implementation, this research provides empirical evidence that explains how certain employee characteristics influence the link between BMI and firm performance. Finally, the insights obtained has practical relevance as it stimulates better organizational practices when it comes to the people-side of implementing BMI.

The environmental awareness in business practices has grown to be a central issue in corporate social responsibility for many multinational companies. Unfortunately, it remains a way of brand management for many companies, rather than a drive for structural change in business practices.Business models should therefore be reshaped, to deliver environmental sustainability based on the core logic of a firm. While previous studies are concerned with the typological and antecedent factor of start-ups’ environmental orientation, this study seeks to explore how start-ups incorporate their environmental orientation into their business model and (re)design their business model to respond to changing market demand for ecological sustainable solutions. An important distinction is made between sustainability practices that are innovating the business model as a whole (e.g. architectural innovations) and sustainability practices that are affecting single components of the business model (e.g. modular innovations). It is argued that environmental sustainability can position itself within the architecture of a business model, influencing all business decisions, or environmental sustainability can position itself outside of the business model, allowing for modular business model innovations. To explore the role of environmental sustainability for business model innovation of start-ups within Indonesia, a multiple case study design has been set up. Two startups that are in the process of designing their initial business model are selected, one company that has ecological sustainability embedded in the design of the product, and one that is focused on other, mainly economic brand related, values to remain competitive. Also two startups that have already commercialized their product and thus have an established business model are scrutinized. Again, one company that has ecological sustainability embedded in the design of the product, and one that is focused on other, mainly economic brand related, values to remain competitive. The research design allows for cross case comparison on the different axes whilst aggregated data may reveal more general approaches towards environmental sustainability. All four cases were found to consider the environment in their business model to a certain degree. Seven sustainability practices have emerged from the aggregated data and is linked to business model components. It was found that, however space for improvement, the cases on the sustainable value dimension did place environmental sustainability within the architecture of their business model, considering the environment from the core logic of their business and affecting to a certain extent the interdependencies of the subsystems. The cases on the economic, brand related dimension showed to position environmental sustainability outside of the architecture of their business, not regarding the natural environment as a stakeholder. Consequently, they merely allowed modular business model innovations regarding environmental sustainable practices. However progressive, the ecological orientation of the cases on the sustainable value dimension can be said to eco-open rather than eco-dedicated, whilst the ecological orientation of <Case 2> and <Case 4> are to be placed on the spectrum between eco-open and eco-reluctant.

The competiveness between businesses is continuously increasing and multi-sided platforms seek to reduce cost, increase efficiency and improve the quality of products and services. This research explored the role of blockchain technology as a driver for business model innovation of multi-sided platforms. This case study contributed to scientific literature by analysing how blockchain technology can be used by multi-sided platforms. The interview results were used to design a decentralized business model for Peerby. This business model facilitates the sharing of goods between individuals. The research outcomes reveal that multi-sided platforms can use blockchain technology as a driver for business model innovation. Business models need to be both viable and feasible to function in a market. However, the early stage of development of blockchain technology comes with barriers for large-scale diffusion. Therefore, a business model stress test workshop was organized that revealed how uncertainties, relating to market, society and regulation, affect the decentralized business model. The research outcomes are relevant for peer-to-peer multi-sided platforms within the sharing economy. This case study could be used as a framework for a whitepaper that describes how multi-sided platforms intend to use blockchain technology to benefit their users. This research takes a novel approach to business modelling research, which will be introduced as business model decentralization.

Since 2017 blockchain (BC) has been settling in the spotlight. Several industry fields could use the technology as part of the underlying infrastructure for registering and transferring any type of asset and optimize business processes. As of 2018, numerous blockchain initiatives are continuously developed, with global executives looking forward to start a blockchain project and successfully extract value out of it. However, several factors aliment the uncertainty corporates experience when passing from discussion to actual implementation. Eventually the majority of firms simply waits for the technology to develop further, running the risk of being already too late to catch up when the technology takes off. Organizations need to assess how the technology can be integrated in the current business and how its introduction at the operational level alters how value is created, delivered and captured, thus the Business Model (BM) overarching the current process. Therefore, a thorough literature review about the technology and the BM concept is conducted. Links and interrelations among the two concepts are drawn and organized in a conceptual framework. Finally, an exploratory case study is conducted to validate the insights derived from theory: first a mid-European company is chosen for BC application and its internal dynamics studied. Then a specific use case is selected, and it is envisioned a possible exploration of the BM-BC relationships that the company would conduct. The suggested exploration is then proposed to the case company. The suggestions given well reflect the exploration the Group conducted in reality, confirming the validity of the study. In particular, the findings suggest that tradeoffs and limitations characterizing the specific BC use case actually played a role in determining how the exploration of BM changes was conducted by the company. The research gives insights on how a specific company explored and prepared for changes at the BM level. At the same time, it suggests the need to assess better how technological tradeoffs characterizing cross-organizational use cases translate into changes at the BM level.

Modern society is highly dependent on the reliable supply of affordable electricity. To ensure a sustainable future, this energy should be derived from renewable generation systems. The intermittent output of such systems makes it hard to maintain the so-called grid balance, which can lead to the malfunctioning of the current power grid. Adding electrical storage applications to the electrical energy infrastructure is increasingly mentioned as a viable and even instrumental solution, but no stakeholder seems willing to act. This research combines PESTLE analysis with Q-methodology to investigate and describe the variables that influence this situation. In doing so, it lists the institutional factors that are presently deemed by various stakeholders to be either opportunities or barriers to implementing a system to maintain grid balance in the Dutch electrical infrastructure. A tentative conceptual modal is proposed to illustrate the mutual influence of the perceived external forces that could induce change in the Dutch electricity sector.

Smart Living falls under the broader rubric of Internet of Things (IoT) and is described as a residence with connected technologies that are able to anticipate and respond to occupants’ emotional, rational, social, economic, and physical needs. Because Smart Living services have a networked nature, collaboration between actors in the business environment is essential. However, Smart Living services have hardly ever been realized on a large scale, and the various features are often not integrated. From a strategical viewpoint, this is caused by a lack of alignment between service providers. Consequently, the robustness of the underlying networked Business Model is often limited. This research presents a process framework which serves as a guideline for establishing a Business Ecosystem for Smart Living services. Central to this framework is an approach to analyze interactor relationships in a dynamic model. This model reveals alignment, misalignments and conflicts in actors’ interdependencies and interactions. To resolve the identified misalignments and conflicts, activities can be devised to adapt the underlying networked Business Model with the objective of improving its robustness.