Business Transformation Lab

 

About

In recent years, organizations have faced significant transformation pressures from multiple sources and stakeholders that have changed the way they create and capture value. Technological developments such as the internet of things, big data, web3, and artificial intelligence have created a need for digital transformation. Ambitious political efforts such as the European Green Deal and the ubiquitous effects of climate change have created increased green awareness among consumers and a sense of urgency for businesses around the need for green transformation.

The Business Transformation Lab (BTL) investigates the impact of these transformational pressures on organizations’ boundaries, processes, structures, roles, and interactions. Aiming to develop strategies, concepts and methods that enable organizations to successfully manage business transformation, BTL conducts research in three main application areas:

 

Business Model Innovation

In response to dynamic changes in their environment, established organizations need to reconfigure their business models. Alternatives to an organization’s legacy business model typically involve different logics of how value is created, delivered, and captured, posing numerous challenges to incumbents. The Business Transformation Lab’s work on Business Model Innovation consists of different studies and projects focusing on how incumbents can overcome the embedded logics of their legacy business and successfully manage the transition to new business models. BTL is particularly interested in companies transitioning towards more sustainable business model alternatives and in business model adaptation triggered by digitalization.

 

Digital Business Ecosystems

The Business Transformation Lab is interested in understanding the shift from value creation in traditional supply chains to joint value creation and capture among interdependent, co-specialized actors in business ecosystems. We are currently working on a number of studies and projects centered on how data-driven industrial ecosystems emerge, how orchestrators in platform-based ecosystems attract and align partners and complementors, and on the role of platform design changes. Our particular research focus here is on data-driven ecosystems in business-to-business contexts.

 

Open Innovation & Crowdsourcing

Organizations are increasingly using digital technologies and platforms that enable access to external knowledge through various forms of open innovation. The Business Transformation Lab is conducting research to investigate how more open forms of innovation governance (markets, partnerships, contests and user communities) can be effectively applied in organizations. The lab’s particular focus herein is on community- and crowd-based problem solving and ideation.