Business Model Ideation : An Experimental Approach for the Evaluation of Team-based Methods

Developing new business model ideas is a complex, ill-defined innovation task and among the core challenges for existing firms aiming to achieve sustainable success. Neither business model nor idea generation research has yet fully examined suitable methods to generate business model innovation ideas. We have conducted a comprehensive literature review and develop a model to examine the effectiveness of different methods for the generation of business model ideas. The model comprises both objective and subjective effectiveness measures. In a first empirical application of the model in an experimental setting, we have compared the effectiveness of the business model innovation canvas, collaborative sketching, and brainstorming to generate novel business model ideas. The initial results suggest that the model is suitable for comparing different methods: it discerns key indicators of effectiveness, important tradeoffs between quantity and quality of ideas, and between satisfaction and the ability to select the best idea.