Collaboration in Business Model Innovation

Abstract

This chapter addresses the role of collaboration in the design and operation of innovative business models in the digital era. It surveys and builds on a broad range of related literatures on collaboration and innovation to examine how collaboration affects business model innovation (BMI). The chapter suggests that collaboration within and across firms’ boundaries shapes both the design and operation stages of BMI. It contributes to the extant literature by taking the first step toward explicitly examining the link between collaboration and BMI and by incorporating the ramifications of digitization for both collaboration and BMI.