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The purpose of this paper is to provide guidelines for practitioners in choosing the right response to potential threats by open business models.

The study focuses on identifying the dimensions of open business models. It consisted of 32 interviews with experts on open business models complemented by panel discussions with a selection of experts to validate the findings.

Five dimensions of open business models are identified: motivation, object, community, action and governance. Based on those dimensions, three responding strategies are proposed.

This paper offers insights for strategists and entrepreneurs who consider developing open business models or are attacked by competitors or other market players with open business models.

Complementing previous research, this paper highlights how the five dimensions of open business model can serve as a tool to design appropriate strategies when confronted with new forms of competition.

Prior research has revealed that a large share of managers is reluctant towards the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in decision-making. This aversion can be caused by several factors, including individual drivers. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the extent to which individual factors influence managers’ attitudes towards the use of AI and, based on these findings, to propose solutions for increasing AI adoption.

The paper builds on prior research, especially on the factors driving the adoption of AI in companies. In addition, data was collected by means of 16 expert interviews using a semi-structured interview guideline.

The study concludes on four groups of individual factors ranked according to their importance: demographics, familiarity, psychology and personality. Moreover, the findings emphasized the importance of communication and training, explainability and transparency and participation in the process to foster the adoption of AI in decision-making.

The paper identifies four ways to foster AI integration for organizational decision-making as areas for further empirical analysis by business researchers.

This paper offers four ways to foster AI adoption for organizational decision-making: explaining the benefits and training the more adverse categories, explaining how the algorithms work and being transparent about the shortcomings, striking a good balance between automated and human-made decisions, and involving users in the design process.

The study concludes on four groups of individual factors ranked according to their importance: demographics, familiarity, psychology and personality. Moreover, the findings emphasized the importance of communication and training, explainability and transparency and participation in the process to foster the adoption of AI in decision-making.

This study is one of few to conduct qualitative research into the individual factors driving usage intention among managers; hence, providing more in-depth insights about managers’ attitudes towards algorithmic decision-making. This research could serve as guidance for developers developing algorithms and for managers implementing and using algorithms in organizational decision-making.

Business model innovation (BMI) provides enormous opportunities to multinational corporations (MNCs). Consequently, some MNCs have created dedicated BMI units. Yet, research only provides limited guidance and lacks empirical evidence on the implementation of BMI processes in a corporate environment through dedicated units. Accordingly, the main goal of the research is to shed light on understanding the role (s) of a dedicated BMI unit and how it interacts with the existing businesses to help them identify, evaluate or implement new business models.

This work adopts a case study approach as a research design (Yin, 2015). In particular, the study is set up as a single in-depth case study in a holistic design (Yin, 2013). The data consists of a total of nine extensive interviews with employees of Bosch’s BMI unit, as well as project team members the unit has worked with. Of the nine interviewees, six are working within the BMI unit (internal perspective) and three are members of two project teams, i.e. customers of the BMI unit (external perspective). Archival records serve as an additional source of evidence aimed at enhancing internal validity.

This research is the first work to determine the explicit roles of an MNC’s dedicated BMI unit throughout the BMI process. Through derivation of roles from the tasks and responsibilities of Bosch’s BMI unit in each process phase, six overarching roles have been identified, namely, process owner, executor, enabler, challenger, networker and connector. Simultaneously, this work has suggested the existence of process-independent roles, namely, knowledge intermediary and trainer.

The case study approach underlying this work allowed an in-depth investigation of the BMI process and the BMI unit of Bosch but the results are still based on a single case study. In this regard, limitations that occur for qualitative case study approaches are also relevant for this study, i.e. although careful analysis to reveal the stage-gate such as the design of BMI processes or the roles of a dedicated BMI unit was performed, a certain degree of subjectivity remains.

The results underline that a dedicated BMI unit within an MNC constitutes a way to allow for managing the cross-functional and complex tasks of BMI by giving projects the necessary flexibility to develop while remaining aligned and benefitting from the organizational setting. This paper further observes that a dedicated BMI unit expresses an opportunity to define responsibilities for corporate BMI processes that are described in the literature (Geissdoerfer et al., 2017; Tesch, 2019; Wirtz and Daiser, 2018). Thus, the results may be used by practitioners working in MNCs to understand some of the issues related to the implementation of BMI processes in a corporate context, i.e. how to organize and structure BMI (Geissdoerfer et al., 2017; Winterhalter et al., 2017) or where to locate and how to interlink BMI with existing corporate functions (Chesbrough and Rosenbloom, 2002; Cortimiglia et al., 2016).

The outcomes of this work are twofold. First, building on existing literature, a process model for BMI through dedicated BMI units is proposed. Second, based on findings from the in-depth case study, eight overarching roles a BMI unit can hold have been identified. Thereby, this work constitutes a starting point for intensified research on the value and the implications of dedicated BMI units in the context of BMI and BMI processes.

This paper aims to examine the experience of hub:raum, the accelerator program of Deutsche Telekom, to deduce potential success factors. In today’s fast-paced world, large companies strive to keep up with the disruptive changes in their markets brought by innovative startups. In face of these challenges, the paradigm of open innovation encourages firms to use internal ideas and external sources of knowledge to advance their innovation output (Chesbrough, 2003). Yet, in practice, this is much easier said than done, particularly when large firms engage in partnerships with startups.

This paper is based on interviews and academic collaboration with hub:raum.

From the five years of experience since the foundation of hub:raum, one of the first German corporate accelerators, the authors have seen five key success factors: transparent and aligned goals, an independent team of startup advocates, a large and committed external network, top-management backing, long-term objectives and performance indicators.

This paper is based on the case study of hub:raum. There are several limitations to this approach. Hub:raum has a clear industry focus in the information and communications technology industry and also acting international has a strong German and European focus.

Based on the identified five success factors, executives working with or designing accelerator programs can significantly increase the chances of success of these kind of programs. Constantly working on the right alignment of these factors with the overall objective of the incubator program is the key task of the management.

Designing and running corporate accelerator programs more successfully will also help to enable more startups to join forces with corporates, creating more jobs and developing successful product innovation.

The paper is based on working for five years closely with the hub:raum management, a series of interviews and longitudinal study of this specific accelerator program.

This paper provides a tool for managers to overcome a common paradox in situations of innovation. The paradox occurs when the commercial viability of ideas for new products and services is unknown, making managers loath to invest scarce resources in developing them for fear that they will lose them if the idea is a non-starter. The result is that ideas sit on the shelf, idle and untested. This paper provides a low-cost, intuitive method for determining if a new idea has sufficient commercial potential to warrant investing in its development, thereby resolving the paradox.

The method is based on six marketing mechanisms derived from crowd funding: choosing a target prospect and positioning, creating a prototype, setting a price based on value, locating prospects; getting an address, communicating with prospects; delivering an effective pitch, and measuring results through advance commitments. The method is illustrated using two entrepreneurial cases.

Managers who use the method can validate ideas in the marketplace quickly and at low cost, obtaining the information they need to justify an investment in the research, planning and analysis required for commercialization.

The paper identifies a common but little discussed obstacle to innovation, the development paradox, and proposes a novel method of overcoming it. Market testing is not new, but most known methods do not solve the development paradox because they require a significant outlay of resources to undertake.

Prior research has argued that family firms are reluctant to consider external equity as a source of financing because they fear a loss of control, which would limit their socioemotional wealth. However, prior empirical research has neglected potential contingencies that determine whether family firms’ need for control affects their equity financing decisions. The purpose of this paper is to provide first insight into this research void.

The paper builds on rational choice theory and a logit regression using secondary data.

The study shows that the effect of family firm owners’ need for control on their consideration of external equity depends on the extent to which owners expect investors to interfere with management and the extent to which decision making is affected by emotions. Hereby, the present study provides evidence that family firm owners’ decisions to use external equity are more complex than previously presumed.

This study has several limitations that provide fruitful avenues for further research. Overall, the authors list and detail seven different limitations in the paper, e.g. the narrow focus on equity financing, the use of a partial model, the fact that the authors did not conceptualize differences between different types of investors (such as high net worth individuals, private equity firms and venture capital firms) in the model and further more.

The study shows that investors need to understand the complex interplay among family firms’ need for control, expected investor interference and emotional decision making, to correctly assess their chances of success when approaching family firms for equity.

Prior empirical research has neglected potential contingencies that determine whether family firms’ need for control affects their equity financing decisions. The present paper provides first insight into this research void.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the opportunities and challenges of serving low‐income consumers in developing markets with mobile telecommunications.

Field visits were made to Africa, India, Mexico and the Philippines, and in‐depth interviews took place with companies that had succeeded in serving low‐income consumers.

The paper provides insights about the importance of various elements of a mobile operator business model. The paper suggests that serving the poor is just as much about motivation as about issues such as affordability and availability.

Since this research is field‐based and examines only a small sample of firms, only tentative propositions can be offered on what the answers to the research questions are believed to be.

The paper suggests that managers need to go beyond traditional approaches to serving the poor, and take into account the unique institutional context of many developing markets.

This has value for management practitioners, regulators and researchers. The paper fulfils an identified need to study different business models of mobile operators in bringing telecommunications services to the poor, and identifies common themes and success factors.

This case study sets out to draw a detailed picture of the business relationships between Gildemeister Lathes Ltd and its two competing in‐suppliers, Siemens and Heidenhain.

On the basis of a profound analysis of the relationship context and by identifying the drivers of commitment the reader should identify some starting‐points to develop a sales strategy in order to keep and raise Siemens' share of the business with Gildemeister.

The case study enables the discussion of customer value‐drivers within a relationship context and puts an emphasis on the assessment of a multi‐stage marketing‐approach focusing on different units within a complex customer organisation and taking into account the “customer's customer”‐perspective.

This paper provides a detailed case study of Gildemeister Lathes Ltd, Siemens, and Heidenhain.

The paper “Made in heaven – produced on earth: creative leadership as art of projection” is about the concept of projection in the context of leadership.

This article takes a close look at Jeff Koons, a successful and highly controversial contemporary artist. The paper explores the way in which storytelling linked to his artwork has been the key element of the way he has projected himself as a credible leader in the world of contemporary art.

This article examines how the artist Koons is using the three universal story lines used by leaders to excite and gain buy‐in from an audience as described by the sociologist Howard Gardner: (1) who am I – How life experience has shaped my individuality and character; (2) who are we – Demonstrate the values and behaviors of a group; and (3) where are we going – Explains what is new, and creates a sense of excitement about direction. The authors find that throughout his career and his various artistic production cycles like the inflatables, the New, Equilibrium, Luxury Degradation, Statuary, Kiepenkerl, Banality, Made in Heaven, Puppy, Celebration, Easyfun, Popeye, and Hulk Elvis, Jeff Koons is using key elements of the art of projection by linking his art work to the three universal story lines who am I, who are we, and where are we going. A closer analysis of Koons' work reveals how he has leveraged each of these dimensions of effective storytelling as a broad narrative to link his various series together as a consistent whole.

The authors suggest that Koons' use of storytelling, and the manner in which he has come to embody the themes and concepts that he seeks to communicate through his artworks, present powerful lessons for managers as to how they can manage their own leadership projection. By looking at Koons, managers can better understand not only how to establish credibility and drive buy‐in, but also how to project themselves as leaders in their respective fields of business endeavor.

While there is literature on the art of storytelling there has been less focus on the sphere of art and how artists use storytelling and projection to take their audience with them. This new perspective not only creates new insights on the concept of storytelling and potential future research but has implications for managers and leaders and the way they want to drive change in organizations and take people on their managerial journey.