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Business Model
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What is Business Model?

A business model describes how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value — defining the relationship between a company, its customers, and the market it operates in. Business courses across management, strategy, entrepreneurship, and organizational development regularly ask students to examine business models because they sit at the intersection of planning, operations, and competitive positioning. The topic is academically interesting precisely because no single framework applies universally; models must account for the specific services a company provides, the customers it targets, and the broader market conditions it faces.

The papers archived on this topic approach business models from several distinct angles. Case-study analysis is common, with papers examining specific organizations — including Skype, Telstra, and Redbox — to evaluate how their models perform under real conditions. Other papers take a strategic lens, linking business model design to human resources, finance, and organizational change. Some focus on emerging technologies such as RFID and cloud computing to explore how innovation forces companies to rethink service delivery and management structures. Still others address sector-specific challenges, such as attracting and retaining teachers or assessing the productivity of teleworking arrangements.

A strong essay on this topic begins with a clearly scoped thesis that connects a company's model to a specific outcome — growth, failure, competitive advantage, or adaptation. Evidence drawn from operational data, market behavior, and organizational structure tends to carry the most weight. One common pitfall is treating a business model as a static snapshot; strong essays account for how models evolve in response to changing customer needs, market pressures, and internal management decisions.

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Paper Doctorate
Zipcar's expansion strategy and financing challenges
This report is on the ZipCar case for a venture capital class. The strategic issues of the case are identified, with particular attention to the steps the company needs to take in order to facilitate future rounds of financing. The nature of those rounds is discussed, including the value needed.
Essay Doctorate
Southwest Airlines' customer retention strategies and competitive advantages
Creating Exceptional Customer Service at Southwest Airlines
Research Paper Doctorate
Ethical leadership and sustainability practices in Nike and Puma
Nike and Puma are two of the major competitors in the international athletic footwear and apparel industry. Nike was founded in 1964 and is based in Beaverton, Oregon, a Portland suburb.
Research Paper Undergraduate
Kodak's strategic response to digital technology disruption
Many companies today are facing the same challenges as Kodak. The digital era incorporates rapid technological and information changes that are very difficult to match in pace. Customer demands concomitantly change on a…
Paper Undergraduate
Porter's Five Forces analysis of the movie rental industry
The movie rental industry as a whole has relatively low overhead, particularly in these post-Blockbuster times. Movie rental companies such as Netflix occupy virtual space rather than exist as brick and mortar stores.
Thesis Undergraduate
Cincom Systems' transition to cloud-based software architecture
The enterprise software industry is going through a series of disruptive innovations that are disrupting the economics of the industry while also shifting the balance of power away from the Chief Information Officer (CIO) to the line-of-business leaders including the Vice Presidents, General Managers and Directors of Business Units. As this balance of power shifts throughout enterprise software, many long-standing approaches to developing, delivering, monetizing, and supporting software are also changing. One of the most successful companies in the enterprise software industry, specifically in the Aerospace and Defense sector, is Cincom Systems. Cincom has been able to attain a highly profitable business model by creating very customized systems for customers' needs while at the same time creating maintenance agreements that ensuring highly profitable recurring revenue stream over the long-term. This strategy has been largely responsible for the company's ability to withstand the recurring recession globally that has occurred over the last five years. It has also given Cincom Systems, which is privately-held, a strong foundation for investing in new technologies and accelerating their Research & Development (R&D) spending as well. The one significant organizational challenge the company faces today is transitioning from its primarily on-premise platform to a Cloud-based one, specifically on the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) architecture that the majority of its competitors are using today. The economics of Cloud Computing and SaaS specifically are completely reordering the competitive landscape of the enterprise software market and pose a very significant threat to Cincom over the long-term. There are many challenges that Cincom must overcome to deal with this shift in product strategy, and will also have a corresponding impact on their overall financials and profitability. The intent of this paper is to analyze and explain how Cincom can rely on leadership theories to overcome these challenges and capitalize on them over the long-term.
Essay Doctorate
Marketing strategy and the Apple iPod's market transformation
Throughout history a wide variety of products have been introduced, which are having a tremendous impact on the way everyone is living their daily lives. One such example of this can be seen by looking no further than…
Research Paper Undergraduate
Rob Ryan's Smartups: entrepreneurial preparation and business planning
Rob Ryan in his book Smartups makes use of his experience teaching beginning entrepreneurs how to develop a plan, raise money, and put their plan into effective action. He finds, however, that most are not prepared and…
Research Paper Undergraduate
Google's search dominance and advertising-based business strategy
With a book of corporate lore than includes using rubber exercise balls for chairs and scrounging for computer parts on university loading docks, Google has today risen from those humble origins to become one of the…
Paper Doctorate
The franchisor-franchisee relationship and its role in franchising success
Franchising is a cooperative agreement by which one firm (the franchisor) sells the right to market goods and services under its brand name and uses its business practices to a second firm (the franchisee).