Customer knowledge management and business model innovation: A case study on applications of mobile information system in rural China

The purpose of this paper is to fill in the gap between knowledge management and business model innovation from Customer knowledge management(CKM) perspective. The paper discusses the relationship between CKM and business model innovation, and proposes that customer knowledge management is an important catalyst of business model innovation. With the case study, the authors have analyzed process and effects of business model innovation based on CKM. The paper finds that customer knowledge management will contribute to satisfying customer needs and increasing the sales volume. It is an important catalyst of business model innovation. The results of this research are essential for academic and managerial purposes because they try to fill, to some extent, the gap between CKM and business model innovation. On the other hand, managers should take into account the implications of hosting some CKM applications to their business, because there could be an important effect on customer needs and the final sales volume.