Collaborative Development of Business Models in Smart Service Ecosystems

The growing prevalence of technology-driven concepts, such as the "Internet of things" or "Industry 4.0", holds substantial potentials for service sectors worldwide. In this context, "Smart Services" describe data-based, individually configurable bundles of physically delivered services, digital services as well as physical products, which are usually performed on integrated platforms. Due to their complexity and the integration of data from customers and other stakeholders as a key resource for value creation, Smart Services are performed in complex Ecosystems (e.g. in collaboration between technology, software as well as service specialists and users). However, Value Co-creation in Smart Service Ecosystems requires an adaption of stakeholders' existing business models. Smart Service platforms need to consider value contributions of other actors, when defining their business models and vice versa. Based on the use case of Smart City Services our paper illustrates the need for developing Smart Service Business Models collaboratively between ecosystem stakeholders and provides insights about appropriate methods for doing so.