The emerging research stream on digital sustainability examines how digital technologies enable the creation of environmental and social value. The need to finance the creation of such value calls for a business model perspective that combines value creation and value capture. To extend the digital sustainability literature in this regard, we adopt a microfoundations perspective and argue that the configuration of value creation influences the decision of users to pay for a value proposition or not, which in turn affects organizational value capture. Applying a crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis to 130 smart city initiatives in Switzerland, we develop a three-dimensional framework of business models for digital sustainability. The framework comprises 12 theoretically possible business model types, representing distinct business model configurations. We contribute to the digital sustainability and the microfoundations literatures by analyzing, explaining, and classifying the diversity of digitally enabled business models in the context of smart cities.
Research in Innovation Management
Our research focuses on the impact of digital technologies on managerial practices, business models, organizations and society.
Current Research Projects
The Energy Innovation Lab at the Chair for Innovation Management supports the development and commercial exploitation of smart and sustainable business models.
This project examines how intellectual property changes in the context of self-learning systems.
This projects conducts research for the Swiss National Science Foundation on Digital Transformation.
Putting years of research about business model innovation into practice with Hansgrohe
The Chair for Innovation Management collaborates with Siemens to investigate decentralized platforms
The St.Gallen Blockchain Roundtable & The DLT Think Tank
The SCCER CREST is a Swiss national research programme contributing on different levels to the reinforcement of energy reserach in Switzerland. Interested to learn more?
88 pattern cards that help you design and implement platform business models in your company
Our Publications
Please find a selection of the most cited publications by the Chair for Innovation Management below. You can find the full publication list of Prof. Dr. Oliver Gassmann here.
Bencsik, B., Palmié, M., Parida, V., Wincent, J., Gassmann, O. (2023). Business models for digital sustainability: Framework, microfoundations of value capture, and empirical evidence from 130 smart city services. Journal of Business Research, 160. 1-14.
Schäfer, F. A., Gebauer, H., Gröger, C., Gassmann, O., Wortmann, F. (2023). Data-driven business and data privacy: Challenges and measures for product-based companies. Business Horizons, 66(4). 493-504.
Haefner, N., Parida, V., Gassmann, O., Wincent, J. (2023). Implementing and scaling artificial intelligence: A review, framework, and research agenda. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 197.
Lingens, B., Seeholzer, V., Gassmann, O. (2023). Journey to the Big Bang: How firms define new value propositions in emerging ecosystems. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 69.
Schuhmacher, A., Hinder, M., Dodel, A., Gassmann, O., Hartl, D. (2023). Investigating the origins of recent pharmaceutical innovation. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery
Boemelburg, R., Zimmermann, A., Palmié, M. (2023). How paradoxical leaders guide their followers to embrace paradox: Cognitive and behavioral mechanisms of paradox mindset development. Long Range Planning, 56(4). 1-13.
Haefner, N., Palmié, M., Leppänen, P. T. (2023). With(Out) a Little Help From My Friends? Reconciling Incongruous Findings on Stakeholder Management, Innovation, and Firm Performance. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 47(1). 142-171.
Schuhmacher, A., Hinder, M., Von Stegmann Und Stein, A., Hartl, D., Gassmann, O. (2023). Analysis of pharma R&D productivitya new perspective needed. Drug Discovery Today, 28(10).
Palmié, M., Rügger, S., Holzer, M., Oghazi, P. (2023). The “golden” voice of “green” employees: The effect of private environmental orientation on suggestions for improvement in firms’ economic value creation. Journal of Business Research, 156. 1-12.
Palmié, M., Rügger, S., Parida, V. (2023). Microfoundations in the strategic management of technology and innovation: Definitions, systematic literature review, integrative framework, and research agenda. Journal of Business Research, 154. 1-17.
Miehé, L., Palmié, M., Oghazi, P. (2022). Connection successfully established: How complementors use connectivity technologies to join existing ecosystems – Four archetype strategies from the mobility sector. Technovation, 122. 1-13.
Palmié, M., Miehé, L., Oghazi, P., Parida, V., Wincent, J. (2022). The evolution of the digital service ecosystem and digital business model innovation in retail: The emergence of meta-ecosystems and the value of physical interactions. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 177. 1-10.
Lingens, B., Seeholzer, V., Gassmann, O. (2022). The architecture of innovation: how firms configure different types of complementarities in emerging ecosystems. Industry and Innovation, 29(9). 1108-1139.
Schuhmacher, A., Gassmann, O., Bieniok, D., Hinder, M., Hartl, D. (2022). Open innovation: A paradigm shift in pharma R&D?. Drug Discovery Today, 27(9). 2395-2405.
Schweitzer, F., Palmié, M., Gassmann, O., Kahlert, J., Roeth, T. (2022). Open innovation for institutional entrepreneurship: how incumbents induce institutional change to advance autonomous driving. R & D Management, 52(3). 465-483
Friedrich, J., Palmié, M. (2021). Does Smart equal Sustainable? Selective Coupling and Sustainability Performance in 251 Smart City Initiatives understood as Hybrid Organizations. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2021(1).
Lingens, B., Böger, M. (2021). Even a Small Conductor Can Lead a Large Orchestra: How Startups Orchestrate Ecosystems. California Management Review, 63(3). 1-26.
Lingens, B., Miehé, L., Gassmann, O. (2021). The Ecosystem Blueprint: How Firms Shape the Design of an Ecosystem According to the Surrounding Conditions. Long Range Planning, 54(2). 1-53.
Palmié, M., Boehm, J., Friedrich, J., Parida, V., Wincent, J., Kahlert, J., Gassmann, O., Sjödin, D. (2021). Startups versus incumbents in ‘green’ industry transformations: A comparative study of business model archetypes in the electrical power sector. Industrial Marketing Management. Vol. 96.
Schweitzer, F., Palmié, M., Gassmann, O., Kahlert, J. & Roeth, T. (2021). Open innovation for institutional entrepreneurship: how incumbents induce institutional change to advance autonomous driving. R&D Management.
Haefner, N., Palmié, M., & Leppänen, P. T. (2021). With(out) a little help from my friends? Reconciling incongruous findings on stakeholder management, innovation, and firm performance. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, in press.
Haefner, N., Wincent, J., Parida, V., & Gassmann, O. (2021). Artificial intelligence and innovation management: A review, framework, and research agenda. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 162(1).
Palmié, Maximilian, Boehm, Jonas, Lekkas, Charlotte-Katharina, Parida, Vinit, Wincent, Joakim, & Gassmann, Oliver: Circular business model implementation: Design choices, orchestration strategies, and transition pathways for resource-sharing solutions, Journal of Cleaner Production, 280 (2020): 124399.
Lingens, B. Miehé, L., & Gassmann, O. (2020): The Ecosystem Blueprint: How Firms Shape the Design of an Ecosystem According to the Surrounding Conditions, Long Range Planning. doi: 10.1016/j.lrp.2020.102043
Gassmann, O., Frankenberger, K., & Choudury, M. (2020). The Business Model Navigator: The strategies behind the most successful companies. 2nd Edition. FT Pearson, UK.
Neumann, L., Winterhalter, S. & Gassmann, O. (2020): Market maketh magic - consequences and implications of market choice for frugal innovation, International Journal of Technology Management, Vol. 83, 55-77.
Schuhmacher, A., Gatto, A., Hinder, M., Kuss, M., & Gassmann, O. (2020): The upside of being a digital pharma player. Drug Discovery Today, (featured in Forbes, July 2020)
Gassmann, O., Böhm, J., & Palmié, M.: Smart Cities: Introducing Digital Innovation to Cities. Bingley, Uk. Emerald Publishing, 2019. ISBN: 978-1-78769-614-3.
Schuhmacher, A., Gassmann, O., Kuss, M.& Hinder, M. (2019): The art of virtualizing pharma R&D. Drug Discovery Today, 24 (11), 2105-2107.
Palmié, M., Huerzeler, P., Grichnik, D., Keupp, M. M., & Gassmann, O. (2018). Some principles are more equal than others: Promotion‐ versus prevention‐focused effectuation principles and their disparate relationships with entrepreneurial orientation. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 13(1), 93-117.
Gassmann, O., Schuhmacher, A., von Zedtwitz, M., & Reepmeyer, G.: Leading Pharmaceutical Innovation: How to win the life science race. 3rd Ed. Berlin, Springer, 2018. ISBN: 978-3-319-66832-1.
Winterhalter, S., Zeschky, M., Neumann, L., & Gassmann, O. (2017): Business Models for Frugal Innovation in Emerging Markets: The Case of the Medical Device and Laboratory Equipment Industry. Technovation, Vol. 66-67, 3-13.
Gassmann, O., & Bader, M. A.: Patentmanagement: Innovationen erfolgreich nutzen und schützen. 4. Auflage - vollständig überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Gabler, 2017. ISBN: 978-3-662-49526-1.
Palmié, M., Zeschky, M, Winterhalter, S., Sauter, P., Haefner, N., & Gassmann, O. (2016): Coordination Mechanisms for International Innovation in SMEs: Effects on Time-to-Market and R&D Task Complexity as a Moderator. Small Business Economics, 46(2), 273-294.
Schweizer, F., Rau, C., Gassmann, O., & van den Hende, E. (2015): Technologically Reflective Individuals as Enables of Social Innovation. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 32 (6), 847-860.
Palmié, M., Keupp, M. M., & Gassmann, O. (2014): Pull the right levers: Creating Internationally 'Useful' Subsidiary by Organizational Architecture. Long Range Planning, 47 (1-2), 32-48.
Keupp, M. M., & Gassmann, O. (2013): Resource constraints as triggers of radical innovation: Longitudinal evidence from the manufacturing sector. Research Policy, 42 (8), 1457-1468.
Keupp, M. M., Palmié, M., & Gassmann, O. (2012). The strategic management of innovation: A systematic review and paths for future research. International Journal of Management Reviews, 14(4), 367-390.
Gassmann, O., Zeschky, M., Wolff, T., & Stahl, M. (2010): Crossing the industry-line: Breakthrough innovation through cross-industry alliances with 'non-suppliers'. Long Range Planning, 43 (5-6), 639-654.
Gassmann, O., Enkel, E., & Chesbrough, H. (2010). The future of open innovation. R&D Management, 40(3), 213-221.
Enkel, E., Gassmann, O., & Chesbrough, H. (2009). Open R&D and open innovation: exploring the phenomenon. R&D Management, 39(4), 311-316.
Keupp, M. M., & Gassmann, O. (2009). The past and the future of international entrepreneurship: A review and suggestions for developing the field. Journal of Management, 35(3), 600-633.
Gassmann, O., & Keupp, M. M. (2007). The competitive advantage of early and rapidly internationalising SMEs in the biotechnology industry: A knowledge-based view. Journal of World Business, 42(3), 350-366.
Gassmann, O. (2006). Opening up the innovation process: Towards an agenda. R&D Management, 36(3), 223-228.
Gassmann, O., & Enkel, E. (2004). Towards a theory of open innovation: Three core process archetypes. In: R&D Management Conference (RADMA), Lissabon.