Business model engineering: creating non-linear growth effects for service innovations

Every service innovation needs a viable business model in order to create and capture value. Strikingly, most of the current literature is focused on business model design only, whereas almost no attention is given to business model validation and implementation – let alone experimentation with components of business models. The goal of this study is to demonstrate, with the help of a (quantitative) business model engineering tool, how a continuous cycle of business model design, validation, implementation, and experimentation may lead to high growth – by creating so-called ‘lollapalooza’ (non-linear growth) effects – for service innovations. This tool is applied to the business model of an online investment research startup with a scalable investor information service in roll out and market phase. The start-up was co-founded by one of the authors of this paper and the investor information service as offered by this start-up developed into one of the biggest of its kind within The Netherlands. In this paper we focus on the design, implementation and evaluation of the business model engineering tool. We also analyze the actual usage of the business model tool by the online investment research startup by focusing on the most critical actions related to the actual implementation of and experimentation with its investor information service business model.