Introduction
In this article, we propose a visualization method called Bifocals, at the crossroad between the existing literature in business ecosystem design and business model design.
Our prototype uses R statistical language (R. Core Team, 2000) and the package SunburstR (Mike Bostock et al., 2020), which allows to obtain image with multiple levels and nested objects.
We have prepared this storyboard to allow you to see our dynamic visualization, which cannot be fully described by static images.
We hope you will enjoy it reading it as much as we did creating it.
Research question
We define a business ecosystem as an “economic community supported by a foundation of interacting organizations and individuals—the organisms of the business world” (Moore, 1996, p. 26).
The visualization of relationships among members of the ecosystem provides an articulated wide lens perspective.
Therefore, we focus on the visualization of a niche community of actors who are interested in influencing the development of the particular domain (Walrave et al., 2018, p. 106).
Accordingly, our research question is: how to design a visually inquiry tool for business model design within a business ecosystem?
In the figure, we show an example of visualization of a business ecosystem, which we would like to obtain.
Data Selection
| Participant | Resource | Activity | ValueProp | ValElements | size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part 1 | Res 1 | Act 1 | V Prop 1 | ValElem 1 | 0.250 |
| Part 2 | Res 2 | Act 2 | V Prop 2 | ValElem 2 | 0.250 |
| Part 3 | Res 3 | Act 3 | V Prop 3 | ValElem 3 | 0.125 |
| From | To | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Part 1 | Res 1 | blue |
| Res 1 | Act 1 | blue |
| Act 1 | V Prop 1 | blue |
The systems gathers five types of information shown in Table 2.1, as suggested by Poels et al. (2018a):
- Participants,
- Resources,
- Activities,
- Value propositions and
- Value elements.
Such data can be stored in an Excel file, or posted on a collaborative wiki, as suggested by Faber et al. (2020).
Additionally, the system loads a second table described by Table 2.2, which illustrates the links among the different components of the business ecosystem, as done in the prototype of Faber et al. (2020)
Data Visualization
The system creates the nested tree and assigns the color white to all nodes without links, to hide them. Figure 2.3 shows the representation of a business ecosystem with four participants.
Each participant in the image on the right is shown in the inner circle by a different color. The second circle represents the resources of each participant: some participants in the example do not have key resources, and that is why the background is white. The third circle describes the activities of each participant.
In the example, participant 01 interacts with participant 02, and the link is shown by a blue background for the item Act 02 of Participant 02, in the bottom right corner of the image. The fourth circle illustrates the value proposition of each participant: participant 04 has multiple value propositions and the space is organized accordingly. Finally, the last circle is reserved for the value elements (cost and revenues streams).
Example 01: Business Ecosystem Explorer
Figure 3.1 shows how Bifocals can analyze data used by Business Ecosystem Explorer to describe the mobility ecosystem (Faber et al., 2018). link
Instead of using multiple images, Bifocal can show in one image the 15 types of participants and their connections. The mobility provider Alphabet (in yellow) supply software to the car manufacturer BMW (in green), which uses it as resource (which is in yellow to underline the link between the two entities).
Since no quantitative data is offered in this case study, Bifocals assumes that all participants generate the same amount of revenues in the business ecosystem, and it states that both the mobility providers and the Car manufacturers generate 100/15 = 8.33 % of the overall value.
Example 02: VDMBee (As-Is)
The website of VDMBee has several case studies. We will illustrate a case with quantitative data: a platform that connects students with firms called Studaro source.
Figure 3.2 illustrates two images to illustrate the As-Is and To-be analyses, which summarizes multiple images done with VDMBee. In the As-Is analysis, the link with the student activity Do internship is shown with the red link.
Example 02: VDMBee (To-be)
Moreover, the change in the percentage between the two images shows that, if the overhead costs are reduced (the black item), the profit of the firm will increase.
Adding Labels to the image
Conclusions
In conclusion, the Bifocals visualization tool aligns the ecosystem and business perspectives, and it builds upon and extends previous tools for visual inquiry. We claim that our method represents in greater details the niche ecosystem where the firm is located, and it offers a coherent way to build and test new business model features to restructure the firm, in response to its ecosystem.