Title: From business concept innovation to a business system: a case study of a virtual city portal

Authors: Mikko Pynnonen, Olli Kytola

Addresses: Technology Business Research Center, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, Lappeenranta FIN-53851, Finland. ' Technology Business Research Center, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, Lappeenranta FIN-53851, Finland

Abstract: The growing ubiquity of information technology is enabling the development of new services which consumers can access with existing devices such as mobile or smart phones, PDAs, home and public computers. The services are accessed via community portals that host a variety of services in one convenient virtual place, like a virtual city. The function of the portal is to provide services to citizens whose needs can be better met via a virtual interface. The main argument of this paper is that including the customer into the innovation process and creating a business system based on value flows are the key elements of creating new business models in e services. In this paper we introduce the business concept innovation process for applying e-government in cities in the form of a virtual city portal. Furthermore, we introduce a value flow-based business system for implementing the portal.

Keywords: business models; business concept innovation; business systems; value networks; community portals; virtual city; e-government; electronic government; customer needs; customer value; value flows; e-services; online services.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2008.017524

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2008 Vol.2 No.3, pp.314 - 329

Published online: 13 Mar 2008 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article