Why do established companies fail to make radical changes, while others triumph despite having the same resources? Dr. Max Schülting investigated this question in his dissertation. His research dispels the preconception that success is only a question of budget. The alumnus of the Innovation and Change Management course investigated the conditions under which companies successfully innovate their business models and when this fails despite having the resources and skills to do so. The work was supervised by Prof. Dr. Matthias Menter, Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Prof. Dr. Lutz Göcke, Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences.
The focus of the work is on business model innovation. Unlike a pure product innovation – such as the development of a new device – this is about the ‘big picture’: How does a company earn its money? Are services combined differently, new distribution channels used or radically new pricing models introduced? A classic example is the shift from selling software to subscription models (streaming). Such upheavals are vital for companies, but highly complex.
