Educating engineers to develop new business models: exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities in technology-based firms

Abstract

This study examines educational frameworks and practices useful in teaching engineers to develop new business models (BM) that exploit entrepreneurial opportunities in technology-based firms. We compare three existing frameworks (Blue Ocean, the Business Model Canvas, and the Business Model Innovation Framework) used to teach how to develop new business models. We then report findings from two studies: (1) five years of teaching engineers at a business school; and (2) a two-year intervention carried out at an aerospace engineering firm engaged in new business model development. In both studies, the challenges of business-model-related education involve the limits to creativity imposed by existing frameworks and the difficulty in prototyping new business models. The opportunities of business-model-related education include the transformation of the educator into a coach by effectively combining explanation- and experience-based learning approaches into a virtuous learning cycle. Systematic thinking about business model design, enabled by the business model frameworks, is of crucial importance to generate viable business models for new technologies.