Personal business model for evolution: how individuals change their business model over time

This report adds value to the research area of business models by elaborating an under researched field of business model application - the personal business model. Due to accelerating environmental changes individuals need to constantly rethink their own personal business model. External events like societal changes and technical progress in addition to internal factors like personal goals and values influence personal business model viability and play a role in this change process. This paper extends the area of personal business models by examining the triggering events that facilitate individuals to change their personal business model over time in combination with the underlying change logic. Results are based on a cross sectional qualitative research strategy, which takes an online survey, three interviews and one online discussion board into account. The study comes to the conclusion that internal factors function as a filter mechanism that determined which external factors are of relevance for the individual. Additionally the paper shows that existing personal business model mapping tools lack a strategic and an environmental perspective. Furthermore the study proposes a personal business model evolution framework, which distinguishes two generic change strategies in the context of personal business model: planning and experimenting.