Business Model Innovation in the Internet of Things: A Configurational Perspective

In recent years, business model design has received increased attention as a perspective to associ-ate business model innovation with firm performance. In this view, fitness between a business model’s elements leads to high performance and conversely, high performance requires fitness between the design elements. However, so far there have been few insights into the concrete con-tent and structure of design element configurations that enable high performance. Based on an investigation of 188 entrepreneurial ventures operating in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT), this study develops a taxonomy of IoT business models comprising a total of 108 design elements. By applying a k-Modes clustering approach, we further identify such high performing business model configurations. Finally, based on a random forest analysis, our study finds that the design of the business model components customer relations, revenue model, market ap-proach, and solution are the most important in determining firm performance.