APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2016/2017

MBA 2418 Business Models for the Sharing Economy

Responsible for the course
Benedicte Brøgger

Department
Department of Communication and Culture

Term
According to study plan

ECTS Credits
4

Language of instruction
English

Introduction

The course will give students an understanding of sharing economy fundamentals and the skills to develop a business model for a sharing economy company. It provides an introduction to the emergence of the sharing economy in terms of technology, management and organization. The major part of the course is practical work with business modelling tools. The students will enhance their understanding of the complexities involved in identifying business opportunities for a sharing economy company. The course will give special attention to the skills required to mobilize and allocate scare resources from non-compatible sources.

The sharing economy has been around for a while, in open source software communities, consumption and brand tribes, and social entrepreneurs' networks. However, the global reach of the sharing economy is made possible by the influence of accessible cyber-material technologies like smart-phones and apps. This technology has disruptive effects and extends opportunities for economic participation to consumers and to remote areas. In this lies its potential to fuel economic and social growth, but there is as yet a fair number of hurdles for entrepreneurs who want to start and run sharing economy companies. The course will give the students the concepts and tools to identify business opportunities and business models based on different combinations of financial, technological and social resources.

Learning outcome
The students will acquire:
Knowledge:
· knowledge of key drivers of the sharing economy
· understanding of the institutional logic of the sharing economy

Skills
· ability to identify business opportunities
· ability to use a business model canvas
· ability to assess financial and social revenues and cost of a business idea

Attitude
· respect for technology, finance and social relations, and their interdependencies

Prerequisites
Bachelor degree or equivalent, 4 years work experience, managerial experience and good written and oral knowledge of the English language. Please confirm our Student regulations. It will be an advantage with previous knowledge of resource theory, business plans and/or the Osterwalder business model canvas

Compulsory reading
Books:
Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur.. 2010. Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. John Wiley and Sons.
Sundararajan, Arun. 2016. The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism. MIT Press

Articles:
S. Dohrmann, M. Raith and N.Siebold. 2015. Monetizing Social Value Creation - A Business Model Approach. Entrepreneurship Research Journal 5(2).. 127-154

Other:
Cases will be distributed ahead of the course start


Recommended reading

Course outline

Day 1. Lecture

• Sharing economy fundamentals
• Platforms
• Financial and social value

Introduction to the business model canvas and the cases

· Developing the market business model and the worklife business model

Day 3. Group work and plenary

• Developing the public sector and community business models

Day 4. Lecture, group work and plenary

• Comparison of the integrated business models
• Managing sharing economy dilemmas