Balancing strategic interests for network value of mobile services

Designing business models for mobile services is a complex undertaking. It requires multiple actors to balance different design requirements. A business model is a blueprint of four interrelated components or domains: service, technology, organization and finance. Little attention has been paid to how these different domains are related to each other. This knowledge is needed to enhance our understanding of what constitutes a viable business model. In this paper the connections between two of these domains, i.e. organization and finance domain, are explored by analyzing critical design issues in business models for mobile services, i.e. partner selection, network openness, network governance, and network complexity in the organization domain, and pricing, investments, division of costs and benefits, and quantifying contributions and benefits in the finance domain. A causal framework is developed, which links these critical design issues to expected network value and business model viability.