
Developing your digital business model
How can SMEs develop their digital business models and find the right customer segments? And what help do they need to scale up so they can grow internationally? This project explores these questions through interviews and workshops with companies facing similar challenges. The work began by interviewing over 40 small and medium-sized enterprises in Norrland to find out what support they need to develop their business model.
– The needs are about finding the right value proposition, being able to formulate how they solve the customer's problem. Many of the smaller companies have been started by people with a background in technical research or with high technical competence, and they may need support when it comes to finding the right niche for their technology and reaching the customer," says David Sjödin, Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
The project has focused on companies in Norrland that in various ways use the possibilities of digitalization to create new products/solutions. Many of them are connected to the process industry and the mining industry because these industries are large in northern Sweden, and several of them want to grow on an international market.
Two workshop series have been held where a total of seven selected companies with similar challenges have participated. More workshops are planned later - the project runs until 2025. One of the companies that participated is Widefind, a startup that was a spin-out from the research group in Advanced robotics at Luleå University of Technology. They have developed a technology for positioning objects in indoor environments and were helped to find their niche through the project. Changing the business model became a good deal. Today the company is acquired by Mobilaris and is part of their business.
– For us, Norrlandsnavets support has been invaluable. We were encouraged to work on our offer and our business model and to really dare to explore different ideas, even those we dismissed as too big and too difficult. This resulted in us choosing one of these ideas and daring to take it further to find out that it can be feasible - big, but feasible," says Markus Sjölund, CEO of Widefind.
The idea of the workshop is to build knowledge about how innovation and business development can best be supported. Part of this is the actual meeting between the companies and the opportunity to exchange ideas as well as a structured creative environment where you get time and support to find the right and dare to think new. Between the meetings, the companies get "homework" and the opportunity to continue the work on their own, so even between the meetings, development is ongoing. The next workshop series is planned for fall 2024.
– "We hope to get in touch with innovative companies that want to find new ways to create value, reach customers and scale their business," says Patricia Garcia, postdoctoral researcher in Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Contact
David Sjödin
- Biträdande professor
- 0920-491819
- david.sjodin@ltu.se
- David Sjödin
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