To see or not to see: A creativity feature to enhance business model ideation using business model development software

Successful business model innovation is dependent upon the generation of new ideas that can challenge traditional mechanisms of value creation, delivery, and capture. However, during the cognitive process of idea generation, individuals tend to overlook the majority of potentially valuable business model ideas, and there is currently hardly any software available to facilitate the ideation process. Drawing on cognitive psychology, creativity, and information systems research, I address this issue by proposing a creativity feature for a software-based business model development tool, as well as a randomized controlled experiment to evaluate its effectiveness. This innovative creativity feature is intended to enhance business model development tools, both quantitatively and qualitatively, by guiding individuals through their exploration of the solution space for business model ideas. Measuring business model idea quality was not possible because the experts consulted for this experiment did not reach a sufficient consensus. The findings on business model idea quantity indicate that the creativity feature was not able to enhance the creativity of business model ideas significantly. I additionally discuss implications for future experimental research on features of business model development tools. In the long run, I hope that other researchers will benefit from the experiences and that prescriptive knowledge can be derived that will benefit both academics and practitioners interested in the development of software-based tools for business model innovation.