Dynamic Business Models: a Proposed Framework to Overcome the Death Valley

The ex ante definition of business model offers the possibility to create a static picture of “how” the company is able to generate value in a given moment. But is this business model able to generate value over time? The time factor of the value proposition life cycle is not usually taken into account. This paper, starting from the lean canvas model (Maurya 2012), proposes a framework able to consider the temporal factor and, coming from Rogers’s innovation diffusion theory (Die Diffusion von Innovationen in der Telekommunikation, 17, 25–38, Rogers 1995), to evolve the business model from a single picture to a set of pictures representing the many phases of the value proposition life cycle. A local context analysis was conducted, interviewing 10 CEOs of University of Salento start-ups, and the framework’s tool kit was developed: application methodology, questionnaire, and glossary. To validate the tools and methodology, a real business case was considered. Using the framework proposed in the business model definition would allow managers of start-ups to identify several marketing strategies, channels, and key metrics dedicated to each customer category.