Resumo

Business model research has been a relevant topic in entrepreneurship, though there is still no consensus in the literature on the business model components. Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas (BMC) is one of the most popular business model representations, nonetheless it was created in 2010, before the industry 4.0 revolution. Authors consider that digital technologies create several opportunities for entrepreneurs and promotes the idea of sharing and developing more mobile and fluid entities, which calls for new business models.

Digital era is a fundamental steppingstone to capturing value and digital business model is an emerging concept and there are few papers about this field. In this scenario and despite the relevance of existing research, there are some points undressed, one of them is: is there a need for a new business model canvas adapt to a digital business model in the sharing economy context? Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate which modifications would be suitable for a new proposal of digital business model concept considering the sharing economic context and entrepreneur’s view.

- Some Key Definitions and Terminologies: searching for the alignment and improving the understanding (Digital Entrepreneurship, E-business and E-entrepreneurship). - Literature review: Digital Transformation, Business Model and Digital Business Model, Digital Transformation and Sharing Economy.

The first step is a systematic literature review approach - Knowledge Development Process - Constructivist (ProKnow-C) (Ensslin et al., 2010) - to identify and select relevant papers about the elements that have shaped the business model and digital business models based on the sharing economy. The search was conducted in January 2023. The second step, based on the literature (Standing and Mattsson, 2018), a questionnaire was designed, and interviews applied to digital entrepreneurs in a developing country, Brazil. These digital entrepreneurs were found in Inova Unicamp database.

Compiling entrepreneurs’ suggestions and literature review, we proposed a new framework - Digital Business Model Canvas (DBMC). In this version was added 4 components: “Employee relationship”, “Early adopters”, “Pricing” and “Investments sources”. Further, “Key activities” component was adjusted for “Key activities and process” and “Cost Structure” was detailed with “Initial costs” and “ongoing costs”.

We respond the main research question: “Is there a need for a new business model canvas to adapt to a digital business model in the sharing economy context?”. Yes, based on the literature review (ProKnow-C method) and 21 entrepreneurs interviewed, our practical contribution is the addition of 4 more components. Moreover, it is important to rethink the way it is filled – elaborate some hypothesis for each component and after testing (learning process), make the adjustments demanded.

Kraus, S., N. Roig-Tierno, and R. B. Bouncken. (2019). “Digital Innovation and Venturing: An Introduction into the Digitalization of Entrepreneurship.” Review of Managerial Science 13(3):519–28. Standing, C. and Mattsson, J. (2018) ‘“Fake it until you make it”: business model conceptualization in digital entrepreneurship’, Journal of Strategic Marketing, 26(5), pp. 385–399. doi: 10.1080/0965254X.2016.1240218.