Geschäftsmodell-Innovation als strategischer Erfolgsfaktor für die Edelstahlindustrie – Eine qualitative, empirische Studie am Beispiel Südostasien

This thesis investigates the strategic importance of Business Model Innovation (BMI) in the special-steel industry, with the focus on the geographical region of Southeast Asia. A structured literature-research into the key areas business model and business model innovation, servitisation and product-service systems (PSS), as well as the strategic relevance of business model innovation, is followed by a critical discussion of the identified theoretical literature and concepts. The adjacent research field of transformation, in relation to business model innovation, is covered in a basic context as transformation is in academic literature quite often linked to BMI.

The selected research methodology consists of expert-interviews for the collection of data, which is followed by a qualitative context-analysis. The interviews were held across five countries in Southeast Asia, namely Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. These countries represent the most important end-user markets for special-steel in Southeast Asia. After applying a deductive code-system on the transcribed research-data, the necessity for an inductive code-system was evident and subsequently developed out of the researched data.

The results identified a variety of possible action items. The level of customer satisfaction for the current portfolio of special-steel suppliers was investigated and led to customer expectations for a future portfolio, split into products and services. Business-Models circulating around Design & Simulation, Monitoring of Tools & Dies, Pay-Per-Use (PPU) and Sustainability, have been identified, including the willingness of customers to pay for such new business models. The position of special-steel suppliers in the value-chain and possibilities for changes in the current position in the value-chain have been investigated. Furthermore, inputs for globalization and localization have been included in this study. More general topics such as innovation, customer-loyalty, competitiveness and partnership, linked to the main research-questions, concluded the analysis.

The results are summarized in catalogues of suggested action items, showing different topics for academia and research, the special-steel industry in general as well as the organization focused on in this research. In addition, different priorities are identified to support the competitiveness of the special-steel industry as well as the market leadership of the focus organization.