Digital Transformation of Business Models in the Creative Industries: The Emergence of the Portfolio Model

This seminar focuses on the changing business models in the creative industries facilitated by digital technologies.  A holistic business model framework is developed from a systematic literature review, which is then used to analyse the evidence gathered from two strands of empirical work in the creative industries. The research found that digital technologies have facilitated pervasive changes in business models across different sectors of the creative industries, but on closer examination, it was found that the resultant new business models are often neither novel nor unprecedented. In many cases, digital technologies simply allow organisations to deploy a wider range of business models than previously available to them, often by adapting and applying traditional business models to different ranges or stages of products or services in the online environment. One important trend emerging from this research is the increasing adoption of the portfolio model in four different variants, where one organisation simultaneously adopts more than one business model to tackle different markets niches, to exploit different stages of work-in-progress as well as the final product, to engage with multi-sided markets, or uses different business models during different stages of production and consumption. This is a rapidly evolving field and new research is needed to understand emerging trends and their theoretical, business and policy implications.

Biography
Dr Feng Li is Professor of Information Management and Associate Dean for Research and Enterprise at Cass Business School, London.  His research investigates the strategic and organisational transformation in different sectors and domains facilitated by digital technologies. He works closely with senior business leaders in banking, telecom, manufacturing, retailing, the creative industries, and the public and voluntary sectors through research, consultancy and executive development.  Feng has been successful in winning over £20m research funding as PI or Co-I from the UK Research Councils UK and EU, and he leads a series of multi-million pounds research programmes, including NEMOG- New Economic Models and Opportunities in Digital Games; SALT – Sustainable Business Models for Assisted Living Technologies and Services; and SiDE – Social Inclusion through the Digital Economy.  He is a Fellow of the British Academy of Management (BAM).