Servicios auxiliares 1 Sistema de nitrógeno

The development of the Internet has reduced transaction costs which can in turn cause entire industries to have to re-organise (Hagel and Singer, 1999). This fundamental change in how businesses are structured relates to the work of Hargrave and Van de Ven (2006), who emphasise the role of collec-

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tive action in institutional innovation, highlighting that collective action is a political process where activists mobilise resources, act to challenge exist- ing institutional structures, and eventually find a synthesis between the old and the new. Chesbrough and Crowther (2006), from research with early adopters of technology conclude that open innovation is more widely appli- cable than its original high-tech context. Nenonen and Storbacka (2010, p. 43) point out that ‘value is considered to be co-created among various actors within the networked market’ rather than by individual firms, which has implications for business models. Open innovation can lead to new business models, including those based on open source, where open source business models can be categorised as ‘deployment, hybridization, complements, and self-service’ (Chesborough and Appleyard, 2007, p. 73). Ulhøi (2004, pp. 1108-1109) uses private property theory and a model of collective agency to consider open source as a mechanism for innovation through ‘critical knowl- edge sharing’, where ‘knowledge and experience have the interesting feature that they tend to grow when shared’.

However, creating new mechanisms for creating and exchanging knowl- edge raises the question of intellectual property rights. In an open source software context, O’Mahony (2003) highlights the importance of contribu- tors retaining the rights to open source software while publicly giving it away while Merges (1996, p. 167) points out the problems with property rights being asserted in science research, in particular when ‘members of the commons deal with outsiders, informal rights give way to formal rights’. Benyayer and Kupp (2017, p. 33) identify ‘five major dimensions of open business models: motivation, object, community, actions and governance’, where governance can be centralised as in the platform economy, or dis- tributed, ‘when the rules are defined by the community itself through a collaborative process’ (p. 37). Euchner (2013) distinguishes between open- boundary innovation, where the firm makes its boundaries more permeable to allow innovation and open source innovation, a more radical restructur- ing of the firm to allow open governance. This more radical restructuring of the firm could be achieved through a narrative form of open source business model.

3.8.3

A narrative form of open source business model

A narrative form of open source business model brings together entrepren- eurship as a narrative from Section 3.5.3, open source as a narrative from Section 3.6.5 and business models as narratives in Section 3.7.6, using the

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narrative framework developed in Section 3.4.4:

1. Purposeful intent: A narrative form of open source business model en- ables a business founder to express their intent through a narrative, in a similar way to how the founder of an open source project expresses an intent to fulfil a particular purpose (Hars and Ou, 2002). The founder could be a single actor (Wieland et al., 2017) or a group of individ- uals (Ahokangas and Myllykoski, 2014). The founder’s personal and cultural values can be conveyed using narratives (Polkinghorne, 1991) to stakeholders. These stakeholders can then contribute to the nar- rative, investing their time and potentially aligning their goals with the founder. Narratives can be an effective means of transmitting values and beliefs in a business context, particularly when there is conflict between them (Denning, 2006). A narrative form of business model that involves stakeholders could potentially overcome the per- sonal time and scope limitations of the individual entrepreneur identi- fied by Morris et al. (2005).

2. Enacted by human or other actors: The entrepreneur’s narrative can be expressed in writing, as in any creative work, where creative pieces of writing, such as poetry, are generally the work of a single individ- ual, as is computer software (Chopra and Dexter, 2007). Brooks (1987) pointed out that in computer software, ‘design must proceed from one mind, or from a very small number of agreeing resonant minds’, which Brooks later framed as conceptual integrity (2010). However, large software projects tend to lose this unity as the number of developers grows (Brooks, 1987). Open source, with its voluntary participation coordinated by the software architect, can overcome the problems of scale identified by Brooks without resorting to command and control systems (Weber, 2004). In a narrative form of open source business model, a single entrepreneur (or a very small group of entrepreneurs) can co-ordinate a larger stakeholder group through a narrative that stakeholders can contribute to, thus potentially harnessing their cre- ativity in a similar way to how an open source project draws on the creativity of a distributed community of software developers. The de- veloping narrative can then be enacted into being through a discur- sive process with stakeholders (Pentland, 1999; Gherardi, 2016). As the narrative becomes enacted, it can take the form of a fluid space (Faraj et al., 2011), or material objects (Sibierska, 2017), which could include creating a formal organisation. This form of business model

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extends the activity-based definition of business models proposed by Chesbrough (2006) to capture value for both the focal organisation and their network members. In the digital platform economy, the narrative could take the form of software, which can enable a narrative form of open source business model to operate like an open source project. 3. Particular incidents or events: Business models are ‘stories that ex-

plain how enterprises work’ (Margetta, 2002, p. 4), framed in terms of a particular firm in its context. Downing (2005, p. 285) identifies that one mechanism that can bring about and develop organisations is ‘vision, self-belief, and adaptive learning’, in contrast to the preva- lent perspective of accountability and legitimacy. This vision can be conveyed using narratives that can be both sense-making and sense- giving (Wieck, 1995). A narrative form of open source business model allows the entrepreneur to develop their business through narratives that communicate their vision, beliefs and wished for future to a partic- ular community, which in turn is ‘rooted in the experience and knowl- edge of the focal actors’ (Ahokangas and Myllykoski, 2014, p. 8). In this respect, this form of business model can be a means of exploring a mar- ket (Doganova and Eyquem-Renault, 2009) and opportunities across organisational boundaries (Jensen, 2013). This form of business model could offer a greater range of opportunities for positioning within the market place than the focal organisation or their members could gain alone.

4. Causal sequence: Downing (2005) identifies a sequence from emotion- ally significant storylines to plots, narrative structuring and finally en- actment of the narrative through entrepreneurship. Business models can show a causal sequence starting with an opportunity, then pro- gressing to a business concept, then a business model (Ahokangas and Myllykoski, 2014). As a narrative, an open source form of business model can continuously innovate, where business model innovation follows a process of analysis, ideation, feasibility prototyping, decision- making, implementation and finally sustainability (Wirtz and Daiser, 2018). An entrepreneur who adopts a narrative form of open source business model will follow a causal sequence starting with their busi- ness idea, expressing it as a narrative, then identifying stakeholders who can contribute to the narrative. This sequence is similar to that followed by the software architect in establishing a new open source software project, of identifying needs, then recruiting a community of

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developers (Weber, 2004). In this form of business model, as a narrative it can enable the entrepreneur to articulate cause-and-effect relation- ships and strategic choices, which is one of the functions of a business model identified by Shafer et al. (2005).

5. Reflect reality and create it: Savage et al. (2018) frame organisations in terms of fiction and its ability to make an organisational world. In this view, a narrative form of open source business model can be seen as ‘a text that re-describes and re-constructs reality’ (Perkmann and Spicer, 2010, p. 5), in a process of peer review with rapid feedback (Lee and Cole, 2003). This form of business model reflects reality in that it is founded on the entrepreneur’s exploration of the opportunities in their environment and allows the founder to explore their market (Doganova and Eyquem-Renault, 2009). Exploration of the market will then help the founder to identify their value proposition and how they will gain revenue (Chesbrough, 2010). In building a community of stakeholders through shared narratives, this form of business model can ‘support a shared understanding among various participants’ (Doganova and Eyquem-Renault, 2009, p. 1568), and then it ‘begins to perform the world it narrates’ (Araujo and Easton, 2012, p. 316). In this perfor- mance, the narrative can clearly differentiate the developing business and its stakeholders as a structure of shared meaning (Holzscheiter, 2005), that is experienced as being separate from its human creators (Fairhurst and Putnam, 2004). In this form of business model, the fo- cal organisation can capture value from their stakeholder network for the benefit of both the organisation and its network, particularly finan- cial value (Al-debei and Avison, 2010), which then contributes to prof- its (Teece, 2010). If the focal organisation fails to capture this value, the network could find a new focal organisation, in the process mak- ing a boundary judgement (Urlich, 2000). As a network, members can reduce costs by sharing suppliers, and reduce costs to customers by working at a larger scale with other members. Another factor in de- termining costs is the firm’s organisational boundary, which can be set to minimise governance costs (Santos and Eisenhardt, 2005), in them- selves a form of transaction costs (Coase, 1937). This form of business model can enable the entrepreneur to recruit members of their network as partners in the growing enterprise, which in turn can extend their resources (Shafer et al., 2005). As members, they would benefit from the network in a similar way to contributors to an open source project,

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who can benefit from their own contributions and those of other con- tributors.

6. Context: Organisations that adopt a narrative form of open source busi- ness model will develop with reference to context and stakeholder ex- pectations (Downing, 2005). These expectations can be made sense of through narratives, which can help with sense-making at an organisa- tional level (Hawkins and Saleem, 2012) and for stakeholders (Jensen, 2013). A narrative form of open source business model, through being shared with stakeholders, can become part of their business models, as identified by Mason and Spring (2011). Taking this thinking a step further, Kornberger (2017) highlights that, in contrast to the focus on a single firm in the past, a focal firm now ‘plays the role of the system architect, shaping relationships among suppliers, partners, and other network members’ (p. 178). A narrative form of open source busi- ness model could enable the founder to gain competitive advantage from sourcing resources and competencies (Kornberger, 2017) from the member network as well as from within the focal organisation. This form of business model could be implemented using a licence inspired by open source software licences such as the General Public Licence, which create a framework for open source software projects (DiBona et al., 1999; Weber, 2004).

7. Specific point of view: An entrepreneur’s past can be expressed through narratives, which can be a sense-making process of the entrepreneur’s life course and identity (Foss, 2004), capturing what they know (Smith and Anderson, 2004), and which can then extend to a imagined de- sired future (O’Connor, 2004). As this future becomes enacted through narratives, the entrepreneur’s imagination can act as both a creative and sensemaking process in an organisational context (Komporozos- Athanasiou and Fotaki, 2015). A narrative form of open source busi- ness model can express the ‘core logic for creating and capturing value’ of the business (Shafer et al., 2005, p. 204), and can enable a shared understanding (Doganova and Eyquem-Renault, 2009) between the founder and stakeholders.

8. New point of view: In creating their business model, the entrepreneur needs to be seen as legitimate by stakeholders, this is where story- telling can help in establishing the legitimacy of a potential future (Garud et al., 2014). A narrative form of open source business model

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could, like an open source software project, inspire individuals to par- ticipate from intrinsic motivations (Krishnamurthy, 2006; Bitzer et al., 2007; Bach and Twidale, 2010), arising from their inner lives, includ- ing a wish for personal development (Aksulu and Wade, 2010). These motivations could lead to a new point of view on how a business model should evolve, inspired by the notion that open source is about gain- ing power by giving it away (Bergquist and Ljungberg, 2001). Narra- tives, in being able to both communicate information and the meaning of that information (O’Connor, 1997), can enable new ways of looking at a particular context. As a sense-making process, the narrative can lead to individual or organisational transformation (Downing, 2005). In a narrative form of open source business model, the community of stakeholders operates like an open source community, where there is a constant transformation (Delgado, 2013), in this case transformation through practice (Ahokangas and Myllykoski, 2014).

9. Become institutionalised: As the founding entrepreneur develops their business through adopting a narrative form of open source business model, it can adopt a suitable legal form to protect core intellectual property that the business and its associated stakeholder community are founded on. The community of stakeholders becomes institution- alised through narrative accrual (Bruner, 1991) of norms and beliefs (Vargo and Lusch, 2016) in a similar way to how the developer com- munity in an open source software project becomes institutionalised (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2006). In this respect, this form of business model can be viewed as ‘dynamic assemblages of institutions’ for col- laboration (Wieland et al., 2017, p. 926) that evolve through trial and error (Morris et al., 2005). Narrative forms of business models can create institutional norms and beliefs (Vargo and Lusch, 2016), as an ‘organic social structure’ created by relationship building and di- alogue, which then become formalised as needed into a ‘hard frame’ of formal accountability, control systems and legal documents (Bate et al., 2000, p. 448). This form of business model is one where the entrepreneur and their developing enterprise plays a focal role in a network of stakeholders who can become members. In this respect, this form of business model is a networked model rather than focusing on a single firm (Kornberger, 2017). This form of business model can perform the boundary-spanning function identified by Zott and Amit (2010) through developing a shared narrative that network members

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can both contribute to and benefit from.

Applying the framework from Section 3.4.4 uncovers a potential narrative form of open source business model that has a similar power-balance be- tween the core and stakeholders as an open source project has between the software architect and contributors. In this respect, the narrative form of open source business model is one based on systems and institutions (Wieland et al., 2017). The analysis above demonstrates how the compo- nents of a narrative form of open source business model can operate. This conceptual exercise raises the question of if it is possible to create a net- worked form of business model that operates as a narrative. This is an area where there is a potential contribution to knowledge.