Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

Following the Money: Revenue Stream Constituents in Case of Within-firm Variation

  • Conference paper
Software Business. Towards Continuous Value Delivery (ICSOB 2014)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 182))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 2701 Accesses

Abstract

The idea of this paper stems from the perception that the concept of revenue stream requires clarification and further division to be applicable to businesses with high internal variation in their methods of capturing revenue. Current study sets out to investigate the concept of revenue stream through an overview of previous literature and a case study to demonstrate how revenue streams of a b2b (business-to-business) software service firm can be analyzed by elaborating the concept further. The aim is to answer the following research questions: 1) What are the relevant constituents of the revenue stream concept within a b2b software services firm? 2) How revenue stream as part of the business model can be analyzed within a firm? This exploratory study contributes to the business model literature by investigating the concept of revenue stream and revenue stream type as managerial tools to better understand the business under investigation. The study further attempts to contribute to the decomposition of the revenue stream concept by exploring its constituents in the context of b2b software business. It is suggested that revenue streams in this context should be approached based on sub-component level analysis where the reason and source dimensions create a matrix of analysis cells from which revenue stream types emerge based on similarities in the method of the revenue streams. Based on previous literature and empirical study, it is further suggested that the revenue stream has three main constituents or sub-components: 1) the source of revenue, 2) the reason for revenue and 3) the method of revenue.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Petrovic, O., Kittl, C., Teksten, R.: Developing business models for ebusiness. Available at SSRN 1658505 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Al-Debei, M.M., Avison, M.: Developing a unified framework of the business model concept. European Journal of Information Systems 19(3), 359–376 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y.: An e-business model ontology for modeling e-business. In: 15th Bled Electronic Commerce Conference, Bled, pp. 17–19 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Pateli, A., Giaglis, G.: A framework for understanding and analysing e-business models. In: Bled Electronic Commerce Conference, Bled (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Mahadevan, B.: Business models for Internet-based e-commerce. California Management Review 42(4), 55–69 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Rajala, R., Rossi, M., Tuunainen, V.K.: A framework for analyzing software business models. In: ECIS, pp. 1614–1627 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Weill, P., Vitale, M.R.: Place to space: Migrating to eBusiness Models. Harvard Business Press (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Alt, R., Zimmermann, H.D.: Preface: introduction to special section–business models. Electronic Markets 11(1), 3–9 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Magretta, J.: Why Business Models Matter. Harvard Business Review 80(5), 86–92 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Afuah, A., Tucci, C.L.: Internet Business Models and Strategies: Text and Cases. McGraw-Hill, Boston (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Gordjin, J.: Comparing two business model ontologies for designing e-business models and value constellations. Technical report, 18th Bled eConference eIntegration in action (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Rédis, J.: The impact of business model characteristics on IT firms’ performance. International Journal of Business 14(4), 291–307 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Nenonen, S., Storbacka, K.: Business model design: conceptualizing networked value co-creation. International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences 2(1), 43–59 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Schief, M., Buxmann, P.: Business models in the software industry. In: 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Science (HICSS), pp. 3328–3337. IEEE (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Ojala, A., Tyrväinen, P.: Revenue models in cloud computing. In: Prakash, E. (ed.) Proceedings of 5th Computer Games, Multimedia & Allied Technology Conference (CGAT 2012), pp. 114–119. GSTF, Singapore (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Zott, C., Amit, R.H.: Designing your future business model: an activity system perspective. Social Science Research Network Working Paper Series (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y.: Business model generation–a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. Wiley, New York (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Osterwalder, A.: The business model ontology: A proposition in a design science approach. Institut d’Informatique et Organisation. Lausanne, Switzerland, University of Lausanne, Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales HEC, 173 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Shafer, S.M., Smith, H.J., Linder, J.C.: The power of business models. Business Horizons 48(3), 199–207 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Linder, J., Cantrell, S.: Carved in water: Changing business models fluidly. Accenture Institute for strategic change (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Rajala, R., Rossi, M., Tuunainen, V.K., Vihinen, J.: Revenue Logics of Mobile Entertainment Software-Observations from Companies Producing Mobile Games. JTAER 2(2), 34–47 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Giesen, E., Berman, S.J., Bell, R., Blitz, A.: Three ways to successfully innovate your business model. Strategy & Leadership 35(6), 27–33 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Chesbrough, H.: Business model innovation: it’s not just about technology anymore.  Strategy & Leadership 35(6), 12–17 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Yin, R.K.: Case study research: Design and methods, vol. 5. Sage (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Yin, R.K.: Case study research: Design and methods, 2nd edn. Applied social research method series, vol. 5. Sage Publications (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Eisenhardt, K.M.: Building theories from case study research. Academy of Management Review 14(4), 532–550 (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Luoma, E., Frank, L., Pulkkinen, M.: Overview of telecom operator software market. In: Vertical Software Industry Evolution, pp. 35–42. Physica-Verlag HD (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Kohlbacher, F.: The use of qualitative content analysis in case study research. In: Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, vol. 7(1) (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Scheithauer, G., Wirtz, G.: Business modeling for service descriptions: a meta model and a UML profile. In: Proceedings of the Seventh Asia-Pacific Conference on Conceptual Modelling, vol. 110, pp. 79–88. Australian Computer Society, Inc. (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Stähler, P.: Business models as a unit of analysis for strategizing (2002), http://www.scribd.com/doc/34770740/Business-Models-as-a-unit-of-Analysis-for-Strategizing (referenced on January 7, 2013)

Download references

Authors
  1. Matti Saarikallio
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pasi Tyrväinen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Aalto University, Aalto, Finland

    Casper Lassenius

  2. Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Kari Smolander

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this paper

Cite this paper

Saarikallio, M., Tyrväinen, P. (2014). Following the Money: Revenue Stream Constituents in Case of Within-firm Variation. In: Lassenius, C., Smolander, K. (eds) Software Business. Towards Continuous Value Delivery. ICSOB 2014. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 182. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08738-2_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08738-2_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-08737-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08738-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics