Business models for innovation


Technological innovation alone is often not enough to bring about societal transitions. New solutions also need to be adopted, scaled up and embedded in existing value chains and ecosystems. This requires organisations to create value together, share investments and risks, and agree on roles, responsibilities and decision-making.

Through Collaborative Business Modelling, TNO Vector helps organisations turn this collaboration into a practical model. Together with the parties involved, we develop a shared business model that sets out:

  • what value the collaboration creates and for whom
  • which parties are needed and the role each of them plays
  • how costs, benefits and risks are shared
  • how the parties make decisions and work together
  • what agreements are needed to move towards implementation and scaling up

When is Collaborative Business Modelling relevant?

The approach is valuable when innovation depends on multiple organisations but effective collaboration cannot be taken for granted. For example, when:

  • the parties have different interests and expectations
  • costs, benefits or risks are unevenly distributed
  • roles and responsibilities are not yet clear
  • trust between partners needs to be built
  • joint investments or governance arrangements are needed
  • an innovation is technically promising, but adoption and scaling up are lagging behind

The approach can be applied in areas including energy, manufacturing, the built environment, mobility, circularity, digitalisation and agriculture. Particularly at an early stage of an innovation process, it helps ensure that collaboration is developed as an integral part of the innovation rather than treated as a final step.

Our approach

Collaborative Business Modelling is participatory and iterative. Through a series of analyses and workshops, we bring individual interests together and work towards collective choices and agreements. The process typically consists of six steps:

  1. Engage: involve the relevant parties
  2. Explore: identify needs, interests, opportunities and barriers
  3. Design: develop potential business and collaboration models
  4. Evaluate: compare and assess alternatives
  5. Decide: make choices and agreements together
  6. Scale up: prepare the collaboration for implementation and growth

We focus on three interconnected elements:

  1. Business logic: value creation, value delivery and value distribution
  2. Ecosystem structure: partners, roles, responsibilities and relationships
  3. Governance: decision-making, agreements, rules and policies

What can we develop?

  • Depending on the challenge, we can support organisations with:
  • Value network analysis: providing insight into relevant parties, roles and relationships
  • Value proposition development: determining the value the innovation creates for different stakeholders
  • Collaborative business model: defining how parties create, deliver and distribute value together
  • Business case analysis: providing insight into costs, benefits, investments and risks for each party
  • Governance design: developing agreements on roles, decision-making and collaboration
  • Theory of change: making explicit how the innovation and collaboration contribute to long-term impact
  • Implementation and scaling roadmap: translating the model into concrete actions, milestones and responsibilities

The role of TNO Vector

TNO Vector acts as an independent facilitator and orchestrator. We combine domain knowledge with business expertise, bring together parties and their interests, and guide the process from initial exploration through to joint decision-making. The result is not simply a good idea for collaboration, but a concrete model with broad support that the parties can take forward.