The paper explores the relationship between business model and organisational change, focussing o... more The paper explores the relationship between business model and organisational change, focussing on non-profit organisations.
A developmental paper which outlines some initial findings from a research that explores the rela... more A developmental paper which outlines some initial findings from a research that explores the relationship between business models and strategic organisational change.
This study addresses the literature on the use of for-profit developed management practices and t... more This study addresses the literature on the use of for-profit developed management practices and tools by nonprofit organizations (NPOs), especially focusing on business models. In this study a conceptual NPO business model framework is designed and tested with eight nonprofit case studies for its utility. Based on the case studies a NPO business model framework with separate programmatic and operational sections connected via the organization’s value proposition was developed. We discern the following business model components: value proposition, key partners, key activities, key resources, relationships, program delivery methods, ultimate beneficiaries, channels,customer/donor segments, income, expenditure and impact. The results further show that a business model framework for nonprofit organizations is useful as a descriptive, communication, analytical and visual tool. Given the paucity of studies on this subject, this study expands the knowledge on nonprofit business models by p...
The European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 2012
"Sustainability is a key requirement for the OER business model. Education in the 21st centu... more "Sustainability is a key requirement for the OER business model. Education in the 21st century has the character of life long education, so the question is not so much whether a specific OER project can be funded adequately but whether we can create an underlying business model foundation able to serve as a flight deck from which necessary OER based learning activities can be launched, as part of completely open educational offerings or embedded in hybrid educational constellations, across organizations and countries. After sketching the scene in the introduction we move to paragraph 2 where we describe how the application of the OER paradigm radically changes not only learning itself but from a business perspective also the interactions and relationships between learners, “teachers”, creators and users of educational resources as well as relations between educational institutions, designers and service providers of both formal and non-formal learning offerings. In paragraph 3 we draw conclusions from these changing relationships, which leads to a new perspective on sustainable business models for, OER based, (open) education. Next in paragraph 4 we describe our ideas on the essential components of the proposed business model to become a viable sustainable living reality. Based on heuristics from research on learning networks, open innovation and collaboration we describe methods to frame OER/OpenED activities to lay the groundwork for sustainable learning ecologies. We end with concluding remarks and suggestions for future work. "
The central question is whether theoretical views on strategy could help educational institutes t... more The central question is whether theoretical views on strategy could help educational institutes to develop new strategies in a globalizing world. We use the framework of de Wit and Meyer (2005) to discuss the relevance of their strategic paradoxes for the educational sector. It is argued that education is a special case of the service sector, with distance e-learning as a special case of education. There are several reasons to approach education with a business model approach. Global competition exists and is expected to increase. This increasing competition leads the OECD (2009) to conclude that strategic decisions with respect to education will be taken more and more on a global level by intergovernmental associations and the global actors among the educational institutions. Internationalization will pose new problems for the management of educational institutes and teaching staff. Collaboration with foreign institutes and individuals and teaching foreign students will introduce n...
EU border regions continue to face economic and social disadvantages compared to other regions in... more EU border regions continue to face economic and social disadvantages compared to other regions in the same country. Since 1990, the European Commission has been implementing extensive territorial cooperation programs to support EU border regions in solving regional problems and building social cohesion. This study offers a contribution for decreasing the economic and social disadvantages of EU border regions by investigating the complementarity between institutional EU cross-border cooperation and social entrepreneurship. We argue that both concepts build upon similar drivers and characteristics with the aim of creating impact and bringing about change. We test and improve our initially literature-based framework to provide a better insight into how institutional and entrepreneurial processes could benefit from each other. We conduct interviews with experts operating at different governance levels and in various EU countries and border regions. The complementarity between both conce...
The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 2013
For several years, the importance of continuous education has been stressed by several government... more For several years, the importance of continuous education has been stressed by several governmental and non-governmental institutions (Janssen & Schuwer, 2012; Marshall & Casserly, 2006). Education is seen as important both for personal growth and empowerment for one’s personal wellbeing as well as for developing the required professional capabilities needed in today’s society. In his 2011 State of the Union address President Obama put emphasis on the government’s ambitions to “out-innovate and out-educate” the rest of the world. Almost at the same time, at the Davos World Economic Forum (2011), the urgency of appropriate education was stressed, observing that the current lack of adequately educated people hinders prosperity and economic growth in the near future. The OECD is preparing a proposal to translate these intentions into a concrete policy.
Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 2013
ABSTRACT According to Christensen and Horn, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are serving non-c... more ABSTRACT According to Christensen and Horn, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are serving non-consumers. Although they are limited in the services they provide compared with traditional colleges, they offer free and accessible education to a broader audience, who cannot afford the traditional provision. However, this is a characteristic of online distance learning in its broadest sense, as can be read in the reports of UNESCO. For MOOCs to be disruptive, they have to: open up markets by competing with the existing firms using low-cost business models; improve beyond the level of the original competitors, taking price differences into account; and improve quality and replace the established firms. In this article, we are going to look at whether MOOCs are really disruptive innovations, or educational innovations that disturb the present state without driving out old educational business models. Based on the three characteristics of Christensen and Horn, our conclusion will be that the latter is the case. This does not mean that traditional education can ignore MOOCs, open educational resources and other forms of online distance learning, but that it will not be a direct competitor for degree-searching students.
Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning
The economic proverb 'There is no such thing such as a free lunch'applies also to open ... more The economic proverb 'There is no such thing such as a free lunch'applies also to open educational resources (OER). In recent years, several authors have used revenue models and business models to analyse the different sources of possible funding for OER. In this ...
The paper explores the relationship between business model and organisational change, focussing o... more The paper explores the relationship between business model and organisational change, focussing on non-profit organisations.
A developmental paper which outlines some initial findings from a research that explores the rela... more A developmental paper which outlines some initial findings from a research that explores the relationship between business models and strategic organisational change.
This study addresses the literature on the use of for-profit developed management practices and t... more This study addresses the literature on the use of for-profit developed management practices and tools by nonprofit organizations (NPOs), especially focusing on business models. In this study a conceptual NPO business model framework is designed and tested with eight nonprofit case studies for its utility. Based on the case studies a NPO business model framework with separate programmatic and operational sections connected via the organization’s value proposition was developed. We discern the following business model components: value proposition, key partners, key activities, key resources, relationships, program delivery methods, ultimate beneficiaries, channels,customer/donor segments, income, expenditure and impact. The results further show that a business model framework for nonprofit organizations is useful as a descriptive, communication, analytical and visual tool. Given the paucity of studies on this subject, this study expands the knowledge on nonprofit business models by p...
The European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 2012
"Sustainability is a key requirement for the OER business model. Education in the 21st centu... more "Sustainability is a key requirement for the OER business model. Education in the 21st century has the character of life long education, so the question is not so much whether a specific OER project can be funded adequately but whether we can create an underlying business model foundation able to serve as a flight deck from which necessary OER based learning activities can be launched, as part of completely open educational offerings or embedded in hybrid educational constellations, across organizations and countries. After sketching the scene in the introduction we move to paragraph 2 where we describe how the application of the OER paradigm radically changes not only learning itself but from a business perspective also the interactions and relationships between learners, “teachers”, creators and users of educational resources as well as relations between educational institutions, designers and service providers of both formal and non-formal learning offerings. In paragraph 3 we draw conclusions from these changing relationships, which leads to a new perspective on sustainable business models for, OER based, (open) education. Next in paragraph 4 we describe our ideas on the essential components of the proposed business model to become a viable sustainable living reality. Based on heuristics from research on learning networks, open innovation and collaboration we describe methods to frame OER/OpenED activities to lay the groundwork for sustainable learning ecologies. We end with concluding remarks and suggestions for future work. "
The central question is whether theoretical views on strategy could help educational institutes t... more The central question is whether theoretical views on strategy could help educational institutes to develop new strategies in a globalizing world. We use the framework of de Wit and Meyer (2005) to discuss the relevance of their strategic paradoxes for the educational sector. It is argued that education is a special case of the service sector, with distance e-learning as a special case of education. There are several reasons to approach education with a business model approach. Global competition exists and is expected to increase. This increasing competition leads the OECD (2009) to conclude that strategic decisions with respect to education will be taken more and more on a global level by intergovernmental associations and the global actors among the educational institutions. Internationalization will pose new problems for the management of educational institutes and teaching staff. Collaboration with foreign institutes and individuals and teaching foreign students will introduce n...
EU border regions continue to face economic and social disadvantages compared to other regions in... more EU border regions continue to face economic and social disadvantages compared to other regions in the same country. Since 1990, the European Commission has been implementing extensive territorial cooperation programs to support EU border regions in solving regional problems and building social cohesion. This study offers a contribution for decreasing the economic and social disadvantages of EU border regions by investigating the complementarity between institutional EU cross-border cooperation and social entrepreneurship. We argue that both concepts build upon similar drivers and characteristics with the aim of creating impact and bringing about change. We test and improve our initially literature-based framework to provide a better insight into how institutional and entrepreneurial processes could benefit from each other. We conduct interviews with experts operating at different governance levels and in various EU countries and border regions. The complementarity between both conce...
The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 2013
For several years, the importance of continuous education has been stressed by several government... more For several years, the importance of continuous education has been stressed by several governmental and non-governmental institutions (Janssen & Schuwer, 2012; Marshall & Casserly, 2006). Education is seen as important both for personal growth and empowerment for one’s personal wellbeing as well as for developing the required professional capabilities needed in today’s society. In his 2011 State of the Union address President Obama put emphasis on the government’s ambitions to “out-innovate and out-educate” the rest of the world. Almost at the same time, at the Davos World Economic Forum (2011), the urgency of appropriate education was stressed, observing that the current lack of adequately educated people hinders prosperity and economic growth in the near future. The OECD is preparing a proposal to translate these intentions into a concrete policy.
Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 2013
ABSTRACT According to Christensen and Horn, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are serving non-c... more ABSTRACT According to Christensen and Horn, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are serving non-consumers. Although they are limited in the services they provide compared with traditional colleges, they offer free and accessible education to a broader audience, who cannot afford the traditional provision. However, this is a characteristic of online distance learning in its broadest sense, as can be read in the reports of UNESCO. For MOOCs to be disruptive, they have to: open up markets by competing with the existing firms using low-cost business models; improve beyond the level of the original competitors, taking price differences into account; and improve quality and replace the established firms. In this article, we are going to look at whether MOOCs are really disruptive innovations, or educational innovations that disturb the present state without driving out old educational business models. Based on the three characteristics of Christensen and Horn, our conclusion will be that the latter is the case. This does not mean that traditional education can ignore MOOCs, open educational resources and other forms of online distance learning, but that it will not be a direct competitor for degree-searching students.
Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning
The economic proverb 'There is no such thing such as a free lunch'applies also to open ... more The economic proverb 'There is no such thing such as a free lunch'applies also to open educational resources (OER). In recent years, several authors have used revenue models and business models to analyse the different sources of possible funding for OER. In this ...
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Papers by Frank de Langen