The term “business model” is relatively new and has become widely used only since the dot-com bubble around 2000. The emergence and widespread use of business models occurred in the context of an era in which business owners and managers had to reflect on the premise of their business and strongly requestion this premise. Currently, the effects of COVID-19 on societies worldwide are accelerating changes in daily life. Thus, the business questions of where and how to make money and how to prepare for competition are reaching a new turning point. This special issue includes a collection of papers that provide rich suggestions for tackling the challenges of this era.

Red Bull was born from imitation of Oronamin C, while Zoom, a latecomer to Skype, has become the winner among online conferencing systems. These outcomes show that new ideas are not necessarily a sufficient condition for success. On the other hand, there are many businesses, such as TA-Q-BIN and Secom machine security, that were born from the inspiration of business owners; that is, as the result of intuition. This paper discusses the role and methodology of intuition (right brain) in business model formation. For example, how can the essence of an idea or business hints be obtained from this phenomenon. We conclude that the most important factor in innovation is to change the behavior of customers and society through the created business model. That is, innovation that cannot achieve a change for the customer is not a sustainable business model.

This article has been retracted from Japan Marketing Journal, Vol. 41, No. 4 (Mar. 31, 2022), pp. 18–28.

Reasons for retraction

The article mentioned above was placed under suspicion of self-plagiarism as well as duplicate submission from the author’s book, Profiting Strategy, Tokyo: Toyo Keizai, published on Nov. 26, 2021, by a reader. Accordingly, as publicly notified in the submission guidelines, an investigation of the facts was carried out by the Editor-in-Chief based on the procedure recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The author admitted the charges, gave testimony that self-plagiarism and duplicate publication occurred because the above-mentioned book was published earlier than previously planned (in 2022 or later), and realized that the retraction should be instigated. Thus, the Editor-in-Chief, within his discretion, decided to retract the article.

The essence of the business model concept lies in value creation and value capture. This has been a focus of attention in marketing: value creation has been studied from the viewpoint of customer interaction, while value capture has been considered from the perspective of pricing. However, the two areas have not been discussed in an integrated way. Pricing has been examined based on the revenue model, and in this paper, we focus on the revenue model and value creation, in order to broaden the theory and practice of marketing. By analyzing Chinese short video applications that create value through active interaction with customers, we explore the consistency between value creation and capture, and the implications for the business model concept in marketing research.

The purpose of this study is to systematically relate research on effectuation with that on business models, and to propose a starting point for the derivation of marketing implications. The results show that possible connection of studies in these two areas can be examined by focusing on the hierarchy of corporate business processes and systems. Using interviews with three entrepreneurs obtained from practice-based research, this paper examines effectuation decision making of individual entrepreneurs in relation to frameworks used in business model research and development practice, such as value proposition, pivot, and product market fit. We discuss effectuation decision making by individual entrepreneurs in a company, and we show that effectuation decision making by such individuals can be connected to group decision making by utilizing the framework of business model research.

The importance of business model research has increased with diversification of competition, but the accumulation of empirical research has been relatively slow. This paper discusses the reasons for this trend and then introduces two analytical approaches suitable for academic discussion of business models: Within-case causal inference based on the Process Tracing Method and Qualitative Comparative Analysis. In addition, we discuss how both approaches can break through conventional empirical research on business models.

Regulatory focus theory has most frequently been applied in the field of marketing and consumer research in recent years. This paper reviews the theory applied to research on advertising, which can be divided into three categories of regulatory focus research on (1) message framing in advertising, (2) the construal level of advertising message, and (3) the nonverbal components of advertisement. The literature review suggested that there is room for regulatory focus research on other nonverbal components of advertising as well as comparative studies on the moderating effects of culture.

The existence of lead users, who create commercially attractive innovations as users rather than manufacturers, has become apparent. However, since lead users are generally outside companies, it is difficult for a company to utilize them on a continuous basis. On the other hand, it has become clear that there are lead users inside companies with regard to the categories of products and services that they provide. These lead users, who are referred to as “lead users inside the firm,” have attracted academic attention. The purpose of this paper is to review and systematically organize existing research on lead users inside companies. The review revealed that these individuals have characteristics of both lead users and employees, and that they contribute to innovation in the creation and implementation of ideas. Clarifying the reality of lead users inside the firm will extend lead user research and contribute to the effective utilization of corporate employees.

This study focused on “Ura-Harajuku” where a considerably large number of inbound foreign travelers strolled around on its narrow streets, but not on areas well-known to foreign visitors, such as Ginza or Takeshita street, and then analyzed why such travelers are attracted to “Ura-Harajuku”. The study shows that the most frequent foreign visitors to “Ura-Harajuku” are travelers from China and that they are attracted by street fashion brands that are unique to “Ura-Harajuku”. It is also found clearly that these street fashion brands are perceived differently from other brands that have been considered to be the mainstream of fashion industry until recent years, and are mainly sold in department stores and SCs in Japan. The study also found through a customer journey modifying Kotler 5A model that such street brands are appreciated and recommended by such visitors for its uniqueness with “Ura-Harajuku”.

This paper aims to explain the role of mobile applications in the omni-channel shopping experience. The study examined how the perceived omni-channel intensity (OCI) of consumers influences mobile application adoption, purchase intention and brand recommendation among omni-channel shoppers (OCS). From a literature review of mobile app adoption and OCI, an original model was developed based on the variables used in the Technology Acceptance Model. The model was used to explain how seamlessness and perceived consistency, which make up OCI, influence perceived ease of use and usefulness with regard to mobile application adoption, purchase intention and brand recommendation. OCS from an apparel retailer were selected for the study. An empirical evaluation of the proposed model indicated that seamlessness affects both purchase intention and perceived ease of use of mobile applications. In contrast, perceived consistency does not affect purchase intention directly, but does affect perceived usefulness and ease of use of an application. An analysis of the moderating effects of the mobile application, seamlessness and perceived consistency showed significant indirect effects on the perceived benefit of the application through perceived ease of use, and on brand recommendation through perceived usefulness.

Responding to changes in the environment is an ongoing issue for corporate management. The key question is how should a company face a change in the environment that threatens its core business? One answer to this question can be seen in the attempt at business transformation referred to as “The Second Foundation” at Fujifilm Corporation. In this approach, the company recognized the importance of a common language that can convey its strengths beyond differences in specialized fields, as a result of focusing on building a foundation for interaction that involves its employees and external corporate customers. This led to opening of the Open Innovation Hub. The trial and error approach can be seen as a process of creating and evolving boundary objects, while a boundary spanner with considerable influence on this process is also apparent.

This paper introduces the service development of the avatar application “Pokecolo,” along with the history of the operating company Cocone Co., Ltd. Avatar has attracted increasing attention with the spread of the Internet, and has begun to provide various services in recent years. From the viewpoint of the user, it is simple to change the avatar skin and enjoy dressing them up. From the company side, it is important to develop a business model to manage the content. This paper examines the connection between user communication and content, as well as the mechanism of content development by teams of designers. The progress of avatar apps is strongly linked to the possibility of virtual space, which has come to be referred to as the Metaverse.