Beyond profit-centric: transcendent business modelling

It is widely recognised that there is an increased need for business modellers to understand businesses do not exist in isolation, but are part of a complex interconnected and interactive system (e.g. local communities, national and global societies, natural environment settings, local and global economies). There is an increased pressure on businesses to think beyond self-interests and focussing on maximising their profits. Many now argue that every business needs to take a transcendent responsibility for its actions and decisions. Moreover, there are increasing numbers of stakeholders (e.g. employees, customers, suppliers), besides shareholders, who want to have their say and influence on how businesses do the business. There are also calls for transcendent business education, with the claim that it has not been shown clearly enough how businesses could achieve their objectives with transcendent responsibilities. A transcendent business is one that goes beyond self-interest and generating profit; it is a business that simultaneously accounts for multiple typological groupings when developing business objectives, and leaves behind a better world for the next generation. This thesis presents a Transcendent Reference Model and Methodology (TRM+) of a business modelling approach that goes beyond self-interest and generating profit. The TRM+ is a set of repeatable steps/phases that have been developed to assist future business entrepreneurs /modellers to design business models for their transcendent businesses around their selected innovations/patents. The TRM+ consists of a number of problem solving and decision-making methods (heuristics), and interpretations. These can assist business entrepreneurs/modellers to make decisions during the process of designing business models of their transcendent businesses – businesses that simultaneously account for multiple typological groupings (e.g. social, environmental, economic) when developing business opportunities from post-incubation innovations/patents. The TRM+ is exercised by developing a detailed business model for a hypothetical transcendent business around a selected patent, and by extracting knowledge from multiple expert groups (Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) experts, Solar Thermal Power (STP) experts with expertise relative to a selected patent, and business entrepreneurs). Whilst the TRM+ has been shown to be conceptually viable, it is no more than a theoretical reference model and methodology at this stage. There is a need for its practical testing as well as a need for feedback from business modellers who will use it as a guide for developing business models of their transcendent businesses. The TRM+ is a first step toward development of a reusable methodology for transcendent business modelling and measurement. It provides a foundation for future research and refinement of the TRM+.