Supporting SME Collecting Organisations: A Business Model Framework for Digital Heritage Collections

Abstract

Increasing numbers of heritage collecting organisations such as archives, galleries, libraries and museums are moving towards the provision of digital content and services based on the collections they hold. The collections sector in Australia is characterised by a diverse range of often very small organisations, many of which are struggling with the transition to digital service delivery. One major reason for this struggle is the lack of suitable underlying business models for these organisations as they attempt to achieve a sustainable digital presence. The diverse characteristics of organisations within the collections sector make it difficult, if not impossible, to identify a single business model suitable for all organisations. We argue in this paper that the development of a flexible e-business model framework is a more useful strategy for achieving this goal. This paper presents a preliminary framework based on the literature, utilising the Core + Complement (C+) Business Model Framework for Content Providers initially developed by and outlines how the framework will be refined and investigated empirically in future research within the Australian collections sector.

Analyzing National Electronic Theses and Dissertations programs from business model perspective

“…For example, Belleflamme and Jacqmin (2014) studied the use of BMs in both for-profit and not-for-profit MOOC platforms; Cooney (2011) explored the different aspects of BMs of social purpose businesses (as subset of nonprofit organizations) and models of balancing commercial goals with social aims; Koizumi and Widdersheim (2016) noted that public sector agencies such as libraries should be concerned about BM; and Maguire (2009), Withey et al (2011), Ferwerda (2014, and Newton et al (2014) investigated BMs in open access publishing. Expectedly, BM in nonprofit context aims at improving efficiency and effectiveness instead of making profit or gaining competitive advantages (Peacock et al, 2009). BM is a broad concept, which provides a comprehensive view of how a business creates and appropriates value (Solaimani, 2014) and can be used to identify and visualize the critical components of a business in a systematic way.…”