Explaining Healthcare as a Two-Sided Market Using Design Patterns for IT-Business Models

Abstract

The competitiveness of organizations does not only depend on technological-innovations, but also on the business model. Thus far, there has been little emphasis on studying how to abstract and represent the inherent logic of a business model. In order to support managers, entrepreneurs, and IT strategists with the task of innovating their business models, this chapter proposes and discusses the concept of design patterns for business models and applies it for explaining the healthcare "two-sided market" scenario. Design patterns are a (semi) formal means for documenting generic business model knowledge for a particular context or problem situation. At a minimum, a business model design pattern should address a business model's scope and its purpose, the logic after which value is created, the entities of interest, a blueprint, and ideally some exemplary instantiations. Our chapter contributes to the systematization and reuse of design knowledge for practice, and combines IT-driven value creation with an entrepreneurial view on innovation.