The Role of Software Architecture in Business Model Transformability

The lifespan of business models is continuously shrinking, and consequently, businesses are facing the need to renovate their business models much more frequently than ever before. With a “stale” business model, a business becomes at risk of being unable to sustain itself; let alone reap the benefits new opportunities may bring. This paper presents qualitative exploratory research that aims to identify what constitutes business model transformability and explore the effect of software architecture in this regard. The research uses a grounded theory approach to construct a substantive theory, particularly a code system that IT -based organizations can reference. The study uses theoretical sampling and the constant comparative method to identify required participants and analyze interview data. The resulting code system identifies thirteen main categories, one of which is Transformative Software Architecture, and delves further into its subcategories.