Dollinger index

Entrepreneurial Strategies 115

Transaction structurerefers to the people or organizations involved in the transac-

tions and how they participate—what their roles are (customer, vendor, and consultant).

This represents the “who” of the story.

Governance of transactionsrefers to the rules, protocols, customs, and methods of

exchange used. It is the way in which these transactions are controlled, and may include

the legal forms of the businesses and the transactions. It describes the “how” of the story.

Table 4.1 below summarizes a number of e-commerce business models. Some of

these were very popular during the boom of the late 1990s; others have been around for

many years and can easily be applied to nontraditional businesses.

For example, the mash-up combines the content of other Web-based models and

attempts to integrate and add value based on these other sites. One such mash-up, Platial

(http://www.platial.com/splash), is a mapping service for people, videos, and stories. All

of the content comes from other places, but Platial has the software to integrate the con-

tent into a story. The revenue model is aimed at online advertising. But many investors

feel that a mash-up like Platial is not strategically defensible because it cannot protect the

resources it doesn’t own or control. Others are not so sure. Platial received financial

commitments from both Kleiner Perkins and Omidyar Networks.^7

Street Story 4.1 offers us the example of an affiliate business model called Brad’s

Deals.

Business to Business (B2B)

Business to Customer (B2C)

Business to Business to

Customer (B2B2C)

Niches (vertical or horizontal)

Clicks and Bricks

Roll-ups

Advertising Models

Pay-for-content Models

Affiliate Models

Mash-ups

Selling to commercial organizations directly

Selling to final users and consumers directly

Selling to commercial organizations and then selling

through directly to final users and consumers

Selling to a very specific customer segment (vertically

through the supply chain) or selling a very specific set

of products (horizontally to a variety of customers)

Selling through both the Internet and traditional business

location with a physical presence

Buying many smaller firms using the same business model

(usually in fragmented industries) and then achieving

economies of scale or scope

Selling advertising in a media (cyberspace, newspapers,

magazines, etc.) and giving away the content

Selling the content through information rules type

strategies

Selling products on a second-party Web site for a fee.

Enables the affiliate to piggyback on a more famous

Website like Amazon or eBay

Selling a Web-based application that mixes data from

different online sources

Business Model Name Business Model Story

TABLE 4.1 Internet Business Models and Stories