Abstract:

Employees incur costs that have to be minimized - scientists from Saarland University have been following this traditional pattern of thought. Their result: the more companies invest in training their employees and the more motivated the employees, the greater the chances that they will be ahead in the competition. Following this pattern small or big companies have started to design and implement new business models based on innovation, knowledge growth and putting their employees on first place. The aim is to create new values and new channels of revenue. The main driver of the value creation of today’s world companies is the human capital.  Its importance is growing, as the nature of work changes. Such approaches have to be understood, the paper aims to define the concept of business model innovation, value creation through human capital and to exemplify its use in the case of a famous international company. To such ends, the authors employed a quantitative research method and a case study. Drawing lessons from the case study to understand how is the human capital becoming the main driver of the value creation process. This shows that due to its innovative approach, the international company has created value through sustainable business strategies in the context of digitalization. The paper concludes with a suggested research agenda dealing with the significant implications for BMI (Business Model Innovation) in transition to a data-driven economy. This paper will contribute to the development of literature by presenting the research results on BMI as an outcome.