Internet of Things as a sustaining or disruptive technology: How can Enterprise Modeling help in analyzing the impact of IoT on business and operating models? (Simon Dhaenens)
This thesis investigates through a number of documented applications and case-studies whether Internet of Things (IoT) presents a sustaining or disruptive technology, and for which (types of) companies and industry sectors (e.g., Industry 4.0). The impact of IoT as sustaining/disruptive technology will be modelled and analyzed using various Enterprise Modeling techniques and associated tools (e.g., business model canvas, value delivery model/platform, Archi(Mate), …).
The purpose of the thesis research is to gain additional insights into the role of IoT (applications) as disruptive/sustaining technology and its impact on an organization’s business model and/or business processes. The central research question is how Enterprise Modeling can help organizations in dealing with the impact of IoT on their business.
Research activities include literature search/analysis of published case-studies and experience reports (both academic as well as professional business/IT literature) and conceptual modeling/analysis using various enterprise modeling tools. Learning to work with such tools is a key learning objective for this thesis, apart from getting intimately familiar with the Internet of Things.