Identification of the business model components of the Iranian pharmaceutical companies

Abstract

Background: Today, the skill of business model analysis has become one of the key sources of competitive advantage and the development of innovative ideas in many industries. The purpose of this article is to identify and describe the business model dimensions and components of pharmaceutical companies as one of the most important strategic industries in any country. Methods: In the first step, by studying theoretical literature, we obtained an early model of the dimensions and components of a business model. Then a qualitative method was used. We tried to find this primitive pattern with the requirements of pharmaceutical companies. In this regard, we conducted 19 in-depth interviews with managers and experts of eight human pharmaceutical companies. The qualitative data were analyzed using analogous content analysis. Results: The results indicated that the business model of pharmaceutical companies consists of four main dimensions including value proposition, value receivers and interactions, value architecture, and received value. The first dimension consists of eleven components or attributes. The second dimension consists of three components. The third dimension consists of three components, and the fourth one consists of two components. Conclusion: This research differentiated the business model of pharmaceutical companies in four main dimensions, so that the elements that make up each dimension are different from the elements in the business model of other industries.

Keywords

• Practice management services
• Drug industry
• Product line management
• Business coalitions