Business Model Lab A Playground for Tech Entrepreneurs

The Business Model Lab (BML) as an initiative at the Graz University of Technology aims to provide students, employees and companies with application-oriented knowledge of business models. The institute of general management and organization operates the BML. In the lab researchers work together with students and companies on problems around the topic of business models. Members of the BML contribute their expertise in the form of know-how transfer, tailor-made workshops and supervision of student projects. The aim of the contribution is to present the activities and offers of the BML. In particular, the offer for students and employees of the Graz University of Technology in connection with entrepreneurship and start-ups will be discussed. The three areas become concrete: training and education programme, existing student theses and planned collaborations with companies will be presented. One of the first concrete offers of the BML is a module called Business Model Maturity Assessment, which helps potential founders to design and evaluate an initial business model. A second goal of the contribution is to identify similar initiatives of other universities and educational institutions and to compare them with the BML. The aim is to present state-of-the-art and further development opportunities. After the description of the existing and planned offer of the BML, first experiences in the implementation are reported. The comparison with similar initiatives that are to be compared with the BML according to selected criteria enables an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the BML as well as its potential for further development.