Extracting the Components and Indicators of the Internet Business Model for Knowledge Brokers with the Approach of Increasing Productivity

All efforts of business managers are to achieve productivity. In such a way that the need to increase productivity in organizations for more profitability is inevitable and every year a lot of money is spent on how to increase productivity and promote their business. One of the important and fundamental prerequisites for achieving a business model is its components and indicators in a standardized format. The changes that have come from the internet space have made knowledge flow and be exploited in a faster way in the departments of an organization. In the meantime the knowledge brokers can help to correct and improve the flow of knowledge and fill the information gap between producers and users of knowledge, thereby helping to increase the productivity of organizations and businesses.

Knowledge brokers provide the act of creating, sharing and using knowledge in an organization or between organizations. One of the ways to correct and improve the flow of knowledge is to use knowledge brokers who fill the gap between producers and knowledge users. The unique possibilities of the Internet have led to the emergence of a new form of business, which is now known as Internet business. These businesses have been created by entrepreneurial people with new ideas who have a creative and talented mind. Osterwalder's business model is known as the most common and broad business model canvas. This model is the provider of a common language for describing, visualizing, evaluating, and changing the business model. Productivity is called a method, a concept and an attitude about work and life, and in fact, they look at it as a culture and a worldview. Productivity is the effective and efficient use of inputs or resources for production by providing outputs. The background check shows that so far, many researches have been done in the field of knowledge brokers and internet businesses and the relationship between business and productivity inside and outside the country. On the other hand, studies show that many researches have been conducted abroad on the role and functions of knowledge brokers. This is despite the fact that none of them have analyzed the components and indicators of the internet business model for knowledge brokers with the approach of increasing productivity.

 The current research is applied in terms of purpose and mixed and exploratory in terms of approach. The research has been done in three stages: to identify the components and indicators of knowledge-based internet business for knowledge brokers using the meta-combination method, to determine the level of agreement of experts using the fuzzy Delphi method, and to determine the importance of each of the components and the calculated indicators were used using the survey-analytical method. In the first stage, the statistical population was 10,617 documents related to the research subject, out of which 65 documents were selected and studied further. In the second stage, in order to confirm the components and indicators calculated from the first stage, the fuzzy Delphi method and a questionnaire (with a 5-point Likert scale) were used in two stages. The statistical population in the second stage was 20 PhD graduates and subject specialists with more than 5 years of experience in the fields of knowledge management, technology management, and business. The snowball method was chosen and 10 of them responded to the questionnaire. In the third stage, in order to determine the priority and importance of the calculated components and indicators, a survey-analytical method was used. The statistical population of the research in the third stage was the number of 155 technology and knowledge brokers under the supervision of the Presidential Vice President for Science and Technology, Iran's National Fan Market and the Nano Technology Exchange Network, who were selected by census method.

 The results of data analysis show the number of 149 indicators under 30 components for Internet business for knowledge brokers in the form of nine components of Osterwalder's business model.

 The results show that knowledge brokers can create an information network between researchers by holding structured joint workshops in a client-oriented and problem-oriented manner, holding seminars and online webinars, etc., and establishing proper communication between the main customers of their business through virtual communication channels. Since the ultimate goal of designing a business model is to create sufficient value for customers, knowledge brokers can attract and retain their customers by providing value propositions such as facilitating decisions and policies through the acquired knowledge. Considering that every business model requires a number of key activities; knowledge brokers can provide their desired services to customers through key activities such as knowledge monitoring and evaluation, etc. One of the goals of every business and organization is to create partnerships with colleagues and key partners; based on this, knowledge brokers can achieve success in their business by establishing partnerships with influential investors, governmental and non-governmental supporting organizations, and influential governmental and non-governmental social organizations. The cost structure in any business is one of its main pillars and you should pay enough attention to its arrangement. This section usually contains two sections of fixed and variable costs. Knowledge brokers can manage the wages of human resources, administrative costs and provision of workplaces and the costs of providing equipment and depreciation in the fixed costs department and managing the wages of experts and researchers for sharing knowledge. Marketing, advertising and holding events and costs of development and maintenance of technology infrastructure in the variable costs department to achieve cost management in their business. The resources needed to run a successful business are called key resources. At first, it is believed that only the initial capital is enough to start a business, but the fact is that before starting any business, identifying key resources is of particular importance. Value proposition, communication with the customer, communication channels, how to communicate with the customer, making money, are all related to key resources. Knowledge brokers can start and maintain their business through key resources such as human, financial, physical and intellectual resources. In order to obtain profit, expenses must be deducted from income. In a business, if we consider the customer part as its heart, the income streams are the arteries of a business. Knowledge brokers through a variety of income models such as receiving commissions/fees from communicating between users and knowledge producers, advertising and receiving charges or royalties in providing consulting services and pricing mechanisms such as considering a base price for knowledge services, price dynamics based on the level of knowledge used and price dynamics based on advertisements, they can manage their business income flow.

 Since every business needs components and indicators to be implemented in the form of a business model, it shows the architecture of a company to create, market, deliver value and earn a stable and profitable income; statistics of internet business components and indicators for knowledge brokers can help to reduce the information gap between researchers, policymakers and decision-makers, governance structures and institutions and supply and demand sector structures and institutions and lead to an increase in interest and be successful in business.