Business model analysis for social challenges: Integration of MOT and PPP

Many governments are facing lack of resources and expecting some forms of Public Private Partnership (PPP) in service provision and infrastructure development. Meanwhile, many public entities have put solving social challenges as a priority in their science and innovation policies. However, both public and private sectors lack knowledge of how the other partners develop policies/businesses thus often cause failures or mismatches. Abe, Mitsuoka, Nakamura and Kojima introduced and applied MOT frameworks - business modeling and innovation architecture - to explore the possibility of using robot suits in elderly care at PICMET 2013. The article aimed to bridge the gap of understanding among public, private and other stakeholders. In this article, we emphasize the importance of matching regional characteristics and technologies in tackling social issues, thus aimed to incorporate regional assessment tools with MOT tools. Cases analyzed are development of a smart community in a tsunami-devastated area and regional medical care in rural Japan. These frameworks will help both public and private sectors to share thoughts/values, analyze their regional resources and develop PPP business models suitable for the region. Consequently this article finds effectiveness of these tools as well as several issues in applying such analyses to actual policy developments.