Edinburgh Napier University

  The digital interactive service industry has the potential to generate innovation and strategic advantage for existing business if the underlying dynamics of the emerging industry are fostered through appropriate understanding and strategic actions. This paper puts in perspective the fundamentals affecting the creation of new interactive services for building professions. The fundamentals reviewed include issues related to acquiring new skills as well as establishing market and user needs. In addition, recent advent of the industry has resulted in various new business models being utilised not only for business process improvement but also more strategically for market penetration and business expansion. Through the use of three examples viz. interactive content studio, content rights intermediary and virtual community, this paper investigates the current and potential impacts of these new models upon the businesses within the building sectors.