An analysis of the design of a programmable autonomous business

Community‐based business models attempt to profit from the value created by individuals interacting in virtual communities. An interesting variant of this model is the programmable autonomous business. A programmable autonomous business is an automated business built entirely in software, that once developed can profitably operate without any human involvement. We know little about how to systematically design such businesses. Existing research on designing virtual communities does not address how to transform them into autonomous businesses, nor is it clear whether all the design principles for virtual communities are relevant to an autonomous business. The research reported in this paper takes an inductive, business‐centered approach to understanding how to design autonomous businesses. The information activity in a successful, yet basic autonomous business is analyzed and its functions compared with those in a conventional business. From this analysis a set of design guidelines for a prototypical autonomous business are inferred. The paper ends with a discussion of various ways researchers can use a programmable autonomous business as a test bed for consumer‐related e‐business systems.