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In Search of a Route Map: Exploring Business Model Innovation Processes in Established Firms
RISE - Research Institutes of Sweden, ICT, Viktoria. (Digital Innovation)ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4820-5104
2018 (English)In: Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018, Vol. 1Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Since the millennium, discussion of business models as important vehicles and sources of innovation has increased. This paper explores the process of business model innovation in seven established firms from various industries. The findings provide evidence that business model innovation can follow a purposeful, or an unintentional and emerging process. Purposeful business model innovation occurs under conditions of perceived threats and is characterized by greater uncertainty, and the parallel design and implementation of several new business model elements that are organized in a separate business. The analyses reveal also that when embarking on the emerging process, the intention of managers was not necessarily to renew the firm's business model but rather to work on the design and development of a new value proposition. However, the complementarities among business model elements directed their attention to the changes required in other business model elements which ultimately resulted in a new business model as the process outcome. The main contribution of this paper is therefore to business model research by providing an explanatory, rather than prescriptive, approach to the process of business model innovation.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2018. Vol. 1
Keywords [en]
Business model innovation; process; innovation management; strategy; case study
National Category
Other Engineering and Technologies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-36336DOI: 10.5465/AMBPP.2018.14850abstractOAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-36336DiVA, id: diva2:1264094
Conference
Academy of Management Annual Meeting
Available from: 2018-11-19 Created: 2018-11-19 Last updated: 2025-02-10Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. A Process View of Business Model Innovation
Open this publication in new window or tab >>A Process View of Business Model Innovation
2017 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

In an era of globalization, cross-fertilization of technologies and industries, and changing markets, firms are introducing new ways of creating or capturing value through Business Model Innovations (BMI). In recent years, BMI has become one of the priorities of practitioners, and has attracted the interest of scholars since product or process innovations on their own are perceived insufficient in the current internet era when other sources of competitive advantage are being needed. However, BMI can be difficult to manage for many firms, and despite increasing debate in the field, there is a lack of understanding about how BMI processes unfold. The purpose of this thesis is to explore BMI processes in multiple industrial and organizational contexts. To achieve this, the thesis is based on four papers written during the course of this PhD research which draw on empirical studies of diverse industries such as manufacturing, automotive, construction, publishing, and home furnishing. The firms studied in this thesis are new ventures developing new Business Models (BMs), Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), and multinational corporations that have been working with BMI, either in parallel or as a substitute to their existing BMs. The empirical observations support the distinction of two approaches to BMI: purposeful and unintentional. Purposeful BMI tends to be planned and starts with attentive cognitive search for a new BM, including recursive conceptualization, creation and offline evaluation of alternative BMs. The process is followed by experiential learning and adaptation of the new BM. Unintentional BMI refers to the emergence of a new BM as an outcome of the resolution of one or a number of major BM problems, to support other innovation activities. Thus, unintentional BMI processes take off from existing BMs and are characterized by a sequence of major problem formulation and solving which are orchestrated by shifts between experiential and cognitive search for solutions. My observations suggest that the antecedents to BMI may explain why in some cases, BMIs emerge unintentionally and in others firms embark purposefully on BMI. I discuss organizational implementation of BMIs in relation to how firms decide about the degree of separation and integration between parallel BMs. It is argued that the decision about how to structure parallel BMs cannot be made ex ante but emerges through the process of search for a new BM.   The contributions of this thesis are threefold; First it contributes to the emerging conceptualizations of BMI processes by explaining how BMI processes unfold in the two distinct spaces of ‘new BM design’ and ‘existing BM transformation’. Second, the thesis contributes to the BMI literature by introducing problem as a mechanism and theoretical construct for understanding BMI processes in established firms. While the prior literature emphasizes patterns of shift between cognitive search and experiential learning when firms search for a new BM, they do not explain under what circumstances firms embark on either mode of search. Using the problem as the unit of analysis provides an important theoretical basis for conceptualizing the dynamics of the BM by understanding sequential shifts between the two modes of learning along the BMI process. Third, the thesis contributes to the growing debates on how to organize parallel BMs by showing that what is to be separated between the BMs depends on the specific context of the firm. Prior to answering the question of how separated parallel BMs should be, firms need to make sure that they have a viable BM and understand how it operates.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Gothenburg: Chalmers Reproservice, 2017
Series
Doktorsavhandlingar vid Chalmers tekniska högskola. ; Ny serie: 4340
Keywords
business model; innovation; process; cognitive search; experiential learning; ambidexterity; resource based view;
National Category
Other Mechanical Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-40573 (URN)978-91-7597-659-4 (ISBN)
Public defence
2017-12-13, Vasa A, Vera Sandbergs Allé 8, Gothenburg, 13:15 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2020-04-27 Created: 2019-10-21 Last updated: 2023-06-07Bibliographically approved

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