scholarly journals Exploration of the initiation and process of business model innovation of successful Chinese ICT enterprises

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 515-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Liu ◽  
Robin Bell

Purpose This paper aims to investigate four successful Chinese ICT enterprises to determine what initiated their business-model innovations and the process they went through by exploring how they adapted and innovatively renewed four key elements of their business models. Design/methodology/approach This investigative and exploratory research adopted a multiple-case-study design exploring four purposively selected successful Chinese ICT enterprises which had all engaged in significant business model innovation since their inception. Data for the case studies were collected through in-depth interviews with the founders and analyses of the companies’ history to gain a detailed account of the evolution of the firms’ business models since their formation. Findings The research identified three key initiating factors to business model innovation in the firms studied, namely, constant and rapid product iteration, along with an emergent strategy, leading to business model innovations to take full advantage of the firms’ competitive advantages; a reaction to threats and environmental changes; and an opportunistic behaviour to extend the business model to new markets. The research found that networks were a key factor in the process, including the customer base, financial investors and network collaborators. Research limitations/implications This research is limited to four successful Chinese ICT firms; this in-depth approach means the information may have only limited transferability but provides depth on a burgeoning Chinese sector. Originality/value This research addresses the call for more research and a greater understanding of what initiates business model innovation and the process firms go through to develop the key elements of their business models by looking at a purposively selected sample of successful Chinese enterprises in a fast-moving and technologically driven market.

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moema Pereira Nunes ◽  
Ana Paola Russo

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the business model innovation in medium and large Brazilian manufacturing companies located in Rio do Sul State. Design/methodology/approach A holistic multiple case study in five companies was developed. Data were collected through interviews and analyzed according to the content analysis technique. Findings The main motivation to business model innovation was the innovation in products and services, while the difficulties were the factors relating to the cost. The most common practice among cases was innovation in value proposition and the most widely used method was learning-by-searching. While part of the theory was demonstrated in the case studies, new motivations and practices were identified. The investigation of the learning process on business models’ innovation is pioneered in this study. Further studies on this subject are required. Originality/value New business models are likely to provide new opportunities to better address customer needs, generating differentiating itself from its competitors. It is a subject little investigated in the international context, and there are no studies to investigate the experience of Brazilian companies.


2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 34-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Pohle ◽  
Marc Chapman

PurposeTo ascertain whether the choices CEOs were making about particular types of innovation and key enablers had any correlation with financial performance, IBM looked at a subset of our sample where publicly reported financial information was available.Design/methodology/approachThe findings in this report are based on in‐depth, consultative interviews on the topic of innovation with 765 CEOs, business executives and public sector leaders from around the world.FindingsFor a subset, the authors compared their financial performance to that of an industry‐accepted list of their nearest competitors (up to ten companies with similar revenue and publicly available information). Some of their competitors were CEO study participants, but most were not. By taking a five‐year view, the researchers were able to identify which companies outperformed and under‐performed the average revenue growth, operating margin growth and historical operating margins of their closest competitors.Research limitations/implicationsThroughout the analysis, IBM used these top‐half and bottom‐half groupings to look for notable financial correlations. In this report, the term outperformers refers to the study participants that are in the top 50 percent based on this competitive comparison, and under‐performers are those that fall in the bottom 50 percent.Practical implicationsThe authors report on how business leaders are seeking and finding new ways to adapt their business models to remain competitive in their current industry – or to seek growth by entering new industries.Originality/valueCompanies focusing on business model innovation have enjoyed significant operating margin growth, while those using products/services/markets and operational innovation have sustained their margins over time.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo Cavallo ◽  
Antonio Ghezzi ◽  
Bertha Viviana Ruales Guzmán

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how a firm may innovate its business model to internationalize. Design/methodology/approach Owing to its novelty and to the depth of the investigation required to grasp the mechanisms and logics of business model innovation aiming at internationalization, a single case study has been performed related to a company located in North-Western Colombia. Findings The study provides detailed empirical evidences over the mutual connection and complementarities among value mechanisms of business models. Moreover, this study suggests that BMI fosters internationalization to scale, which, in turn, will require additional changes to match new customer needs as they emerge. Also, the study shows an extension of the action–space of lean startup approaches, intended as scientific approaches to international entrepreneurship. Originality/value This study connects business model innovation and internationalization as few studies have done before.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiali Zheng ◽  
Han Qiao ◽  
Xiumei Zhu ◽  
Shouyang Wang

Purpose This study aims to explore the role of equity investment in knowledge-driven business model innovation (BMI) in context of open modes according to the evidence from China’s primary market. Design/methodology/approach Based on the database of China’s private market and data set of news clouds, the statistic approach is applied to explore and explain whether equity investment promotes knowledge-driven BMI. Machine learning method is also used to prove and predict the performance of such open innovation. Findings The results of logistic regression show that explanatory variables are significant, providing evidence that knowledge management (KM) promotes BMI through equity investment. By further using back propagation neural network, the classification learning algorithm estimates the possibility of BMI, which can be regarded as a score to quantify the performance of knowledge-driven BMI Research limitations/implications The quality of secondhand big data is not very ideal, and future empirical studies should use first-hand survey data. Practical implications This study provides new insights into the link between KM and BMI by highlighting the important roles of external investments in open modes. Social implications From the perspective of investment, the findings of this study suggest the importance for stakeholders to share knowledge and strategies for entrepreneurs to manage innovation. Originality/value The concepts and indicators related to business models are difficult to quantify currently, while this study provides feasible and practical methods to estimate knowledge-driven BMI with secondhand data from the primary market. The mechanism of knowledge and innovation bridged by the experience from investors is introduced and analyzed.


Author(s):  
Jaqueline Pels ◽  
Tomás Andrés Kidd

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework that expands business model innovation literature by including a social goal, the emerging markets (EMs) environmental characteristics and adopting a bottom-up perspective. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on a single-case study. Sistema Ser/CEGIN (SER–CEGIN) is an Argentine social business that offers high-quality medical healthcare to BOP users. Findings – The paper presents a new conceptualization on business model innovation that includes three dimensions: firm-centric, environment and customer-centric. The framework incorporates to the traditional framework on business model innovation, the social profit equation, the general and task environment and the end-user, as well as the dynamics between them. Research limitations/implications – While the authors acknowledge the importance of studying the components of the business model operating levels (economic, operational and strategic) to determine the type of business model innovation (revenue, enterprise and industrial), the framework incoporates the environment and customer-centric dimension. The suggested framework opens new streams of research both for the innovation business model literature as well as for the EMs – bottom of the pyramid (BOP) literature. Practical implications – To achieve economic and social goals, particularly in the BOP, firms need to adopt a bottom-up approach to understand the components of their business model that need to be modified. Originality/value – The paper proposes a novel business model innovation conceptualization which is useful for both researches to better study business models in the BOP and for firms to successfully operate in the BOP.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-210
Author(s):  
Ambara Purusottama ◽  
Yohanes Berenika Kadarusman

Blockchain brings changes and disruptions to the existing business models and therefore deserves further analysis. Accordingly, this study aims to explain the phenomenon of blockchain technology in the business model innovation in the enterprise ecosystem. Empirically, numerous studies have shown that blockchain technology improves organizational performance. This study uses a value system framework to explain the enterprise blockchain phenomenon. Through abductive reasoning, this study uses a multiple-case study to answer the research questions. In sum, this study finds that blockchain technology delivers benefits to organizations in: (i) value capture through increased profitability; (ii) value creation through private partnership; (iii) value delivery through smart contracts; and (iv) value proposition that encourages improving the existing value proposition through operational improvements. Besides, the study also proposes the different types of enterprise blockchain ecosystems: private and consortium. The private ecosystem focuses on improving organizational performance through competition. In contrast, the consortium ecosystem focuses on  business value collaboration.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Braun ◽  
Benedetto Cannatelli ◽  
Mario Molteni

Purpose This paper aims to address risks inherent in business model innovation. The authors make the case that entrepreneurs and managers, in relying on sources of innovation when designing business models, need to pay heed to these hidden risks – or tripwires – that can prevent the venture from efficiently, effectively and profitably scaling. The authors provide a guiding framework to help entrepreneurs and managers identify four distinct tripwires in their business model underlying the sources of innovation. Design/methodology/approach The authors build a systematic framework of the four tripwires – structure, scaling, systems and strategy – underlying offer-driven, customer-driven, finance-driven and resource-driven business model innovations. By relying on academic research, the authors’ scholarly work on organizational decline, innovation and corporate turnaround and the authors combined experiences and observations in industry, this study makes explicit and highlights problem areas in the business model, providing examples of representative companies to illustrate the challenges and consequences of failing to identify and manage its tripwires. Findings The authors demonstrate that awareness and attention to the tripwires underlying sources of innovation can mitigate a business model’s future challenges. Business model innovations can and often do conceal hazards that become apparent only as a venture begins to grow. As such, it is essential that entrepreneurs and managers attend to these potential problem areas in the early stages of designing their business models. In bringing awareness to innovation-related tripwires, the authors offer a risk-management “patch” for managers and entrepreneurs when developing their business models. Originality/value Business model innovation is a powerful tool to help in identifying growth opportunities. Yet in launching, scaling or transforming their business models, entrepreneurs and managers can encounter unforeseen challenges. While sources of innovation in the business model prioritize the discovery of growth opportunities, this has often come at the expense of the potential risks underlying them. The authors provide a means to identify four distinct tripwires that may be triggered when implementing business model innovations.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haixu Bao ◽  
Chunhsien Wang ◽  
Ronggen Tao

Purpose This study aims to explore the relationship between geographic search and business model innovation and proposed a contingent framework to focus on how governmental networking and environment turbulence are interdependent moderate the relationship between geographic search and business model innovation. Design/methodology/approach A large-scale questionnaire survey was carried out among the firms in three high-tech parks of the Pearl River Delta, with a total of 287 firms as empirical samples. Hypotheses are tested using ordinary least squares analyzes on hierarchical multiple regression to find out how geographic search can drive business model innovation generations. Findings The empirical results showed that the more frequent geographic search is, the more favorable it is for firms to generate innovative business models, and firms may be more effective in geographic searching and business model innovation with better governmental networking. However, the above relationship may be weakened if the environment turbulence in emerging markets is further considered. It was argued that firms must take into account both the positive effects of governmental networking and the negative effects of environmental turbulence in conducting a geographic search for external knowledge resources to generate innovative business models. The study results showed how and why governmental networking can be a key catalyst for firms to generate innovative business models. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to the business model innovation literature by documenting the large-scale survey evidence that confirms the practicality of geographic search in the business model innovation generations. The findings advance previous studies in the business model innovation by identifying the moderating roles of governmental network and environment turbulence that predict business model innovation behaviors in the emerging market. Practical implications The results indicate that the geographic search can be easily operationalized for external resources acquisitions by managers in generating business model innovation. This has applications for external resource acquisitions on the basis of business model innovation in the emerging China market. In addition, to facilitate the business model innovation generations, the focus should be on critical contingency factors; on the one hand, to promote the continued use of external resources, the focus should be on enhancing benefits such as governmental networking. Originality/value The findings extend existing theory in three ways as the original value. First, the results show that geographic search is an important driver of business model innovation generations in an emerging market context. Second, this study is the first to take organizational learning and open innovation perspective to examine geographic search as a boundary-spanning search of external resources in business model innovation generations. Third, this study also explores the moderator role of governmental network and environmental turbulence on how to strengthen or impair the geographic search and business model innovation generations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 348-369
Author(s):  
Wahyono Wahyono

Purpose This paper aims to review and synthesise the recent advancements in the business model literature and explore how firms approach business model innovation. Design/methodology/approach A systematic review of business model innovation literature was carried out by analysing 219 papers published between 2010 and 2016. Findings Evidence reviewed suggests that rather than taking either an evolutionary process of continuous revision, adaptation and fine-tuning of the existing business model, or a revolutionary process of replacing the existing business model, firms can explore alternative business models through experimentation, open and disruptive innovations. It was also found that changing business models encompasses modifying a single element, altering multiple elements simultaneously, and/or changing the interactions between elements in four areas of innovation: value proposition, operational value, human capital and financial value. Research limitations/implications Although this review highlights the different avenues to business model innovation, the mechanisms by which firms can change their business models and the external factors associated with such change remain unexplored. Practical implications The business model innovation framework can be used by practitioners as a “navigation map” to determine where and how to change their business models. Originality/value Because conflicting approaches exist in the literature on how firms change their business models, this review synthesises these approaches and provide a clear guidance as to the ways through which business model innovation can be undertaken.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (8) ◽  
pp. 1127-1142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Marius Müller

Purpose Industry 4.0 is expected to significantly transform industrial value creation. However, research on business models affected through Industry 4.0, and on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), remains scarce. In response, the purpose of this paper is to address both aspects, further elaborating on the role that SMEs can take toward Industry 4.0 as provider or user. Design/methodology/approach The paper used an exploratory research design based on 43 in-depth expert interviews within the three most important German industry sectors, mechanical and plant engineering, electrical engineering and automotive suppliers. Interviews were conducted with leading personnel of the respective enterprises, including 22 CEOs. They assign business model implications through Industry 4.0, referring to the Business Model Canvas, while the paper delineates between Industry 4.0 providers and users. Findings The paper finds that key resources and value proposition are among the most affected elements of the business model, whereas channels are the least affected. Furthermore, distinct characteristics between Industry 4.0 providers and users can be delineated. In general, Industry 4.0 providers’ business models are significantly more affected than users, except for key partners and customer relationships. Research limitations/implications Industry 4.0 remains at its early stages of implementation. As a result, many interviewees’ answers remain at a rather general level. Practical implications Strategies for the further alignment of the business models are provided for Industry 4.0 providers and users. Originality/value The paper is among the few that investigate Industry 4.0 in the context of SMEs and business models.


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