Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Business Research. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Business Research, 130, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.02.015
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Absorptive capacity, strategic flexibility, and business model innovation
T2 - Empirical evidence from Italian SMEs
AU - Miroshnychenko, Ivan
AU - Strobl, Andreas
AU - Matzler, Kurt
AU - De Massis, Alfredo
N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Business Research. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Business Research, 130, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.02.015
PY - 2021/6/30
Y1 - 2021/6/30
N2 - Recognizing that business model innovation (BMI) is a constant source of value creation in the digital economy, we examine the nexus between absorptive capacity and strategic flexibility, and their effects on BMI. We argue that to increase strategic flexibility and innovate their business model, firms need to develop their potential absorptive capacity (acquisition and assimilation of knowledge) as well as their realized absorptive capacity (transformation and exploitation of knowledge). While potential absorptive capacity drives both BMI and strategic flexibility, realized absorptive capacity increases a firm’s strategic flexibility. Our analysis of 282 Italian small- and medium-sized firms also shows a relationship between realized absorptive capacity and BMI, but only under conditions of environmental uncertainty.
AB - Recognizing that business model innovation (BMI) is a constant source of value creation in the digital economy, we examine the nexus between absorptive capacity and strategic flexibility, and their effects on BMI. We argue that to increase strategic flexibility and innovate their business model, firms need to develop their potential absorptive capacity (acquisition and assimilation of knowledge) as well as their realized absorptive capacity (transformation and exploitation of knowledge). While potential absorptive capacity drives both BMI and strategic flexibility, realized absorptive capacity increases a firm’s strategic flexibility. Our analysis of 282 Italian small- and medium-sized firms also shows a relationship between realized absorptive capacity and BMI, but only under conditions of environmental uncertainty.
KW - business model innovation
KW - absorptive capacity
KW - strategic flexibility
KW - SMEs
U2 - 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.02.015
DO - 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.02.015
M3 - Journal article
VL - 130
SP - 670
EP - 682
JO - Journal of Business Research
JF - Journal of Business Research
SN - 0148-2963
ER -