What Drives Business Model Adaptation? The Impact of Opportunities, Threats and Strategic Orientation

By Tina Saebi, Lasse B. Lien, N. J. Foss. 2017

464 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Business models change as managers not only innovate business models, but also engage in more mundane adaptation in response to external changes, such as changes in the level or composition of demand. However, little is known about what causes such business model adaptation. We employ threat-rigidity as well as prospect theory to examine business model adaptation in response to external threats and opportunities. Additionally, drawing on the behavioural theory of the firm, we argue that the past strategic orientation of a firm creates path dependencies that influence the propensity of the firm to adapt its business model. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 1196 Norwegian companies, and find that firms are more likely to adapt their business model under conditions of perceived threats than opportunities, and that strategic orientation geared towards market development is more conducive to business model adaptation than an orientation geared towards defending an existing market position.

Subfields: Accounting, Economics and Econometrics, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3552782080f0e7ed173a33378b67d5c8c57ae30e

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Accounting

1. M. Breier
2. Raj V. Mahto
3. Marina Dabic
4. Massimiliano Matteo Pellegrini
5. Sascha Kraus
6. Susanne Durst
7. Thomas Clauss
8. Andrea Caputo

In Economics and Econometrics

1. Marina Dabic
2. Sascha Kraus
3. Thomas Clauss

In Strategy and Management

1. Sascha Kraus
2. M. Breier
3. Marina Dabic
4. Massimiliano Matteo Pellegrini
5. Thomas Clauss
6. Andrea Caputo

Citations in the corpus

• Digitalization and business models: Where are we going? A science map of the field (2021, background): “This is caused by the obvious existence of threats and opportunities related to the introduction of a new technology within the specific processes of an enterprise (Saebi, Lien, & Foss, 2017).”
• Temporary business model innovation – SMEs’ innovation response to the Covid‐19 crisis (2021, background): “Saebi et al. (2017) explained that firms tend to adapt their BMs when they are under threat.”