Entrepreneurial orientation, environmental characteristics, and business model innovation: a configurational approach. Issue 4 (1st October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Su, Jingqin; Zhang, Shuai; Ma, Huanhuan
• Is Part Of: Innovation. Volume 22:Issue 4(2020)
• Page Start: 399
• Page End: 421
• Publication Date: 2020-10-01
• Subjects: Business model innovation -- entrepreneurial orientation -- environmental characteristic -- fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis; Research, Industrial -- Asia -- Periodicals; Research, Industrial -- Pacific Area -- Periodicals; Technological innovations -- Asia -- Periodicals; Technological innovations -- Pacific Area -- Periodicals; Research, Industrial; Technological innovations; Asia; Pacific Area; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 658.4063
• DOI: 10.1080/14479338.2019.1707088
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1447-9338

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Research in entrepreneurship has shown that business model innovation is an outcome of the co-evolution of enterprises and their environments. However, little attention has been focused on the complex interactions among its antecedents and how these interactions drive business model innovation. To fill this gap, this study draws upon a configurational framework, and proposes that business model innovation does not depends on a single condition, but rather on interactions between entrepreneurial orientation and environmental characteristics. Building on a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of 68 platform enterprises in China, this study found that innovativeness orientation is a necessary condition for business model innovation and five sufficient configurations could impel business model innovation. These five configurations could be grouped into three first-order equifinal solutions, which are labelled as 'pathfiner', 'warrior', and 'front-runner', respectively. In different solutions, risk-taking, proactiveness, and various environmental characteristics have a contingent relationship with business model innovation. These findings add to the research stream regarding entrepreneurial orientation as a multidimensional construct and highlight the advantages to explore multiple antecedents from a configurational perspective. Accordingly, this study also offers several practical implications for platform enterprises in emerging markets to innovate their business models and to deal with resource constraints and environmental dynamism.