Abstract:
Business model innovation is a system-level redesign of a firm’s activity system that creates new value for customers and captures new value for stakeholders. Business leaders view this form of innovation as a rich source of competitive advantage. Despite this perception, a generally accepted methodology to support this innovation has yet to emerge, perhaps owing to an inadequate conceptualisation of the business model innovation process. The knowledge gap is especially evident in the contemporary methods to firstly configure and assess the value of novel business models. To address these deficiencies, this thesis sought to investigate this process using a multiple case study of two firms from the pharmaceutical industry engaged in business model innovation. Current understanding of business model innovation is largely predicated on analysis and prediction, primarily driven by causative logic. In contrast to this current theory, this study found that business model innovators did not focus on analysis and prediction. Instead, weight was given to creativity and path-dependency, as well as inductive, iterative and emergent thinking. Value configuration and simulations therefore primarily occurred through the agency of the innovator’s knowledge, experience and character. These innovators envision possible business model configurations and challenge assumptions to cognitively explore what is possible and valuable, rather than taking a data-driven method to predict the future and hence select the most appropriate strategy. It was therefore found that the process of business model configuration and value simulation is a highly actor-dependent and heuristic-driven process. In light of these surprising findings, this thesis provides a conceptual bridge between business model innovation and effectuation theory by linking the present findings to the four principles of effectuation. In addition, this study identifies uncertainty as a key determinant of effectual approaches. Future research could build on the exploratory insights of this thesis to further the conceptualisation between effectuation and business model innovation, with the ultimate objective to inform industry of best practice.