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To meet their ambitious targets for a circular economy, multinationals need to speed up their innovation efforts. This requires experimentation capability. But it is not clear what this capability entails, and how companies can build it. The purpose of this paper is to give companies guidance on how they might develop experimentation capability for the circular economy.

We conduct in-depth interviews with innovators in frontrunner multinationals, H&M, IKEA and Philips. We use the Gioia method to analyse our data.

This article identifies novel institutional, strategic, and operational actions that build experimentation capability for a circular economy.

The identified actions help innovation managers experiment and speed up their innovation efforts for a circular economy.

To reverse environmental degradation, multinationals need to transform their dominant linear take-make-waste business models. This research provides actions that help them organize this transformation.

This article is based on extensive research with leading multinationals and reveals novel insights on how to innovate for a circular economy.

The last two decades have witnessed a surge of interest in social entrepreneurship organizations (SEOs). Understanding their business models is crucial for sustaining their long-term growth. This paper analyses how SEOs that use the approach of social bricolage adapt their business model to develop social innovation.

This study used in-depth multiple comparative case studies and narrative analysis to focus on the South of Italy, where these ventures play a crucial role in the entrepreneurial process of minor and abandoned cultural heritage sites, generating economic and social value and employment opportunities.

By developing a conceptual framework, this paper enhances current understanding of the social dimensions of SEOs’ business model. These ventures using the approach of social bricolage can produce social innovation, reinventing and innovating their business model. The business model innovation of the cases revealed a strong social mark and identified peculiar strategies that both respond to social needs and long-term sustainability in complex contexts.

This study connects previous knowledge on social bricolage with the business model innovation, highlighting routines and processes used by ventures, and provides a starting point for social entrepreneurs and innovators in the complex and often uncertain cultural domain of the Third Sector in Italy.

The paper aims to contribute to the literature on SEOs by exploring their main features and social dimensions. By combining social bricolage and business model innovation, it offers a novel conceptual framework for developing social innovation and for the study of SEOs.

This paper aims at proposing knowledge translation as an element of business model design that can support entrepreneurs in achieving alignment and collaboration between entrepreneurial teams and external stakeholders.

The conceptual model presented in the paper is developed from the literature review and draws mainly on two streams of work as follows: first, the contributions related to the lean start-up methodology initially developed by Blank and Ries and second, the work of Osterwalder and Pigneur on business models and its subsequent developments. In addition, we draw on key insights from the entrepreneurship and organizational learning literature, such as discovery-driven planning and disciplined entrepreneurship.

The continuous validation framework (CVF) is introduced, posing the attention on underlining knowledge-translation mechanisms to decode complex concepts related to new venture creation.

The authors propose a new framework (the CVF) as an effective translational tool because it is a visual diagram that allows entrepreneurs to translate complex and technical ideas into a format that is more understandable for external audiences. Additionally, for each step of the CVF, specific translational mechanisms are defined and discussed, as each stage of the CVF presents specific translational challenges that result in outcomes that differ from stage to stage.

Lean Startup (LS) has gained considerable traction in the startup scene, especially within digital firms where the concept finds the concept's genesis. However, there are more and more calls in the entrepreneurship literature to study LS's application beyond the digital context. The purpose of this study is to explore the applicability of LS within the largely under-researched context of non-digital entrepreneurs. To structure the authors' understanding of the participating entrepreneurs' cognitive and behavioural logic, effectuation theory is applied.

To explore how LS is applied in non-digital settings, this study analyses the LS approach of 15 Dutch brick-and-mortar and click-and-mortar Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and startups.

This study provides empirical evidence that non-digital entrepreneurs pursue an effectual logic in their LS approach. However, the entrepreneurs' LS approach appeared to be contextualised to the non-digital contexts' inherent constraints and trade-offs. Such contextualisation calls for a particular set of skills and competencies, including applying mixed-methods cross-validation, affinity and passion for craftsmanship and aesthetics, inferring from limited, qualitative, and often skewed data, establishing an empathetic collaborative relationship with customers and suppliers, and leveraging prior market knowledge and experience.

This study advances the current understanding of the LS applicability and gives a more nuanced account of how LS is practised in the context of non-digital firms, the challenges entrepreneurs involved in non-digital firms need to overcome, and the skills and competencies they need to possess. In practical terms, the findings help non-digital entrepreneurs and coaches to be more heedful of the contextual peculiarities when employing LS.

This paper aims to explore the research field of digital transformation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), considering the importance of SMEs in the economic development of countries.

Considering the contributions of researchers and the challenges of SMEs to transform their business models, in this paper, the authors conducted a scientometric analysis using CiteSpace that included 448 documents indexed in Scopus.

The authors appreciated the growth in the number of publications that have studied the digital transformation process in SMEs, showing a niche of researchers interested in the flourishing research topic. Likewise, the authors identified the intention of SMEs to adopt digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, data analytics, electronic commerce and the Internet of Things.

This paper is a valuable resource for academics and researchers in information systems, decision-makers in digital transformation in SMEs and governmental organisations concerned with digital technologies adoption in SMEs to achieve digital transformation and increase competitiveness and productivity.

This study used CiteSpace to conduct a scientometric analysis to explore how researchers have focused on frameworks and maturity models for measuring SME readiness, the impact of Industry 4.0 on SMEs, guides for helping managers evaluate their Industry 4.0 positioning, the development and implementation of digital business strategies for SMEs, the presentation of cases of SMEs that have driven digital transformation and future research opportunities.

This paper explores the relationships between firm absorptive capacity, novel business model design (NBMD), product differentiation strategy and performance in a transition economy.

The study uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze firm-level data from a unique sample of Albanian manufacturing and service firms.

The study shows that absorptive capacity enables and shapes the NBMD that, in turn, leads to performance gains. The authors also find that the NBMD capacity mediates the impact of realized absorptive capacity on performance, whereas product differentiation strategy moderates the relationship between new business model and performance.

All variables were measured based on a self-assessed scale leading to potential method bias. Also, based on relevant literature, the study focuses on only one type of business model (BM) design.

Since dynamic capabilities are the foundation of NBMD, firms should invest carefully in developing such capabilities. Thus, the study results provide an integrative framework for understanding the role of absorptive capacity in NBMD adoption and for explaining the relationship between NBMD adoption and performance, an aspect that helps organizations in a dynamic environment.

This study strives to investigate the relationships between absorptive capacity, business model design, product strategies and performance by answering the call of Teece (2018) to “flesh out the details” of such relationships.

This paper aims to explore how digital technologies have forced small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to reconsider and experiment with their business models (BMs) and how this contributes to their innovativeness and performance.

An empirical study has been conducted on 338 European SMEs actively using social media and big data to innovate their BMs. Four in-depth case studies of companies involved in BM innovation have also been carried out.

Findings show that the use of social media and big data in BMI is mainly driven by strategic and innovation-related internal motives. External technology turbulence plays a role too. BMI driven by social media and big data has a positive impact on business performance. Analysis of the case studies shows that BM is driven by big data rather than by social media.

Research into big data- and social media-driven BMs needs more insight into how components are affected and how SMEs are experimenting with adjusting their BMs, specifically in terms of human and organizational factors.

Findings of this study can be used by managers and top-level executives to better understand how firms experiment with BMI, what affects business model components and how implementation might affect BMI performance.

This paper is one of the first research contributions to analyse the impact of digitalization, specifically the impact of social media and big data on a large number of European SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of users’ simulated experience in a virtual store and to show the subsequent impact of that experience on engagement. The outcome of that engagement is examined in relation to enjoyment, satisfaction and purchase intentions.

The method comprised an experiment comparing users’ perceptions of a standard 2D online clothing store with an enhanced, immersive one that aimed to provide shopping value approaching that of a traditional store by using a 3D experience where participants wore special glasses and a data glove.

Results demonstrate the major role of telepresence components in simulated experience and the critical role of that experience, along with hedonic and utilitarian values, in engagement. Purchase intention is influenced by satisfaction, which is in turn influenced by enjoyment and engagement. Engagement in turn is influenced by utilitarian and hedonic value and the experience of product simulation or telepresence, which is composed of control, colour and graphics vividness, and 3D authenticity. In the immersive, 3D environment, experience is more associated with engagement and enjoyment, leading to greater purchase intention. The immersive, 3D environment, thus, has the potential to rival traditional shopping in terms of experience, resulting in higher sales for retailers and satisfaction for consumers.

This work has evaluated a robust model of purchase intention and demonstrated it to hold not only in a 3D environment on a conventional computer platform, but also in an immersive one, where participants wear special glasses and a data glove.

Creating a new product or service promotes the status quo changes, seeking economic value and solving customer's urgent problems. Entrepreneurs play an important role in this changing process through start-ups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), considered one of the leading forces driving an economy’s innovative and competitive power. However, despite the importance of entrepreneurs, public policies to foster entrepreneurship ecosystems could be ineffective in emerging countries. Therefore, action research proposes the qualification of entrepreneurs for the structuring of new businesses through remote orientation, connecting the country's main economic centers to emerging areas.

The study is qualitative research comprising two phases. The first phase consisted of four-month action research, connecting two researchers and three groups of specialists (from Sao Paulo), with three groups of entrepreneurs (located in Manaus in the Amazon region), through a remote orientation in entrepreneurship, lean start-up, lean product and process development (LPPD). The second phase, conducted by a third researcher, regards a case study grounded on interviews and data collection with the entrepreneurs to capture the outcomes of the remote orientation process.

The remote orientation helped shorten the geographical distance of Amazonas to approach the integration of business, research and knowledge exchange of such distinct areas in the same country. If a remote orientation program was established as public policy, it could enact subsequent cycles of the lean start-up model. Furthermore, the remote orientation could be an alternative to compose the training subsystem in the entrepreneurship ecosystem proposed by Isenberg (2011). On the other hand, a remote orientation could fail to shorten the distance of human values and beliefs, which cannot be neglected when facing a rich territory like the Amazon.

Because of the chosen research approach, a qualitative and exploratory study based on a combination of action research, interviews and case studies, the results may lack generalizability. However, further studies can replicate the remote orientation process conducted in the region of Manaus – Amazon, to obtain distinct results regarding the advantages, disadvantages and effectiveness of remote orientation as entrepreneurship ecosystem’s human capital dimension development.

The outcomes of this research have the potential to start discussions regarding the adoption of remote orientation as a public policy to develop entrepreneurship skills in emerging regions, not only in Brazil but worldwide. The Brazilian case could be a relevant benchmark due to the large territory and economic and social disparities impacting education and entrepreneurship.

Through start-ups and SMEs, entrepreneurship has innovation potential and is the most solid way to bring economic development. For emerging countries, it can be real game-changer in the economic order. The development of entrepreneurship skills through this remote orientation experience can help reduce the economic and social gaps in countries with relevant disparities like Brazil and other emerging countries.

This paper fulfills an identified need to “move the needle of entrepreneurship in the right direction” (Isenberg, 2010) by creating local solutions for global challenges. Policymakers and leaders need to continue the experiment and learn how to improve the entrepreneurship ecosystem. In this sense, the action research approach, combined with the remote orientation, proposes an alternative to promote changes in how human capital dimension can be developed in this challenging ecosystem.