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This study aims to investigate how market orientation (MO) motivates firms to develop business model innovation and how such effects are moderated by strategic flexibility.

In this study, a questionnaire-based survey was undertaken to test the proposed hypotheses. The empirical study was conducted on a sample of 204 firms using two key informants (408 respondents) in China. The regression model is used to test the proposed model.

This research finds that both responsive market orientation (RMO) and proactive market orientation (PMO) have a positive effect on business model innovation. The effects of RMO and PMO on business model innovation are contingent on resource (coordination) flexibility in different ways. More importantly, this study finds that resource flexibility enhances the positive effect of RMO and weakens the positive effect of PMO. The study also finds that coordination flexibility enhances the positive effect of PMO.

Future research can explore the internal mechanisms through which RMO and PMO promote business model innovations. Although the study finds that both the MOs promote business model innovation, they may promote business model innovation through different mediating effects. Future research can explore the role of external dynamic capabilities. This research mainly focuses on the internal dynamic capability of focal firms. However, as a focal firm-centered boundary spanning activity system, to transform into a new business model, firms not only need to reconfigure internal resource base, but also need to realign external collaboration network.

This research also bears important managerial implications. First, firms should be aware of the positive effect of MO on business model innovation. Firms with higher level of RMO or PMO can promote business model innovation. Second, when firms implement RMO for business model innovation, managers should focus on resource flexibility. Where MO is responsive, marketing managers need to be concerned with ensuring various applications of existing resource so as to understand effectively the current customers and market domain. Third, to leverage PMO for business model innovation, firms should adopt coordination flexibility. For firms with higher level PMO, firms should try to find the new internal coordination process for customer latent needs.

The conclusion extends the business model innovation research from the view of dynamic capabilities. As one of types of dynamic capabilities, MO is also the important antecedent of business model innovation. Further, this research also discusses the role strategic flexibility plays in business model innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the flexibility of business process models. The authors give the notions of flexible process distance, which corresponds to the number of change operations needed for transforming one process model into another, considering the different perspectives (functional, operational, behavioral, informational, and organizational).

The proposed approach is a quantitative-based approach to measure the flexibility of business process models. In this context, the authors presented a method to compute the distance between two process models. The authors measured the distance between a process model and a process variant in terms of the number of high-level change operations (e.g. to insert or delete actors) needed to transform the process model into the respective variant when a change occurred, considering the different perspectives and the flexible features.

To evaluate the flexibility-measurement approach, the authors performed a comprehensive simulation using an emergency care (EC) business process model and its variants. The authors used a real-world EC process and illustrated the possible changes faced in the emergency department (possible variants). Simulation results were promising because they fit the flexibility needs of the EC process users. This was validated using the authors’ previous work which consists in a guidance approach for business process flexibility.

The authors defined six different distances between business process models, which are summarized in the definition of total process distance. However, changes in one perspective may lead to changes in other perspectives. For instance, adding a new activity may lead to adding a new actor.

The results of this study would help companies to obtain important information about their processes and to compare the desired level of flexibility with their actual process flexibility.

This study is probably the first flexibility-measurement approach which incorporates features for capturing changes affecting the functional, operational, informational, organizational, and behavioral perspectives as well as elements related to approaches enhancing flexibility.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of strategic flexibility on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) performance, and how such effects are mediated by business model innovation (BMI).

Data was collected in the form of surveys from 200 SMEs located in Saudi Arabia. The collected data were analyzed with structural equation modeling using Amos 23.

The results highlighted that strategic flexibility has a direct and significant influence on SME performance. Moreover, BMI partially mediates the relationship between strategic flexibility and SME performance.

The findings of this study suggest that managers should be made aware that strategic flexibility can be an important driver for BMI which in turn would enhance SME performance. This study argues that the perks of strategic flexibility are irrespective of firm size. Furthermore, BMI can help improve the performance of SMEs by unlocking new opportunities for value creation and value capture

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is one of the first to test the relationship between strategic flexibility and SME performance through BMI.

This paper seeks to explore how market orientation facilitates the strategic flexibility of business models grounded in open innovation. The authors suggest that the new paradigm of open innovation may impact a firm's adaptability and responsiveness under conditions of environmental flux. However, extending innovation capacity by opening the innovation process poses major challenges for firms. The aims of this study are to explore the characteristics of open innovation activity and to contemplate the role of strategic flexibility in the design of business models based upon open innovation.

The study draws upon a qualitative research approach through a longitudinal case study in the field of open source software (OSS). The empirical case illustrates how an OSS firm utilizes signals in its environment to flexibly alter its business model.

A business model that embodies open innovation raises dilemmas between open and closed innovation paradigms. However, the authors' case highlights that an ambidextrous approach that combines market orientation with the principles of open innovation increases profitability, shortens time to market through effective market access, and enhances innovation capability.

The results have profound implications for industrial marketers, managers, management consultants and business educators. They can use the insights gleaned from this research to guide the development of business models that involve open innovation. The results indicate that firms involved in open innovation need reactive strategic flexibility to cope with the environmental diversity and variability. However, this study analyzes a single case in the field of OSS and one should be cautious when generalizing the findings.

This paper improves the understanding of the relationship between flexibility and market orientation. It combines two areas that have previously been discussed separately, i.e. market orientation and open innovation.

The aim in this paper is to describe and explain the flexibility offered by different business models adopted by different firms as they strive to achieve higher levels of business performance.

Cross‐sectional research is used to investigate a matched pair sample of 20 high‐performing and 20 low‐performing firms in the UK. The relationship between business model architectures and focus are examined and their implications for flexibility are illustrated and discussed.

The flexibility offered by different business models is explored through the way organisations select and integrate three inter‐related elements to devise flexible business models, i.e. network influence, transactional relationships, and corporate ownership. Affected by situated practices in each business network and the market position or business size, companies select and integrate various configurations of these elements to respond to the constantly evolving demands of end‐customers.

Although based upon a cross‐sectional analysis of a matched pair sample, the concept of “flexible business models” has far wider managerial implications. The efficiency of the proposed approach is achieved through the reduction into three inter‐related elements that allow flexible configuration and re‐adjustment.

Companies can use the flexible business model approach to examine their own selection and integration of network influence, transactional relationships and corporate ownership and scrutinise their flexibility and performance in the marketplace.

The contribution of this paper is the development of the flexible business models concept, based on an empirical investigation of firms in the UK.

Flexibility and efficiency are dual attributes of the organizational structure that are crucial for project-driven enterprises to achieve sustainable development in a dynamic environment. However, there is a lack of research on the patterns by which the dual attributes of a project-driven enterprise’s organizational structure affect business model innovation. Employing organizational theory, this study aims to assess the mediating mechanisms and dynamic capabilities through which the dual attributes of the organizational structure influence business model innovation in project-driven enterprises.

Data were collected from 242 employees from four project-driven companies across 26 cities (e.g. Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shenzhen) in China. Structural equation modeling revealed the relationship between organizational structure’s dual attributes and business model innovation.

The findings show that the dual attributes (flexibility and efficiency) of the organizational structure have positive impacts on business model innovation. Moreover, dynamic capabilities mediate the relationship between the dual attributes and business model innovation in project-driven enterprises.

This study provides contributions to innovation research in the context of project-driven enterprises by revealing the influence of organizational structure on business model innovation through the firms’ dynamic capabilities. Such knowledge can enable managers of project-driven enterprises to develop effective interventions to promote business model innovation.

The purpose of the present research is to explore the relationships between corporate social responsibility (CSR), authentic leadership and business model flexibility during times of unprecedented crises.

The research approach in this study is conceptual. After a brief review of the literature associated with CSR, authentic leadership and business models, the authors introduce a model describing the interaction of authentic leadership and business model flexibility on CSR heterogeneity.

This research explains how firms that are led by authentic leaders and that have flexible business models will be more engaged with their stakeholders than firms with less authentic leaders or more rigid business models during unprecedented crises.

Prescriptions for practitioners are suggested for improving authentic leadership as well as making adaptations to the firm's business model. Regarding authentic leadership, firms can screen potential new hires and existing employees for authentic leadership qualities. Firms can also rely upon existing interventions shown to assist in authentic leadership development for current leaders. At the business model level, firms can focus on core resources and their application in related product and service markets.

Firms engaged in CSR activities benefit more from those activities when leaders are authentic. However, in times of unprecedented crises, business model flexibility may also dictate the extent to which firms can satisfy their stakeholders. The authors introduce a conceptual model that takes the elements of authentic leadership and business model flexibility into account to explain CSR heterogeneity.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the new distributed leadership patterns is an important driver for innovating business model. By synthesizing insights from the dynamic capabilities perspective, it also explores how and when distributed leadership enhances the business model innovation (BMI) by involving strategic flexibility as a mediator and environmental dynamism as important contingency.

A survey via questionnaire was conducted with 262 CEOs and 262 senior managers from Chinese high-tech companies that provided the research data. Structural equation modeling and linear regression analyses were used to test the time-lagged data, and then the main research questions were responded to.

The analysis reveals that distributed leadership has a significant direct influence on BMI, and that distributed leadership also indirectly affects BMI by enhancing strategic flexibility. Environmental dynamism strengthens the positive effect of distributed leadership on BMI under strategic flexibility.

This paper advances and enriches the emerging stream of BMI research. It presents an innovative conceptual analysis of the antecedents of BMI, and it shows a possible solution for BMI that complements extant research that considers which and how the leadership style of the organizations affects the business model change.

The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of manufacturing flexibility in the relationship between knowledge creation, technological turbulence and performance. In an increasingly competitive and changing environment, firms need to boost their technological and management know-how to adequately develop manufacturing flexibility.

This study analyzes survey data collected from 370 manufacturing firms. Validity and reliability analyses were conducted using SPSS and Amos. The research hypotheses were tested using covariance-based structural equation modelling.

The main findings show that knowledge creation positively and significantly affects business and operational performances directly, and indirectly, through manufacturing flexibility. Moreover, technological turbulence has a positive and significant effect on it. This finding contributes to understanding why some firms get better outcomes from manufacturing flexibility than others, a disputed issue in the literature.

This study highlights the need for manufacturing firms to foster cultures of knowledge creation, to better educate and train employees and to develop other instruments of knowledge creation.

This study makes several contributions to manufacturing flexibility literature: (1) establishing a link between technological turbulence and knowledge creation to develop manufacturing flexibility; (2) add empirical evidence on the relation between manufacturing flexibility and performance and (3) contributes to consolidating the mediation role of manufacturing flexibility in the relations between knowledge creation and business performance, as studies focussing on such a role are scarce in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to explicate why and how modularization of business models can lead to path dependence or strategic flexibility, thus either inhibiting or favoring business model innovation.

Conceptual paper that depicts a model based on the extant literature. The derived implications for business model innovation are illustrated by several examples.

Modularity can be used as cognitive frame to explore issues of dynamics, evolution and transformation of business models. Thereby, the paper reveals drivers as well as barriers to business model innovation which sensitizes managers that modularity as a design principle is a two-edged sword: managers cannot simply rely on what they know about the benefits of modularity because this might lead to path dependence in the future.

The authors suggest that middle managers might best focus on managing modules and their direct relations. Senior management should put more emphasis on encouraging extra-modular thinking.

By outlining the concept of business model modularity, the authors add to the scarce literature that addresses modularity beyond the fields of products, production and organization design. The discussion also advances to the literature on drivers as well as barriers to managing business model innovation. While most of the extant literature has portrayed modularity as a means to increase flexibility, only a few studies have revealed the downside of modularity and explained how it gives rise to path dependence. In this respect, the authors highlight the relation between managerial action, self-reinforcing mechanisms and characteristics of the environment. Finally, the paper’s findings provide a lens to consider contradictory strategies simultaneously which is crucial for managing complex business models.