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Drawing on the knowledge-based view, this study investigates how IT–business alignment influences business model design via organizational learning and examines the moderating role of data-driven culture in the relationship between IT–business alignment and business model design via organizational learning.

Using multi-respondent survey data collected from 597 Chinese firms, mediation and moderated mediation analyses were used to examine this study's hypotheses.

The mediation test results revealed organizational learning served as a mediator between IT–business alignment and two types of business model design (i.e. novelty- and efficiency-centered). In addition, data-driven culture strengthened the indirect effects of IT–business alignment on these two types of business model design via organizational learning.

This study extends current understandings of the relationship between IT–business alignment and business model design by revealing the mediating role of organizational learning and investigating its indirect effects under various degrees of data-driven culture. As such, it contributes to the literature on the business model and IT–business alignment and provides insights for managers seeking to achieve the expected business model design.

As a response to global population growth and increasing demand for food, farmers have been complementing traditional agriculture practices with vertical farming (VF) and indoor hydroponic systems. To facilitate the growth of the VF industry, this paper aims to identify business model elements and their configurations that lead to high firm performance.

The research goals were met by conducting literature reviews coupled with a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on five business model elements, “superior” OR “strong” performance as two possible outcomes, and the top-ranked global VF growers listed in the Crunchbase Database.

From the fsQCA results, it was observed that several business model configurations lead to strong firm performance. Vertical farms growing in urban settings and having strong customer engagement platforms, coupled with a presence of business-to-business (B2B) sales channels, are more consistently associated with superior performance. These results imply that the decision configuration of location, along with customer engagement activity and sales activity are differentiating factors between good firm performance and superior firm performance in the case of vertical farms.

This paper contributes to expanding the knowledge of business model theory, business model configurations and VF management, providing specific guidelines for vertical farm owners and investors related to decision-making for higher firm performance, as well as positive environmental, social and economic impact.

Business model innovation (BMI) has been posited as essential for both new and existing digital business, as they commonly operate in competitive and fast-moving markets with limited entry barriers. However, it is highlighted within the literature that the understanding of how BMI contributes to business success and how new digital ventures develop competitive advantage is still unclear. This study aims to address this lacuna by exploring how young Chinese digital businesses develop and innovate their business models to survive in fast-moving and competitive markets.

This research adopted a multiple case study design, with qualitative data being collected from the founders of five Chinese digital businesses, to develop an understanding of the evolution of their business models and BMI from their inception.

The findings add support for the contention that BMI can play an important role and is beneficial in the success of such new digital ventures in highly competitive environments. The founders attribute their success to a willingness for continued BMI, an openness to new opportunities, developing customer relationships and continuous iteration.

This research addresses calls to further the authors’ understanding of how BMI contributes to business success and how new digital ventures develop competitive advantage by exploring the BMI of five highly successful digital businesses from their inception.

Small businesses are facing evolving environments, with a resulting need to shift their traditional approaches toward new business models (BMs). Many face difficulties within this transition process due to their specific resource constraints. Based on this, incremental changes to the BM – business model transition (BMT) – are proposed as comprising a suitable framework for entrepreneurial small businesses.

This study conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) to cover a broad range of relevant literature within a final sample of 89 articles. The SLR method was chosen to integrate research in a systematic, transparent and reproducible way. For qualitative analysis and framework derivation, the study draws on a thematic ontological analysis.

The broad search criteria, focusing on BM, incremental BM changes and small businesses, pave the way for a comprehensive overview of multiple research streams of BM concepts (e.g. digital and sustainable BM). The main contribution of this work is the resulting holistic BMT framework, comprising the main parts BM innovation, external antecedents (transition of environment, entrepreneurial ecosystem), internal antecedents (dynamic capabilities, entrepreneurial orientation, resilience, strategy) and output (firm performance).

The framework provides guidance for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial managers to implement and complete BMT in small businesses. Furthermore, the presented paper sets a future research agenda focusing on small businesses structured according to the derived framework.

This study provides the first SLR of existing BM concepts with a small-business specific perspective on BMI and a focus on various incremental BM changes.

This empirical paper investigates how entrepreneurial firms change their business models in the context of internationalization by identifying different forms of business model innovation (BMI) and exploring the interrelationship between BMI and internationalization.

Based on the dynamic states approach of entrepreneurship (Levie and Lichtenstein, 2010), this paper analyses primary and secondary data from nine European firms following a multiple case study approach.

This paper presents four patterns of radical change and eight types of incremental adaption with-in business models in the context of internationalization. We describe these BMI patterns and types, and we also show how they contribute to increasing involvement in international business activities and the internationalization-related triggers that might cause them.

This paper contributes to a better understanding of the BMI process in the course of internationalization. It also highlights the complex interrelationship between BMI and internationalization by building on a progressive theoretical approach.

The learning outcomes of this case study are to understand the business model canvas and value propositions and apply advanced business innovation tools in electric vehicle business models; evaluate the current cargo vehicle scenarios at national and global levels and draw out the possibilities and costs for a new player; extrapolate the future scenario of the cargo economy, its electrification and positioning in a business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) segment, especially for a developing economy; and improve the student’s ability to get organisational buy-in and execute new business models.

LoadExx is a fully electrified electric cargo service focusing on logistics in Kolkata, a metropolitan city in the eastern part of the country. The service of LoadExx commenced in January 2021 in the B2B segment after overcoming its then issues of driver hesitancy and customer anxiety and financial issues to adopt electrified cargo systems. The conundrum faced by LoadExx in its commencement thus had been solved under the able guidance of its owner Amit Arora. The case study was positioned four months after the commencement of LoadExx. To gain market power and traction, Arora and his team came up with the idea of market expansion. However, the current conundrum was whether LoadExx would enter the B2C segment in its current location or expand with the same business model to other parts of the country. The expansion was to be implemented in the immediate future to retain its rarity and reduce the imitability of the business model of LoadExx. This case study details the logistics and market operations of the cargo sector, especially electric cargo, in a developing economy, especially India. A teaching note supplementing the “Cracking the conundrum of e-cargo logistics: curious case of LoadExx” case study has been provided.

This case study is designed for undergraduate and postgraduate students and senior management professionals in executive education programmes undertaking courses in logistics management and supply chain operations and related cargo logistics courses. This case study denotes integrating key processes from end-users and gaining the trust of drivers, thereby showing the perspective of the plight and conundrums of a cargo aggregator working in the B2C segment. This case study could be used to discuss concepts related to not-for-profit firms, aggregators, policymakers and think tanks.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and logistics.

The purpose of this study is to explore growth models based on “industry-based capabilities”, “resources-based capabilities” and “institution-based capabilities” in the context of the determinants of micro, small and medium enterprises’ (MSMEs) actors’ intention to grow.

This study involved 188 owners/managers of MSMEs. The analysis was conducted using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Moreover, the importance-performance map analysis package is used to complement the study findings.

This study uses the framework of the resource-based view (entrepreneurial knowledge), industrial-based view (industrial linkage) and institutional-based view (government support and access to finance) as proxies of the tripod-based view framework. The findings show that entrepreneurial knowledge (skills, competencies and functional), government support, access to finance and industrial linkage (vertical and horizontal) significantly encourage MSMEs’ owner/manager growth intention.

Firstly, this study suggests that MSMEs actors focus on developing entrepreneurial knowledge to boost the skills, competencies and functionalities needed to improve their business capabilities, directly affecting their growth intention. Secondly, this study indicates that the growth intention of MSME players, besides increasing internal capacity, must also be supported by the external environment, such as financial institutions, government and industrial linkage.

This study offers a tripod-based view as a framework for MSMEs’ actors’ intention to grow, where the constructs in the model used so far have not been explored comprehensively in the context of MSMEs. So, the built model brings more relevant factors to explain this topic from various perspectives.

This study aims to extend and explore patterns and trends of research in the linkage of big data and knowledge management (KM) by identifying growth in terms of numbers of papers and current and emerging themes and to propose areas of future research.

The study was conducted by systematically extracting, analysing and synthesizing the literature related to linkage between big data and KM published in top-tier journals in Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus databases by exploiting bibliometric techniques along with theory, context, characteristics, methodology (TCCM) analysis.

The study unfolds four major themes of linkage between big data and KM research, namely (1) conceptual understanding of big data as an enabler for KM, (2) big data–based models and frameworks for KM, (3) big data as a predictor variable in KM context and (4) big data applications and capabilities. It also highlights TCCM of big data and KM research through which it integrates a few previously reported themes and suggests some new themes.

This study extends advances in the previous reviews by adding a new time line, identifying new themes and helping in the understanding of complex and emerging field of linkage between big data and KM. The study outlines a holistic view of the research area and suggests future directions for flourishing in this research area.

This study highlights the role of big data in KM context resulting in enhancement of organizational performance and efficiency. A summary of existing literature and future avenues in this direction will help, guide and motivate managers to think beyond traditional data and incorporate big data into organizational knowledge infrastructure in order to get competitive advantage.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, the present study is the first study to go deeper into understanding of big data and KM research using bibliometric and TCCM analysis and thus adds a new theoretical perspective to existing literature.

A nation's economic development is adversely affected by the rising population and the lack of employment opportunities, necessitating the promotion of entrepreneurial activities. This study aims to unfurl the critical factors shaping university students' entrepreneurial intentions (EI) in an emerging economy.

The study assessed the EI of 640 university students across India's top 5 central universities through structural equation modeling by extending the entrepreneurial event model (EEM) and dark triad theory. Mediation and moderation techniques were used to examine the model's direct and indirect linkages.

The results show that propensity to act (PTA), perceived resilience (PRS) and narcissism (NAR) magnify desirability, significantly increasing students' EI. The association between the underlying constructs is partially mediated by the PTA and perceived desirability (PD). In addition, the linkage between PD and students' EI is strengthened by the pursuit of excellence (PoE) and weakened by perceived risk (PR).

The study's findings could assist educators, universities, aspiring entrepreneurs, financial institutions, policymakers, investors, venture capitalists, incubators and accelerators in reinforcing entrepreneurial culture in India by establishing a link between crucial personality traits and intentions to start entrepreneurial ventures.

Personality traits such as NAR, resilience and the PoE have not received much attention in the entrepreneurship literature and call for a rigorous inquiry. The study tries to embrace these dominant personality traits by broadening the perspectives of EEM and dark triad theory via a comprehensive conceptual model. It also explores the role of the PoE and PR as moderators to examine the possible association between the identified constructs.

This paper aims to explore whether increasing Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) is associated with rising contributions of local industry in African countries connected to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The existence of cooperative industry linkages between Chinese investments and local businesses is a necessary condition for achieving the mutual benefits asserted by the BRI.

Under growing FDI, the authors framed increasing local industry contribution as indicative of existing industry linkages. Using principal component analysis and multiple regression on collated country-level data, the authors examined relationships between key industry output variables and several independent variables representing Chinese investment and economic activity in a contiguous three-country region, over two investment periods.

Increasing Chinese FDI was associated with positive economic outcomes including decreasing unemployment; however, it did not appear to support local industry participation. The authors identified a “China effect” that hampered industry contribution to gross domestic product. The authors found that attempting to counterbalance this effect through direct exports to China was not strategically sound. Similarly, export-focused clusters in special zones may not foster industry linkages if they result in isolationism. Rather, host countries have an opportunity to enhance local industry contribution through leveraging interconnectivity factors under increasing FDI.

Small sample size of the study has implications for the predictive power of the model and for the complete explanation all the emerging findings. However, the authors presented compelling arguments for selecting the specific three countries. By conducting robustness checks on a separate region, findings of this study were substantially corroborated.

Instead of exporting directly to China as a way to mitigate local industry contraction, host countries need to thoughtfully pursue opportunities that present the greatest value-added export advantages. Proposed Chinese-funded infrastructure projects must be negotiated with a goal to strategically reduce interconnectivity barriers and achieve broader logistics improvements in the host countries.

The study provides a tool for proponents of local industry growth to present clearer frameworks in their advocacy. The social tensions around Chinese dominance in the host countries can be reduced by understanding and pursuing levers that enhance industry contribution in those contexts.

This study takes a different approach to examining the professed win-win proposition of the BRI in Africa. It uncovers important effects of increasing Chinese FDI and addresses viable host country responses, including a clear pathway for forging the cooperative industry linkages needed for inclusive growth and sustainable development.