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This masterclass aims to consider a number of recent business articles and books that can help practitioners clarify the distinction between the strategy development and business model approaches and decide which is appropriate for their situation.

The article defines the difference between the two approaches this way: business models explain who your customers are and how you plan to make money by providing them with value; strategy identifies how you will beat competitors by being different.

The paper reveals that a business model approach has limitations. It will not help an organization develop a competitive advantage, outperform its competition, acquire or merge with another organization, or diversify. However, corporate strategy does not identify how to deliver unique value to meet customers' needs.

The main reason why organizations fail at business‐model innovation is too much “tweaking” – incremental attempts at improvement in myriad projects when more radical change to its business model is the answer.

The article proposes that businesses need both strategy development and business model innovation to adapt and thrive as conditions change.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between brand positioning and business performance, as well as the mediation effect of brand equity between them within the context of Ghana’s alcoholic beverages industry.

A sample of 196 staff across four alcoholic beverage firms in Accra, Ghana was selected using a judgemental sampling technique. A structural equation modelling approach using partial least squares was used to conduct the analyses to answer the research hypotheses.

All the hypotheses were confirmed in line with extant literature. Specifically, the study found a positive relationship between brand positioning and business performance. The study also found that brand equity partially mediates the relationship between brand positioning and business performance.

The study serves as a useful guide to strategy and policy formulation in branding in general and specifically on how brand positioning can be effectively deployed as a key strategy to enhance business performance.

The study has practical implications not only for the marketing and sale of alcoholic beverages in Ghana to achieve financial performance but also for lasting competitive advantage.

Extant paradox theory suggests that adopting paradoxical frames, which are mental templates adopted by individuals in order to embrace contradictions, will result in superior firm performance. Superior performance is achieved through learning and creativity, fostering flexibility and resilience and unleashing human capital. The creativity mechanism of paradox theory is limited by a few propositions and a rough underlying theoretical logic. Using the extant theoretical base as a platform, the paper aims to develop a more powerful theory using a computational simulation.

This paper relies on a psychologically realistic computer simulation. Using a simulation to generate ideas from stored information, one can model and manipulate the parameters that have been shown to mediate the relationship between paradoxes and creative output – defined as the number of creative ideas generated.

Simulation results suggest that the relationship between paradoxical frames and creative output is non-monotonic – contrary to previous studies. Indeed, findings suggest that paradoxical frames can reduce, rather than enhance, creative output, in at least some cases.

An important benefit of adopting paradoxical frames is their capacity to increase creative output. This assumption is challenging to test, because one cannot measure private cognitive processes related to knowledge creation. However, they can be simulated. This allows for the extension of current theory. This new theory depicts a more complete relationship between paradoxical frames and creativity by accounting for subjective differences in how paradoxical frames are experienced along two cognitive mechanisms – differentiation and integration.

A self‐help guide to achieving success in business. Directed more towards the self‐employed, it is relevant to other managers in organizations. Divided into clear sections on creativity and dealing with change; importance of clear goal setting; developing winning business and marketing strategies; negotiating skills; leadership; financial skills; and time management.

The purpose of this paper is to present how the past, Fayol's principles of management, is applied to the present, Porter's competitive strategies – cost leadership and differentiation – and in turn how the understanding of this connection between the past and present directs the future development of firms.

This study explores which of Fayol's principles can be matched to Porter's cost‐leadership or differentiation strategy in terms of strategy implementation.

The paper finds that the principles of division of work, authority and responsibility, unity of command, unity of direction and scalar chain are useful in the implementation of a cost leadership strategy but other, more modern alternative principles apply for differentiation strategy. Likewise, the three principles of stability of tenure of personnel, initiative and esprit de corps apply to the implementation of differentiation strategy, but not to cost leadership, where, again, alternative principles apply. The remaining six principles of discipline, subordination of individual interests to the general interest, remuneration, centralization, order and equity are applicable to implementation of both.

By melding the past with the future, it shows that the flexible use of Fayol's principles in an integrated manner lays the foundation for the successful implementation of competitive strategies and the future development of firms.

This study documents the flexible use of Fayol's principles, an issue that has received modest attention in the literature. It also adds to the literature on the potential implication of Fayol's work for successfully implementing competitive strategies.

Organizations are consistently seeking innovative strategies and novel pathways to enhance business processes and create differentiation. The global business ecosystem is changing and there is growing demand for multi-modal digital technologies, big data consolidation and data analytics to harness a cost-competitive agile system. Technological convergence and integration of digital systems is one of the preferred methodologies that facilitates new and effective workflows and revives business processes. The progressive interlinking of digital technologies with business operations leads to the convergence and blending of management disciplines, devices and applications. The growing inconsistencies in managerial understanding regarding the benefits of convergence prompts a comprehensive examination of digital convergence pathways, identifying the impacts on converging entities and business objectives. The State bank of India (SBI) mega-merger case study was selected to investigate the pragmatic framework of digital convergence and to understand the impacts on interlinked entities such as: business operations, strategic management, project team that support value creation and competitive differentiation. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the phenomena of techno-fusion of emerging technologies creating new opportunities, business models and unique strategies for global banking and financial service organizations.

This study applies the qualitative, inductive research method using critical reflection of before and after the implementation of convergence and digital integration strategies. The SBI case study employs this research strategy based on the premise that banks must stay agile and highly responsive to the changing environment to enhance its value proposition and competitive differentiation objectives. The study methodology incorporates cooperative inquiry and multiple levels of analysis using data collection techniques of exhaustive review of archives, informal interviews, questionnaires and observations to identify the synergistic process improvement pathway. The study is grounded on the concept that the convergence of diverse business pathways involves innovative and interlinked project, strategic and information technology (IT) workflows that results in open innovative systems.

The studies identify that organizational innovation and creative solutions are a result of ecosystem turbulence, environmental force diversity, competitive pressure and the need for differentiation. Organizations that harness the power of digital fusion and convergence of management, systems and data generate a competitive advantage. The technological convergence strategy pulls multiple business and technology processes (project, strategic, IT, Cloud, AI and business process management) at the organizational, divisional or functional level generating new opportunities and threats, new business models and unique growth strategies for global banking and financial services organizations. Organizations that fully integrate techno-fusion of business and digital strategies produce synergistic effects and enhance adaptability, innovation and resiliency in the face of competitive challenges.

Additional areas that can be explored further as an extension of this study are listed below: identifying factors to improve the speed of convergence; the current results are limited to large size organizations where formal management and technology functions are distinctive. Similar studies on smaller organizations are warranted.

This study focuses on the evolving field of technology innovation, which is increasingly being intertwined with business operations. Innovative digital technology is enabling the convergence of the disciplines of management, digital devices and applications. This facilitates the creation of a pragmatic framework that supports convergence of business operations, strategic management and digital fusion which leads to value creation and competitive differentiation. The techno-fusion of emerging technologies and digital strategies generates new opportunities and threats, new business models and unique growth strategies for organizations.

This study aims to examine the effect of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on performance and mediation differentiation strategies and market development in small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

This research was conducted using a survey method with a population of furniture SMEs in Jepara, Central Java, Indonesia using a sample area by collecting 158 questionnaires. The data analysis method used the partial least square.

The result shows that EO has an impact on differentiation, market development and performance. Differentiation strategies and market development mediate the influence of EO and performance. The differentiation strategy further mediates the influence of EO on market development and market development mediates the effect of differentiation on performance.

Managers instill entrepreneurial practice in the organization by proactively creating the market and taking high-risk jobs to provide quality products and services. SMEs require capabilities that are difficult to imitate in creating designs and product quality that are different, providing pre and post-sales services and maintaining good relationships with customers and partners. SMEs emphasize flexibility and speed of operation by adjusting the production process to short waiting times and reliable delivery. The government must support general training and market information, network development, access to capital and knowledge transfer.

This paper explains the importance of differentiation and market development strategies in determining the relationship between EO and performance that has not been explored in the context of SMEs in developing countries.

Recognizing the impact of innovation on organizational performance, scholars from a number of disciplines have sought to identify the conditions that make innovation possible. Although these studies have served to identify a number of key variables, the relationship between these variables and innovation is complex. In this chapter, we argue that the apparent complexity of these relationships may be attributed to cross-level differences in the requirements for innovation and the existence of complex interactions among the phenomena operating at a given level of analysis. The implications of this multi-level perspective for understanding how innovation occurs in organizational settings are discussed.