Fredrik Hacklin

The business model in the practice of strategic decision making: insights from a case study

Purpose – Traditionally, management scholars have conceptualized the business model as a locus of innovation, planning tool, heuristic logic, or market device. However, so far, little is known about how the model is being applied in practice. To address this gap, this study aims to introduce a strategy‐as‐practice perspective and to explore the implications and limitations of applying the business model as a strategizing device.Design/methodology/approach – A single‐case study design was selected to explore the implications and limitations of using the business model as a strategizing device in a high‐tech firm.Findings – The business model provides a valuable structural template for mapping the current business model of a firm. However, in developing and discussing strategic options, it acts more as a symbolic artifact stimulating a creative decision‐making process than as an analytic tool with a clear sequence of steps.Practical implications – When working with the business model concept in practice, it...

Management of Convergence in Innovation: Strategies and Capabilities for Value Creation Beyond Blurring Industry Boundaries

Throughout the past decade, the phenomenon of technological convergence has increasingly gained managerial attention. In this special form of technological change, the coming-together of previously distinct knowledge bases gives rise to the creation of new applications and business models. When such innovations emerge at the intersection of industries, the resulting creative destruction may exceed previously established industry boundaries. As a consequence, convergence does not only promise the creation of new value, but may imply significant disruptions to established industries. Based on investigating 26 firms within the ICT industry, this book highlights implications of the convergence phenomenon on firms innovation management practices, and derives strategic guidelines for building and sustaining business models beyond blurring industry boundaries.

How incremental innovation becomes disruptive: the case of technology convergence

Current innovation management literature and research statically differentiates between incremental and disruptive innovation. Incremental innovation is generally comprehended as improvement of technology performance or product feature enhancement, whereas disruptive innovation is defined as based on technologies previously new to the world, combined with their effects on markets. The authors of this research present how a convergence of several well-known, incrementally developing technologies can result in innovations with highly disruptive character. Paradoxically, in disruptive situations, operative actions must be taken before strategic planning can be made, as the industrial and economic environment can be regarded as extremely uncertain. In this context, however, we argue that this special case caused by the convergence of technologies can serve to understand certain areas of emerging industrial disruptions and hence support the strategic planning and technology management of a firm acting in this area. The example of mobile telecommunication operators is used to highlight this convergence phenomenon as a special case of emerging disruptive innovation. Based on this example, the process of innovations transforming from incremental towards disruptive due to convergence will be examined, and entrepreneurial recommendations for sustaining the competitive advantage and supporting value creation will be derived.

An evolutionary perspective on convergence: inducing a stage model of inter-industry innovation

Throughout the past decade, the phenomenon of technological convergence has increasingly gained managerial attention. In particular, the phenomenon can be regarded as a special form of technological change, where the coming-together of previously distinct knowledge bases gives rise to the creation of new applications and business models. Since the resulting creative destruction may exceed previously established industry boundaries, as a consequence, convergence does not only promise the creation of new value, but may imply significant disruptions to established industries. Driven by a managerial need for understanding convergence from an innovation management perspective, as well as by contradictive perceptions in previous research, this paper introduces an evolutionary perspective on the phenomenon. The study is based on an inductive and embedded multiple-case approach, involving 26 firms in the information and communications industry sectors. Four different stages of a convergence process are identified, described and formalised: (1) knowledge convergence, (2) technological convergence, (3) applicational convergence and (4) industrial convergence.

IMPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGICAL CONVERGENCE ON INNOVATION TRAJECTORIES: THE CASE OF ICT INDUSTRY

Current innovation management literature and research statically differentiates between incremental and disruptive innovation, as far as the trajectory development is concerned. Incremental innovation is generally comprehended as an improvement of technology performance or product feature enhancement, whereas disruptive innovation is defined based on technologies previously new to the world, combined with their effects on markets. The authors of this research present how a convergence of several well-known, incrementally developing technologies can result in innovations with highly disruptive character in terms of innovation trajectories. Paradoxically, in disruptive situations, operative actions must be taken before strategic planning can be made, as the industrial and economic environment can be regarded as extremely uncertain. In this context, however, we argue that this special case caused by the convergence of technologies can serve to understand certain areas of emerging industrial disruptions and hence support the strategic planning and technology management of a firm acting in this area. The case of information and communication technology (ICT) industry is used to highlight this convergence phenomenon as a special case of emerging disruptive innovation. Based on this example, the process of innovations transforming from incremental towards disruptive due to convergence will be examined, and entrepreneurial recommendations for sustaining the competitive advantage and supporting value creation will be derived.

Convergence and interdisciplinarity in innovation management: a review, critique, and future directions

Knowledge integration in the interstices between different disciplinary fields is becoming a critical challenge to innovation management. As disciplines converge into new hybrid fields, such as information and communication technology or nano-biotechnology, it ultimately creates winners and losers, be they new firms that displace incumbents or individual scientists better positioned to reap rewards from new targeted grants. While received literature recognizes the importance of interdisciplinarity, little is known about its theoretical and conceptual antecedents. To meet this challenge, we first review and critique the literature on interdisciplinarity from a knowledge-based perspective, and, second, identify challenges for innovation management and formulate implications for further research. In particular, we outline how individual and team-level heterogeneity should be addressed. By adopting such a micro-level perspective, innovation management can embrace heterogeneity and effectively unlock the true value of interdisciplinary knowledge.

The State of Corporate Venturing: Insights from a Global Study

OVERVIEW: Corporate venturing is on the rise. The growing intensity of corporate venturing activities presents extraordinary opportunities for corporations to redefine their innovation and investment practices. While corporate venturing has received considerable research attention, previous studies have often insufficiently captured the evolution of corporate venturing activities. This article presents the key insights of a global study of leading corporate venture units and offers a benchmark against which to compare current and future corporate venturing initiatives. We discuss the state of corporate venturing activities and practices at leading global corporations and outline the distinctive features of todays venture landscape.

New Perspectives on Mobile Service Development

The future development of mobile applications and services has to take into account the user needs more carefully than before. The investments in mobile telephony, which are made from the point of view of technology, disregard the fact that users are not interested in technologies; they are interested in possibilities to fulfil their needs. The main problem for the ICT industry in mobility concerns its business that is mainly based on the technology-oriented view, inadequate understanding of users’ needs, and the uninteroperable and isolated application and service perspective.

Retaining fit between business models and product market strategies in changing environments

Changing environments challenge incumbent firms to retain the fit between their product market strategy and their business model as specific instances of a firms strategy and structure. Yet, as the business model depicts the pattern of a firms boundary-spanning transactions with customers, vendors and partners, a change in a focal firms business model necessitates managing its relationship to these three external parties accordingly. A multiple-case study of 16 firms in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector serves to explore how incumbent firms can enable and support the business model changes that complement the changes in a firms product market strategy during technological convergence. The results show that three behavioural patterns - infringing, orchestrating and riding - enable and support the changes in an incumbent firms business model that complement those changes in a firms product market strategy. These patterns are discussed from the perspective of inter-organisational power and dependency.

Knowledge management with focus on the innovation process in collaborative networking companies

Knowledge lies at the very heart of innovation. A companys ability to create, store and transfer knowledge about technologies, customer needs and the innovation process itself may well determine success in bringing new products or services to the market. Yet, little is known as to how companies treat these issues in practice. This paper presents the results of a research project assessing practices and challenges for innovation-oriented knowledge management within four global technology-based companies in Switzerland. Results are discussed from both company-internal and external network perspectives. For company-internal knowledge management, broad differences in terms of both practices and challenges were found between the companies mainly because of different ways of implementing the innovation process and very different company cultures. Common issues included poor implementation of post-project reviews as well as a need for better integrating market and customer knowledge into all stages of the innovation process. For the external perspective, a more homogenous picture emerged where companies network with different partners throughout the innovation process and where knowledge creation and transfer were substantially greater for long-term partnerships.