Patrick Spieth

Business model innovation – state of the art and future challenges for the field

Business model innovation is receiving increased attention in corporate practice and research alike. We propose in this article a role‐based approach to categorize the literature and argue that the respective roles of explaining the business, running the business, and developing the business can serve as three interrelated perspectives to present an overview of the current business model innovation field and to accommodate the selected contributions of this special issue. We refer to contributions from entrepreneurship, innovation and technology management, and corporate strategy to explicate the three elaborated perspectives and to summarize the main contents of the special issue articles. We conclude by reflecting on main theoretical challenges for studies on business model innovation which stem from the uncertain boundaries of the phenomenon, and we propose some theoretical stances and analytic levels to develop future avenues for research.

Leadership in Temporary Organizations: A Review of Leadership Theories and a Research Agenda

Projects and other temporary forms of organizing are different from standard organizational processes. As most leadership theories are based on the assumption of stable organizational environments, the increase in temporary forms of organizing poses specific challenges to leadership theories. We evaluate existing leadership theories in terms of their applicability on temporary environments and identify theories, which are adaptable to temporary settings and therefore may be the basis for empirical investigations in this field. On this basis we derive a research agenda by proposing individual leadership theories and combinations of different leadership approaches to be further assessed in research.

BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION AND STRATEGIC FLEXIBILITY: INSIGHTS FROM AN EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGN

Firms engaging in business model innovation are likely to constantly experience environmental turbulence in which remaining strategically flexible is of crucial importance to ensure survival. Drawing on a dynamic capabilities perspective, a framework of hypotheses is established that emphasises the effects of business model innovation on a firms managerial capabilities and its operational responsiveness that have been argued to antecede strategic flexibility. Using an experimental research design that is built on a between-subject analysis and embodies decision-scenarios, we show how three distinct types of business model innovation (value offering innovation, value architecture innovation, and revenue model innovation) impact on different dimensions of strategic flexibility (resource flexibility, coordination flexibility, and variety of managerial capabilities). Our findings indicate that remaining strategic flexibility is not an implicit result of business model innovation as we identify different effects of the distinct types of business model innovation on the individual dimensions of strategic flexibility.

Business model innovation in the aviation industry

In response to changing sources of value creation, business model innovation has recently emerged as a concept that allows dealing with volatile environments. Focusing on the aviation industry, we aim at enhancing the understanding of drivers, elements and forms of business model innovation. We use an inductive, theory-building design that allows patterns of business model innovation to come to light across multiple case studies of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) companies in the aviation industry. In line with prior theory, we find that a range of supply and demand-driven effects trigger the need for business model innovation in the aviation sector. We identify aircraft manufacturer market characteristics and structural airline industry characteristics as drivers of MRO business model innovation. New MRO value offerings and MRO value creation were set as constituting elements of innovating MRO business models resulting in customer benefit-oriented and value co-creation-oriented business model innovation.

Innovation Project Portfolio Management: A Qualitative Analysis

Doing the right innovation projects is critical to firms success; therefore, academics and practitioners are striving for optimizing innovation project portfolio management (IPPM). Although some research on certain issues in IPPM has been conducted so far, valid empirical evidence on the use, outcomes, and most important success drivers of portfolio methods in innovation management is rare. We aim at discovering the cause-and-effects of IPPM performance. This paper shows that performance of IPPM may be better understood if it is considered as an integrated system of portfolio balance, strategic alignment, and value maximization simultaneously. Using in-depth data from 29 interviews in 12 companies, we use a grounded theory approach to develop a general model of what drives IPPM in detail and how these causes are related to effects on both project performance and firm performance. According to the findings from these qualitative data, effective IPPM is the result of three constructs: usage of IPPM methods, IPPM design, and project characteristics. These cause-and-effects are moderated by management perception and satisfaction with IPPM.

Augmenting Innovation Project Portfolio Management Performance: The Mediating Effect of Management Perception and Satisfaction

Firms face the challenge of efficiently and effectively investing scarce resources in innovation projects in order to sustain or develop a firms long‐term competitive advantage and sustainable growth. Innovation project portfolio management (IPPM) describes a firms dynamic capability to assess the challenge of evaluating, selecting, and prioritizing innovation projects. The particular impacts of method usage, criteria usage, IPPM design, information availability, and internal interactions on management perception and satisfaction as well as on IPPM performance and innovativeness are hypothesized and tested. We found that methods and criteria play a negligible role in the IPPM context. IPPM design elements, like transparency and formality, are key drivers of high IPPM performance. Information availability is a key construct in driving IPPM performance, as well as management perception and satisfaction. Relevance of IPPM is supported by revealing IPPM performances positive impact on firm performance, innovation project performance, and firms innovativeness.

Innovative Work Behaviour: The Impact of Comprehensive HR System Perceptions and the Role of Work--Life Conflict

Human resource (HR) systems have the potential to both foster innovative work behaviour (IWB) and reduce work–life conflict (WLC)—enabling employees to engage in IWB. We investigate the proposed relationships between comprehensive HR systems, WLC and IWB using variance-based structural equation modelling. We found that HR systems that are perceived as comprehensive significantly enhance IWB and decrease feelings of WLC. Contrary to our expectation, we found a significant yet positive effect of WLC on IWB. Employees may respond to WLC constructively by being innovative, improving their environment and making the work–life interface manageable. By promoting IWB, HR systems might also help employees to deal with residual—and, perhaps, unavoidable—levels of WLC.

Governing the Portfolio Management Process for Product Innovation—A Quantitative Analysis on the Relationship Between Portfolio Management Governance, Portfolio Innovativeness, and Firm Performance

Past strategy and innovation research has basically ignored potential effects of portfolio management governance issues on portfolio innovativeness, and thereby on innovation management results such as firm performance. Building on the dynamic capabilities view, we hypothesize that portfolio management governance enhances firm performance by enabling higher levels of portfolio innovativeness through market and technological aspects. Our findings support the relevance of considering portfolio management governance to explain higher innovation outcomes. In particular, we can show that formality and explicitness, information support, as well as partial review frequency have a strong impact on the innovativeness of the firms product portfolio. Consequently, higher technological and market innovativeness drives firm performance. We derive implications for both managers and researchers.

Governing portfolio management for innovative new product portfolios: a conceptual framework

Continuous innovation asks for new product portfolios that are balanced with respect to the innovativeness of its individual projects. Hence, firms need to proactively manage their portfolio innovativeness. Simultaneously, portfolio management (PM) literature suggests shifting emphasise from project selection towards governing the entire PM process. We therefore aim at explaining how portfolio-level innovativeness can be fostered by PM governance and how innovativeness in turn affects performance. Using dynamic capabilities theory, we propose a conceptual framework that postulates positive relationships between PM governance, innovativeness, and firm performance. We furthermore identified moderating effects of portfolio balance on the latter relation.

Treat Your Suppliers Right! Aligning Strategic Innovation Orientation in Captive Supplier Relationships with Relational and Transactional Governance Mechanisms

Buyer-supplier relationships are regarded as a source of competitive advantage, as suppliers can contribute valuable but imperfectly tradable resources. To coordinate these resources in the course of joint value creation and mitigate the risks of opportunism, buyers are required to establish transactional and relational governance mechanisms. While recent research showed that these mechanisms are intertwined with each other, little is known about the effects of different governance mechanisms in relationships with captive suppliers. Especially in case of captive suppliers, which are highly dependent on the buyer, the governance approach of the buyer affects the relationship and the supplier on a long-term base. Based on unique data of 101 suppliers in the aviation industry, we show that transactional and relational governance mechanisms exert different effects on the efficiency and effectiveness of relationships with captive suppliers. While transactional governance is primarily suited to foster buyer-supplier efficiency (e.g. cost or lead time reduction), relational governance strengthens buyer-supplier effectiveness (e.g. product customization or joint innovation). Additionally, the choice of a governance mechanism indirectly affects the strategic innovation orientation of captive suppliers. Focusing on buyer-supplier effectiveness stimulates strategic innovation orientation of captive suppliers; high buyer-supplier efficiency leads to opposite effects. Our paper emphasizes that misalignment of governance mechanisms and the objective of buyer-supplier relationships can limit strategic innovation orientation.