Abstract

AbstractWe argue that while the business model construct may not be entirely new, it can still provide a novel lens, complementary to Resource Based View and Market Positioning, to develop new theoretical insights in strategy. We propose that the consideration of interdependencies among the activities of a business model provides such a lens. We show that by starting strategy development with interdependencies among activities, we can: (1) develop new insights on how to build superior strategies; and (2) explain company performance variance especially when heterogeneity in resources and capabilities is not strong and barriers to imitation are weak. Overall, we propose that a promising research avenue for the business model literature is to integrate complexity theory with demand‐side and supply side theories of strategy to generate more nuanced insights on what activities to connect and how to develop superior interdependencies among activities that can form the basis of superior strategies.

Highlights

  • In the last 15 years, much literature has developed around the concept of the business model

  • We argue that by looking at interdependencies among activities as an independent variable – as opposed to a necessary translation of a firm’s strategy or of ‘orchestration’ of resources and capabilities – and by focusing on the wider internal/ external interdependencies (Adner and Kapoor, 2010; Jacobides et al, 2018), we can both complement the extant theories of competitive advantage and develop new theoretical insights

  • We show that we can develop insights on how to explain competitive advantage even in the extreme – and paradoxical – case where we cannot build a superior set of interdependent choices by leveraging a core implication of complexity theory – that is, the construct of ‘conflicts’ between activities (e.g., Porter and Siggelkow, 2008; Siggelkow, 2002b) – and by linking it to supply side theories of strategy (e.g., Barney, 1986; Dierickx and Cool, 1989; Peteraf, 1993; Porter, 1979)

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Summary

Introduction

In the last 15 years, much literature has developed around the concept of the business model. Our thesis is that the feature of the business model construct that has the potential to help us develop new insights is the concept of interdependencies among internal and external activities that link value creation to value capturing.

Results
Conclusion

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