Business model innovation in European SMEs: thriving configurations and performance implications

Abstract

For many years, Business Model Innovation (BMI) has been recognized by academics as key to improve competitiveness and innovativeness. While more than ninety percent of the large corporates conduct some degree of BMI, BMI has barely reached Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs). Increasing the use of BMI in SMEs is believed to boost the economic situation, which has become the objective of multiple innovation support programs. To substantiate the need for these programs and to guide their actions, the link between BMI and business performance requires clarification. Based on a dataset collected in 2016 by project ENVISION, this study investigates this relation by examining over five hundred European SMEs. Following a multi-method approach, this study provides evidence for the claim that BMI can enhance firm performance in different ways. Our results provide directions on how programs can be tailored to parts of the SME population that are expected to show the strongest response to raising BMI adoption.Management of Technology (MoT