Abstract

In the face of technological disruption, incumbent firms need to adapt their business models to be able to survive and prosper. The first step in developing a new business model is to generate business model ideas. The knowledge and ideas related to new opportunities for value creation and capture are dispersed across the organization. Thus, Companies are highly interested in inspiring employees to contribute to new business model ideas and to create an environment to facilitate the creation of higher quality ideas. Using an experimental setting in a large multinational telecommunication company, with 319 participants, we found that the quality of business model ideas (considering their novelty, usability, and workability) developed under disruptive technological settings are affected, in a way that they have higher novelty and workability and lower usefulness. Moreover, we tested whether the quality of a generated idea for such complex concepts like a business model that needs different expertise from different players in the organization and collaboration of individuals under disruption will be moderated by social settings. However, our data did not support this effect. This study has important implications for our understanding of the quality of business model ideas under technological disruptions.

Researchers: Fatemeh Masihkhah, Anna Plotnikova

Contact the researcher: f.masihkhah@uva.nl