Purpose This paper aims to identify the differentiated paths followed by firms to innovate in business models, among four different strategic postures and also to determine the innovation interactions between business model components, among strategic postures. The authors intend to highlight the differentiated patterns of business model innovation (BMI) in each strategic posture and provide guidance to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) managers regarding the suitable alignments of business model components when they innovate in their business model. Design/methodology/approach The research model developed and tested in this work uses a composite model that borrows from the logic of Miles and Snow’s cycle of adaptive strategic choices as well as Demil and Lecocq’s perspective of permanent change within and between components of a business model. The authors’ model is designed first to encompass the differentiated patterns characterizing the relationships between the strategic posture of defender, prospector and analyzer profiles and the related innovation attributes of their business model components. The study was conducted with independent French manufacturing SMEs ranging from 10 to 250 employees in size and having revenues below €50m (European Commission, 2007). The analysed sample includes 169 firms from 14 sectors representative of French manufacturing SMEs. Findings Results confirm the differentiated propensity to adopt specific BMI behaviours among strategic postures. The authors also highlight the differentiated interactions between and within BMI components. These results suggest that SMEs tend to leverage specific BMI components related to their entrepreneurial, engineering and administrative choices. Thus, firms tend to evolve in a posture-specific, path-dependent dynamic consistency in which BMI attributes interact towards a limited set of alternatives, thus anchoring the new business model into strategic choices. It has been shown that the predictability of strategy–BMI alignment is contingent on the level of fit between empirically derived strategic profile attributes and Miles and Snow’s ideal profile attributes. Research limitations/implications This paper investigates strategy–BMI alignments without addressing such alignments from the standpoint of firm performance. Still, performance from a BMI perspective lies in the ability of the firm to sustain the dynamic consistency of its business model components by identifying the effects of change in interactions between and within components on overall BM performance. Further studies should explore dynamic consistency as a means for firms to generate and maintain performance by innovating in their business model when facing specific contingencies. The conceptual framework designed for the present research seems appropriate for conducting such an investigation on the performance implications of strategy–BMI fit. Practical implications This research offers insights regarding manufacturing SMEs seeking guidance when changing business strategy. Indeed, by combining Miles and Snow’s configurational framework of strategic postures with Demil and Lecocq’s RCOV BM framework, the authors provide insights that can bridge the gap between intended strategy and realized strategy. The authors suggest that when realizing new strategic choices, SMEs should favour behaviours of BMI that are likely to fit the new intended strategic posture. Accordingly, the authors introduce a set of field-based BMI alignments specific to firms’ strategic posture to support the strategic management of innovation in SMEs. Originality/value By unravelling the alignments between strategic posture and business model innovation, this work contributes to enlightening the dynamics of Miles and Snow’s adaptive cycle. Indeed, viewing Miles and Snow’s typology from the configurational perspective of BMI provides a clearer picture of the adaptive cycle through which BMI reflects the path-dependent process of the formation of the firm’s strategic posture through the transformation of its business model.

This research investigates strategy-innovation relationship in manufacturing SMEs. The scope of investigation encompasses the technical, marketing, and organisational dimensions of innovation. Our work extends research on Miles and Snow's framework of strategy configurations by exploring the relationship between attributes of strategic posture and innovation behaviour. This approach aims to provide a more accurate representation of strategic management of innovation in manufacturing SMEs. Results (1) confirm the differentiated propensity to adopt specific innovation behaviours among strategic postures, thus confirming posture-specific innovation characteristics, and (2) highlight differentiated associations between strategic attributes and innovation attributes among strategic postures, thus bringing new insights on strategy-innovation fit. Results also emphasise the influence of hybridisation of strategic profiles on the predictive validity of strategy-innovation relationship. Finally, this research provides useful managerial inputs on the strategic management of innovation in SMEs from an innovation effectiveness standpoint.

PurposeThis study explores the relationship between intense exposure to entrepreneurship education and training (EET), defined as the deliberate practice of entrepreneurial learning, and self-efficacy, for entrepreneurs in the post-creation stage. When analyzing this relationship, we account for individuals' entrepreneurial experience gained through parental ties with entrepreneurs as a moderating variable. In doing so, our research aims to contribute to the literature on the relationship between EET and entrepreneurial self-efficacy in several ways. First, we address the relationship by bridging the gap between intention and action in the context of actual entrepreneurs engaged in the early stages of their new ventures. In doing so and drawing on the theory of planned behavior, we complement the important stream of research on entrepreneurial intention by highlighting antecedents of entrepreneurial self-efficacy in the post-creation stage. Second, when analyzing the relationship between EET and self-efficacy for actual entrepreneurs, we approach EET as a deliberate practice of voluntary exposure to new entrepreneurial knowledge. Third, we provide new insights into the EET–self-efficacy relationship by exploring the moderating effect of entrepreneurial vicarious learning and, more specifically, the individual's embeddedness in an entrepreneurial parental environment. Finally, drawing from Kirkpatrick's (1959a, b, 1960a, b, 1996) reference framework on training and education evaluation, we provide empirical observations of EET outcomes evaluated in the later (“behavior” and “results”) stages.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the theory of planned behavior as well as role modeling and absorptive capacity, we develop hypotheses that we examine using a sample of 76 French entrepreneurs who have created new ventures since less than five years.FindingsThe results show no significant direct influence of the intensity of EET on the different dimensions used to measure entrepreneurial self-efficacy. However, we find that entrepreneurial parental environment and non-entrepreneurial parental environment constitute two distinct moderating learning contexts leading to opposite EET intensity–self-efficacy relationships.Originality/valueOur research has several implications for both scholars and practitioners. From a theoretical standpoint, we extend the debate on direct and vicarious experiences and their respective impact on self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977; Baron and Henry, 2010). In the context of actual entrepreneurs in the post-creation stage, our results neither support nor invalidate the superiority of one specific type of experience. In our research, vicarious experience appears fully effective when interacted with other sources of learning such as EET. As such, theoretical attention should shift from the stand-alone effect of vicarious experience on self-efficacy to its fostering effect on other learning sources. Rather than opposing these two (direct and vicarious) types of experiences, future research should theorize their joint effect on entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Moreover, in showing the importance of entrepreneurial parental environment, our research responds to the call to further study the contingent factors enhancing the impact of EET (and deliberate practice of entrepreneurial learning) on entrepreneurial self-efficacy (Fayolle and Gailly, 2015; Litzky et al., 2020; Rideout and Gray, 2013). From a practical standpoint, our results help formulate recommendations on how to design EET programs to enhance nascent and actual entrepreneurs' self-efficacy. Given the central role of an entrepreneurial parental environment in developing self-efficacy, we suggest that, in addition to teaching traditional entrepreneurial academic content, EET programs should allow students to vicariously experience the entrepreneur's curriculum through in-depth role modeling. More precisely, this role modeling should go beyond mere testimonials and engage students in trusted, intense, repeated interactions with inspiring instructors, both entrepreneurs and lecturers, to create and activate the fostering conditions of an entrepreneurial (parental) environment. In simulating quasi-parental role modeling within EET programs, academic institutions can contextualize the positive impact of EET on entrepreneurial venturing.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight different strategy–business model (BM) alignments using Miles and Snow’s strategic framework and analyze the performance implications of these different alignments. Design/methodology/approach The paper develops a composite conceptual model combining Miles and Snow’s strategy typology with Demil and Lecocq’s BM framework to explore the performance implications of strategy–BM fit. This model is empirically examined using a sample of 156 French small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector. Findings The results first highlight a limited set of BM configurations across strategic profiles, confirming that a BM reflects a firm’s strategy as a means of realizing strategic choices. Second, they reveal that deviating from ideal strategy–BM alignments negatively affects performance. Finally, they shed light on the dynamics of Miles and Snow’s typology, from intended to implemented strategy. Research limitations/implications The intrinsic characteristics of surveyed SMEs led to the hybridization of empirically derived profiles, which allowed to partially associate them with theoretically predicted configurations of BMs. Practical implications The paper suggests the patterns of predictive strategy–BM alignment that allow managers and entrepreneurs to monitor the dynamic consistency between strategic choices and their implementation. Originality/value Do you need a strategy if you have a BM? Adopting a fit and performance perspective, this paper addresses this question and complements other studies emphasizing the need to connect strategies and BMs.

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