Exploring the journey of Responsible Business Model Innovation in Asian companies: A review and future research agenda

Abstract

Responsible Business Model Innovation is increasingly becoming a relevant challenge in academic research and business practice, mainly in the Asian context. Changes in business models are widely acknowledged as a key strategy for achieving long-term innovation. However, little is known about the design journey of Responsible Business Model Innovation. By applying the knowledge-based view and stakeholder theory, this paper introduces the founding pillars of Responsible Business Model Innovation, namely: Corporate Social Responsiveness, Inclusiveness, and Reflective Knowledge Exchange. Based on the analysis of extended bodies of literature published between 2011 and 2021 on business model innovation, sustainability innovation, stakeholder theory and responsible innovation, the article explores the state of the art of business ethics and dynamic capabilities in Asian organizations. Findings show that recent research in the field of sustainability and ethical values are improving the impact on business models, thus encouraging the advent of Responsible Business Model Innovation. This article contributes to the emerging field of responsible innovation and offers novel theoretical and practical implications for academy and practitioners, including a first attempt to develop a road map to be followed to achieve of sustainable and ethical values for business and society at large.

Digital business model innovation among small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs)

“…Prior studies have placed greater emphasis on a responsible business model (Magni et al., 2022), business model sustainability (Collins & Saliba, 2020; Del Giudice et al., 2022), business model innovation (Tavoletti et al., 2021), and technological advancement, rather than DBMI (Turi & Antonicelli, 2020). There has been little qualitative research on how to adopt DBMI in the context of SMEs.…”

“…Magni et al. (2022) and Tavoletti et al. (2021) pointed out the positive link between business model innovation and competitive advantage.…”

“…Most organizations adopt digital technologies to improve their sales and marketing functions, especially during Covid‐19 pandemic (Kuriakose et al., 2021). Nonetheless, little is known about the DBMI design journey (Magni et al., 2022; Tavoletti et al., 2021). The World Bank Group (2021) has highlighted government intervention in digital services to promote business continuity.…”

“…In addition, , Parida et al (2019), and Verhoef & Bijmolt (2019) have suggested that future studies include an in-depth investigate on DBMI, which strongly influences competitive advantage (Phillip, 2020), SME competitiveness (Mustafa et al, 2019;Taçoğlu et al, 2019), organizational performance (Bouwman et al, 2019;Verhoef & Bijmolt, 2019), and business sustainability (Wirtz, 2019;Del Giudice et al, 2022). Magni et al (2022) and Tavoletti et al (2021) pointed out the positive link between business model innovation and competitive advantage. Rapid technological advancement drives SMEs to invest in research and development (R&D) and innovate the business model digitally to improve competitiveness .…”

How to drive corporate responsible innovation? A dual perspective from internal and external drivers of environmental protection enterprises

“…However, due to the huge uncertainties and lag effects of innovation as well as the lack of awareness of innovation responsibility in some enterprises (Gauttier et al, 2017;Jakobsen et al, 2019;Magni et al, 2022), entrepreneurs or Top Management Teams (TMT) tend to have a short-sighted view about corporate innovation behaviors. Thus, it is of great importance to study the issue, which is how to drive environmental protection enterprises implementing corporate responsible innovation (CRI) or under which circumstances do the enterprise will carry out responsible innovation behaviors.…”