The role of top managers' human and social capital in business model innovation

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to conceptualize the business model from a value network perspective and to investigate how top managers' individual characteristics contribute to business model innovation.Design/methodology/approachOn the basis of upper echelons theory and contingency theory, this study empirically examines the micro‐macro link between top managers' human and social capital and firm business model innovation.FindingsUsing survey data collected from 146 Chinese firms, the findings indicate that both top managers' managerial and entrepreneurial skills and managerial ties significantly lead to business model innovation. Furthermore, the interaction between entrepreneurial skills and managerial ties enhances, yet the interaction between managerial skills and managerial ties inhibits business model innovation.Originality/valueBy proposing a value network‐based definition for the business model, this study provides additional insights into the current debate on the definition and architecture of business model. Further, the current study contributes to an emerging body of business model research by demonstrating, for the first time, that a manager's individual characteristics can both directly and interactively drive business model innovation in the context of emerging economies.

The role of entrepreneurial orientation and modularity for business model innovation in service companies

“…This paper aims to understand dynamic capabilities that determine BMI in service firms. We selected two capabilities: As venturing into new territory requires risk taking, innovativeness, and proactivity, we focus on EO (Schindehutte et al, 2008;Guo et al, 2013;Habtay and Holmén, 2014); second, service firms can select specific service processes as modularized process patterns. These modular service patterns can create new service offerings or recombine service components to propose and capture value.…”

The Mediating role of Market Orientation on Entrepreneurial Orientation, Absorptive Capacity and Technological Innovation Capabilities

“…Thus, the organization can obtain some type of advantage that could transform into positive outcomes (Carmen & José, 2008). It is worth mentioning that wide stream of studies dealt with behavioral factors through investigation of human capital (HC) role in promoting technological innovation capabilities (TIC) (Gallié & Legros, 2011;González-Loureiro & Pita-Castelo, 2013;Guo, Zhao, & Tang, 2013;Suying, Rong, Zhang, & Zhang, 2011). Nevertheless, these studies did not give adequate attention to some of the behavioral factors within the concept of HC such as entrepreneurial orientation (EO) (Atuahene-gima & Ko, 2001;Todorovic & Ma, 2008), absorptive capacity (ACAP) (Andersén, 2012;García-Morales, Bolívar-Ramos, & Martín-Rojas, 2013;Knoppen, Saenz, & Johnston, 2011), and market orientation MO (Adhikari & Gill, 2012;Atuahene-gima & Ko, 2001), despite their effective role in achieving innovation; due to the fact that HC ranks as most important resources and represents the main body of technological innovation (Guo et al, 2013;Xia, Yu, Xia, & Li, 2011).…”

Relationship Network and Business Model Innovation of Start-Up Companies in the Context of Industrial Revolution 4.0: An Evidence from Vietnam

“…Newly established businesses having good relationships with the managers of mature businesses will easily have access to new information, resources, and new knowledge (Li et al, 2015), which will affect their innovation (Breuer & Ludeke-Freund, 2017). The relationship between senior management will promote BMI (Guo et al, 2013). Designing a new business model requires much information about customers, suppliers, competitors (Timmers, 1998).…”

“…Some scholars have published studies on the influence of the relationship network on BMI. For example, Guo et al (2013) examined the impact of human capital, and social capital on BMI, Anwar & Shah (2018) assessed the impact of financial, political, and business partners' networks on BMI. These two studies adopted the BMI measurement scale of Zott & Amit (2007).…”