Applying Dynamic Capabilities in Business Model Innovation: An Exploratory Case Study in a Self-Managing Organization
Date
2025-01-07
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Abstract
Despite a significant amount of literature on business model innovation (BMI) suggesting the importance of organizational design as a firm-level moderator for successful BMI outcomes, few studies have addressed it directly. Self-managing organizations (SMO) are a type of less-hierarchical organization that aims to redefine hierarchical structures, especially the role of traditional managers. Like any firm, SMOs that innovate well may enjoy Schumpeterian entrepreneurial rents and, if effective at continually reconfiguring their resources, may sustain a competitive advantage in line with the dynamic capabilities (DCs) theoretical perspective. Despite practitioners suggesting that SMOs are better at adapting and responding to environmental conditions, few public-facing examples of BMI in these organizations exist in either popular management literature or scholarship. This intensive, exploratory case study researched an SMO that transformed its resources several times to pursue an array of BMIs over time. Interviews, observation and archival data were collected over 18 months. The study results showed that balancing hierarchical tensions, enacting collaborative routines for knowledge creation and configuring a community of leaders are foundational DCs when BMI is practiced in an SMO. In addition to outlining the routines and practices for DCs for BMI in an SMO, the study also proposed a model for how these DCs are applied. For scholars and practitioners, the study discusses the role of a manager, innovation champion and network for SMOs engaging in BMI. In practice, identifiable organizational routines and processes are present, and practices can be strategically selected to enact multiple DCs simultaneously. The exploratory nature of this case study elucidated future research to advance the field of BMI and SMOs.
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Keywords
Business model innovation, Self-managing organization, Dynamic capabilities
Citation
Mayer, M. (2025). Applying dynamic capabilities in business model innovation: an exploratory case study in a self-managing organization (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.