顾客导向、战略柔性与商业模式创新的关系:不良竞争的调节作用

Customer Orientation,Strategic Flexibility,and Business Model Innovation:The Moderating Effects of Dysfunctional Competition

商业模式创新对企业有重要价值。为帮助企业开展商业模式创新,需要识别其前因变量。本文从外部市场需求和内部资源禀赋入手,分析顾客导向和战略柔性与商业模式创新的关系,及不良竞争对上述关系的调节作用。研究发现,顾客导向和战略柔性对商业模式创新都有促进作用,不良竞争正向调节顾客导向与商业模式创新的关系,负向调节战略柔性与商业模式创新的关系。本文丰富了对商业模式创新前因变量的认识,拓展了对顾客导向和战略柔性价值的研究。同时,本文可以指导企业利用顾客导向和战略柔性开展商业模式创新,尤其在面对不同的不良竞争情境时。

Business model innovation has significant implications.However,firms often have difficulties in developing it.A key reason for this phenomenon is that firms lack knowledge of what factors can foster it,making“what are the antecedents of business model innovation”a critical research question.Extant literature states that business model innovation may be driven by either external market demands or internal resource endowments.Drawing on this perspective,this study argues that customer orientation and strategic flexibility may sever as important antecedents of business model innovation,in that customer orientation aids firms in acquiring and leveraging information on external market demands and strategic flexibility helps firms to deploy resources.However,neither the role played by customer orientation nor that of strategic flexibility in business model innovation has been explored.In addition,the role played by both customer orientation and strategic flexibility is context specific.As a key characteristic of the institutional environment,dysfunctional competition may have profound effects on the linkages of customer orientation and strategic flexibility to business model innovation.On the one hand,dysfunctional competition affects the value of business model innovation.It may undermine the implications of business model innovation and then makes firms unwilling to develop it,inhibiting the contributions of certain factors to business model innovation;meanwhile,dysfunctional competition may lead to firms highlighting developing new business models to ensure competitive advantage,which results in the contributions of certain factors to business model innovation being more significant.On the other hand,extant studies have indicated that the implications of customer orientation and strategic flexibility vary with dysfunctional competition.As a result,it is likely that the linkages of both customer orientation and strategic flexibility to business mode innovation are contingent on dysfunctional competition.Yet,few studies have examined this issue,which refers to another research gap.This study aims at addressing these two research gaps.In particular,it will explore the relationships of both customer orientation and strategic flexibility to business model innovation as well as the moderating effects of dysfunctional competition on these relationships.We utilizedata of Chinese manufacturing firms to conduct our empirical test.The data are collected from surveys on manufacturing firms in six provinces(Anhui,Guangdong,Henan,Jiangsu,Shaanxi,and Shanghai).We design the questionnaire based on both existing research and interviews with managers.We randomly select 1,200 firms to construct the sample.Then,we employ the face-to-face interview method to acquire responses to the survey.We collect data in the first half of 2014.After deleting firms who only had response from one executive or whose responses had missing data,we have the final sample consisting of 249 firms.This study finds that both customer orientation and strategic flexibility are positively related to business model innovation.Moreover,dysfunctional competition positively moderates the linkage between customer orientation and business model innovation,but negatively moderates that of strategic flexibility to business model innovation.This study makes two contributions.First,it enriches our knowledge of the antecedents of business model innovation.Based on external market demands and internal resource endowments,this study analyzes the impact of customer orientation and strategic flexibility on business model innovation.Distinguished from extant research that takes market demands as an external environment factor,this study focuses on customer orientation which is more operable for firms and can guide firms exploiting external market demands to promote business model innovation.Extant research also identifies the driving force of internal resource endowments,such as“applying combinations of the resources at hand to new problems and opportunities”.Strategic flexibility reflects the capability of flexibly deploying resources in response to environment changes and make it easier for firms to utilize resources in new ways.This study not only supports the conclusion of extant research but also clarifies how to apply resources creatively.Therefore,this study provides a significant complement and extension to extant research.Besides,it introduces dysfunctional competition as a contingent factor,aiding in further understanding the linkages of customer orientation and strategic flexibility to business model innovation.Second,this study advances our understanding of the implications of customer orientation and strategic flexibility.Although scholars have emphasized the value of these two factors,this study extends this line of research by studying their effects on business model innovation.In addition,it explores the contingent effect of dysfunctional competition,drawing a more comprehensive picture of the research on customer orientation and strategic flexibility.Firms may leverage customer orientation and strategic flexibility to promote business model innovation,especially in different dysfunctional competition contexts.Specifically,firms can facilitate business model innovation by enhancing customer orientation or strategic flexibility.When facing high-level dysfunctional competition,firms aiming at promoting business model innovation would better pay more attention to customer orientation rather than strategic flexibility.First,this study uses cross-sectional data.Future research could employ longitudinal data.Second,based on previous research,this study uses subjective items to measure business model innovation,which may not fully represent the rich connotation of business model innovation.Future research could develop new measurement items which are more specific and accurate.Third,this study only studies the moderating effect of dysfunctional competition.Other environmental factors and organizational factors,such as environmental dynamics and organizational structure,may also affect the relationships and require further analyses.Fourth,this study only analyzes the effects of customer orientation and strategic flexibility.Other factors related to external market demands and internal resource endowments,such as market orientation and dynamic capabilities,also deserve further study.Fifth,this study only analyzes the individual effects of customer orientation and strategic flexibility on business model innovation.Future research could focus on their interactive effects.Sixth,this study does not distinguish between new ventures and incumbent firms.Future research could draw a distinction between them.