University Name: International Business Strategy - Innovation Analysis

This assignment presents a student's analysis of the article "Business Model Innovation – state of the art and future challenges for the field" by Spieth, Schneckenberg & Ricart (2014), focusing on its relevance to International Business Strategy (IBS). The student discusses the article's exploration of business model innovation as a key aspect of corporate practice and research, emphasizing the role-based approach of explaining, running, and developing a business. The analysis highlights the article's insights into the contributions of entrepreneurship, technology management, and corporate strategy. The student finds the contemporary perspectives on business model innovation challenging, particularly regarding the role-based approach and its impact on environmental volatility. The analysis also touches on the perspectives of "explaining the business", "running the business", and "developing the business". Finally, the student concludes by posing a question to the authors about resource allocation and conflict resolution in defining business model innovation. The assignment demonstrates an understanding of the article's key arguments and its implications for IBS, MNEs and strategic planning.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
International Business Strategy
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Spieth, P., Schneckenberg, D. & Ricart, J.E. 2014, "Business model innovation – state of the art
and future challenges for the field", R&D Management, vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 237-247.
This article focuses on how the Business Model Innovation has been gaining
consideration as a part of the corporate practice as well as research in present times. The study
emphasizes on the role based approach and puts across arguments on how the relevant roles of
explaining a business, running a business as well as developing it might serve as the interrelated
perspective in explaining the present innovation in business model. The article further provides
an insight into the contributions of entrepreneurship, technology management, innovation as well
as corporate strategy for elucidating on the three perspectives. The most interesting facts about
this article has been the understanding that while business models remained concerned mostly
with value creation and capture at the firm’s level, business model innovation on the other hand
provides an answer to the additional questions regarding the novelty in the proposition of
customer value, logical reframing along with the structural reconfigurations of the firms. The
article also discusses about how in the recent years there has been a sharp increase in attention
about business model innovation (Schneider and Spieth 2013). The business model innovation
might thus be defined as an innovation of an alternative business model within an already
prevailing business. This article also defines it as a search for the newer business logics for a
firm and the newer means of creating and capturing value for the stakeholders (Casadesus‐
Masanell and Zhu 2013).
The article also tried to provide an explanation that business model innovation has been
quite complicated to study due to confusion created by the inconsistencies in conceptual
framework of business model that existed between the economics and the business strategy
without the firm’s theoretical background in either of the fields. Existing literature however

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failed to cover the various approaches for conceptualizing the business model into shared
theoretical framework. Hence, there existed no proper grounding for studying business model
innovation (Spieth et al. 2013). This particular situation of the business model has however
provided research community with further opportunities for research. As a part of this reading, I
found the contemporary perspectives of business model innovation a bit difficult to understand
as well as agree with since the present perspectives of the business model innovation focuses on
three key roles which includes explaining, running and developing the business. If we focus on
one of the roles then it is found that ‘explaining the business’ involves summarizing the
response of the firm at being capable and clarifying how the existing or the future firm or a
business stream generates profit. This is based on assumption that business model innovation
have positive impact on performance of a firm and largely ignores the environmental and
organizational antecedents of the business model innovation. This often results in confusion of
whether volatile environments are responsible for driving the business model innovation of the
organization or does the business model innovation lead to the creation of environmental
volatility.
Nevertheless, this article helps in understanding the role based approach that has been
considered as alternative view in conceptualizing phenomenon of the business model and in
getting a concise grasp on the process of the business model innovation (Enkel and Mezger
2013). One of the contributions of this article has been towards the understanding as to how the
organizations handles and creates the business model innovation.
The article also tries to explain the perspective of ‘explaining the business’ by drawing a
focus on the internal development and the assets of knowledge that are acquired externally
(Markides 2013). This leads to a fine grained analysis of the perspective along with

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understanding the knowledge based sources for the value creation of the firm thereby shedding
light on the significance in creation of value for the success of business model innovation and its
subsequent growth of the firm based on the dataset of close to 310 firms across four countries of
Europe. However, ‘Running the business’ perspective of the business innovation model
concentrates on how the technological innovation fits with the design of the business model and
jointly impact the growth of the firm. Through examining the data derived from the 176 Chinese
firms, it is found that the exploitative innovation and the exploratory innovation seem to fir the
various designs of the business model in promoting the growth of a firm. However, through
analyzing evidence derived from the historical data and the in depth interview of four firms,
‘developing the business’ perspective of the business innovation model portrays that the specific
elements for development of the business model, representative of value conceptualization along
with the organization of value creation needs integration within the cyclical and the dynamic
process during the commercialization process of the technology innovation. The findings of the
study revolve around the perspective of process oriented theory that highlights on the reciprocity
of the activities and the complexity of the day to day interactions that contributes to the
imagining as well as the working out of the business model.
On a concluding, I would like to add that if I could ever meet the authors then would
definitely ask them as to how they would reallocate the existing process and resources of a firm
without creating conflicts within the organization in defining the business model innovation.

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References:
Casadesus-Masanell, R and Zhu, F. 2013. Business Model Innovation and Competitive
Imitation: the case of sponsor based business models. Strategic Management Journal, 34. 464-
482
Enkel, E and Mezger, F. (2013). Imitation process and their application for business mode
innovation: an explorative study. International Journal of Innovation Management, 17, 1,
1340005-1-1340005-34
Markides, C.C.2013. Business model innovation: whatcan be the ambidexturity literature teach
us? The Academy of Management Perspectives, 27, 4, 313-323.
Schneider,S. and Spieth, P. 2013. Business model innovation: towards an integrated future
research agenda. International Journal of Innovation Management, 17, 1. 1340001-1-1340001-
34.
Spieth, P., Tidd, J., Matzler, K., Schneckenberg, D., and Vanhaverbeke, W.(2013). Special issue
on business model innovatione –editorial note. International Journal of Innovation Management ,
17, 132001-1-132001-3.