Reinventing Business Models: How Firms Cope with Disruption

Although research on business model innovation is flourishing internationally, many important questions on the ’how’, ’what’, and ’when’ of this process remain largely unanswered, particularly in regard to the role of top management. This book answers some of those pressing questions by taking a deliberately managerial perspective.

Based on new and original findings derived from a survey among firms from various industries, and several case studies (including DSM, NXP Semiconductors, Randstad, and TomTom), the authors provide new insights into how and when managers can change a firm’s business model. They turn their attention particularly to one key question: is it better to replicate existing models or develop new ones? Business model renewal is regarded as being especially vital in highly competitive environments. Nonetheless, whatever the environment, high levels of both replication and renewal will be key for a firm to succeed.

The book looks at four levers that can be used by managers to innovate their business model: management itself, organizational structure, technology, and co-creation with external parties. It discusses the individual effects of these levers on business model replication and renewal. It also analyses specific combinations that strengthen business model innovation, including those which are technology oriented, internally oriented, externally oriented, and those which combine all of the levers in an integrated way.

Henk W. Volberda is Professor of Strategic Management and Business Policy and Director of Knowledge Transfer at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. He is also Scientific Director of the Erasmus Centre for Business Innovation, a leading centre on research for innovation. His book Building the Flexible Firm: How to Remain Competitive (Oxford University Press) has received wide acclaim and has been translated into several languages. His book Rethinking Strategy (Sage, 2001) was awarded the ERIM Best Book Award. He is a member of the editorial boards of Long Range Planning, Organization Science, and Organization Studies. In 2014, 2015 and 2016 he was listed in the ’The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds’ and selected as a Thompson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher.

PFrans A.J. van den Bosch is Emeritus Professor of Management Interfaces between Organizations and Environment at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. He holds a BA in Mechanical Engineering with distinction from the Polytechnic of Rotterdam and an MSc in Economics cum laude from Erasmus University Rotterdam. He has a PhD in Law from Leiden University. He is a fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) and a board member of several scientific journals, including Long Range Planning and Organization Studies. He has published several books and over 175 articles in scientific journals, and also chapters in books on strategy, international business, general management, economics and industry studies. His current activities include supervising PhD candidates and carrying out scientific research into management innovation. At present he is on the Board of Non-executive Directors of a large Dutch foundation.

Cornelis V. (Kevin) Heij is project leader at the Erasmus Centre for Business Innovation and is a research fellow at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. His research focuses mainly on non-technological types of innovation such as management innovation, co-creation, and business model innovation. He obtained his PhD in Business Administration from the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2015. He has received several awards for his research on ＂Innovating beyond Technology＂. He has also been the recipient of the European Management Review Best Paper Award, and the European Academy of Management Best Paper Award.