Höök, M and Stehn, L (2014) Exploring the management of multiple business models in one company. In: Raiden, A and Aboagye-Nimo, E (eds.) Proceedings of 30th Annual ARCOM Conference, 1-3 September 2014, Portsmouth, UK.
Abstract
Increased demands for responsiveness and efficiency have led specialized Swedish manufacturing firms and contractors to adopt new production and product strategies. Some firms have adopted multiple business models (BMs) concurrently in order to be competitive in the modern market. A BM can be seen as a conceptual blueprint of a company’s money earning logic, and can act as a guiding instrument towards competitiveness. It is known that companies trying to compete with both low-cost and differentiation BMs face challenges such as conflicting value chains and straddling costs. However, further understanding of various aspects of BMs, their implementation and effects (particularly in the construction industry) is required. Thus, the aim of this paper is to explore BM management in a manufacturing firm in the Swedish construction industry, which has adopted evolving BMs (some concurrently) in recent years. The results, based on analysis of long-term (15 years) process data, indicate that strategic events and decisions influence the management of parallel BMs, and that strategic events are important for competitiveness. They also show that successful balancing of concurrent BMs can yield synergistic benefits, such as resource flexibility and lower vulnerability in the construction market. Due to its exploratory nature, this work serves as a first step towards a wider and more general understanding of the management of multiple BMs in construction firms.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | business model; corporate strategy; longitudinal study |
| Index terms: | construction market, implementation, construction industry, differentiation, competitiveness, business model, vulnerability, construction firm, strategy, face, corporate strategy, efficiency, value chain |
| Subjects: | value chain strategy, management, performance management, industry analysis, environmental hazards, market analysis, organization, business, contractual arrangements, psychology |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Quality Management, Supply Chain Management, Procurement, Sustainability, Governance, Research Practice, Business Strategy |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here