ERIM Research Clinic: Developing a new field in management research: Business model innovation at the Base of the Pyramid


Speaker


Abstract

So far, business model innovation has been treated in Management as a practical field, with articles in journals such as the Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, and so on. We have initiated a research agenda that turns this practical field into a new research area in Management. An obvious start is to anchor it in related fields such as the corporate venturing literature, the ambidexterity literature, or the entrepreneurship literature. However, we have gone beyond that, by anchoring our new theory in the “core-“ disciplines, social network theory and social psychology, developing a dynamic perspective on how core teams, as a function of internal and external (e.g., networks) processes, develop successful new business models over time.

            Another new feature of our research is that our Lab is the real world (e.g., randomized experiments with actual organizations) and the real world is our Lab (e.g., qualitative research of successful vs. failed business models). Moreover, perhaps 99% of current research in our top management journals has examined organizations serving Western clients, or upper or middle-class clients in emerging economies (around 1 billion clients). Our Lab addresses the (other) 4 billion people living on a few dollars per day in Asia, South America, and Africa, and which business models are successful in this context.

            During my talk, I will share with you some of our new theory and empirical research, how we do research in the Lab and why, how to develop a new research field in Management, and how we address a fundamental problem and debate in Management: how to do research that is theoretically strong and novel and offers a strong theoretical contribution, and is also relevant from a practical perspective.

Contact information:
Miho Iizuka
Email