Title
Understanding the influence of absorptive capacity and ambidexterity on the process of business model change - the case of on-premise and cloud-computing software.
Abstract
The increasing popularity of Software as a Service has strongly affected the established business model of on-premise enterprise software. Software as a Service has distinctive characteristics of disruptive innovations that typically create several difficulties for incumbent firms, in particular with regard to adapting business models. To date, however, little empirical understanding exists regarding the dynamics of business model change - a topic of special importance to the highly dynamic software industry, which is characterised by rapid and regular emergence of disruptive innovations. As disruptive innovations require gathering distant knowledge and experimenting with new ideas, this study addresses theoretical gaps regarding the role of absorptive capacity and organisational ambidexterity in the process of business model change owing to the emergence of a disruptive innovation. Drawing on evidence from multiple case studies of six incumbent vendors of enterprise resource-planning software and informed by a thorough review of related secondary data, we investigate the pace and path of incumbents' business model adaptations. We propose a theoretical model that refines prior literature on absorptive capacity and organisational ambidexterity, particularly with regard to the process of business model change. This study identifies further technological factors that determine how and why incumbents change business models. In addition, our study provides in-depth insights on the technological trajectory of enterprise resource-planning software switching from on-premise to on-demand software services. © 2016 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Year
DOI
Venue
2016
10.1111/isj.12102
Inf. Syst. J.
Keywords
Field
DocType
business model change, absorptive capacity, organisational ambidexterity, disruptive innovation, cloud computing, Software as a Service
Ambidexterity,Artifact-centric business process model,Disruptive innovation,Computer science,Enterprise software,Knowledge management,Software as a service,Absorptive capacity,Business model,Cloud computing
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
26
5
1350-1917
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
8
0.42
35
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Johann Joachim Kranz181.10
Andre Hanelt2248.42
Lutz M. Kolbe329147.74