Unpacking Innovation: Corporate Dynamics, Business Models and Digital Technologies

Unpacking Innovation is a detailed and empirically grounded account of business model diversity and innovation in the context of increasing competition and digitalization. Focusing on incumbent firms, the book presents a novel perspective on how business model reconfiguration can help companies to compete effectively with rivals.

In light of the world’s ongoing radical technological transformation, this book emphasizes the need for companies to understand their business environment and consolidate their resources, competencies and strategies in order to stay competitive. It highlights how network relationships as well as product and process innovation significantly impact high-growth firms more than firms experiencing moderate growth. Expert contributors examine this increased impact of innovation on incumbent firms in depth, considering aspects such as the green profile of a business and its adoption of digital technologies such as robotics or AI. Various methodologies and data sources are used to underpin this analysis, including a unique survey administered to a large sample of small and medium-sized enterprises located in Italy.

Inspiring researchers with more advanced data analysis techniques, Unpacking Innovation is an illuminating read for academics in organizational innovation, strategic management, economics of innovation and industrial organization. It will also be a useful resource for policymakers in the field.

Marco Cucculelli, Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Marche Polytechnic University, Italy