Relevance of Business Model Innovation for Sustainable Entrepreneurship: A Perspective

--Mukti Prakash Behera

The impact of rapid globalization, technological shifts and increased frequency of disruptions and dislocation is shortening the business model life cycles, impacting revenues and profits for organizations. The Business Model Innovation (BMI) approach offers a new paradigm to reconsider core competency, renew competitive advantage and reignite growth in volatile environment. It is much more than an idea at the right time and right place. A BMI occurs when a company sells the same product or service to the same market segment, but the manner in which they provide the product or service involves a new business model that enhances the value of the services provided. BMI is not about a product or service innovation as that can be easily imitated and disrupted. The discipline of BMI is a combination of product/service innovation embedded with strategic process innovation that aims to enhance value for the customers and sustain the business life cycles for organization. Innovation becomes BMI when elements of a business model are reinvented or redesigned to achieve value in an innovative way. To create a reliable and inimitable competitive advantage, BMI must be systematically cultivated, sufficiently supported and carefully managed. Adopting a proactive approach towards BMI helps entrepreneurs align their firms’ relevant activity system to that of the stakeholders to achieve cooperation through interdependence. Business model design acts as a source of innovation during challenging situations posed due to volatility, uncertainty, ambiguity and complexity that severely impact revenue and profits. BMI encourages entrepreneurs to think holistically on innovation rather than approach. The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual understanding and significance of BMI which can be referred and implemented for creating sustainable competitive advantage by incumbent firms and start-ups.

© 2017 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Multidimensionality of Social Entrepreneurship: Evidence from the Past

--Rayees Farooq

The purpose of the study is to propose a conceptual model of social entrepreneurship and how it is linked to social value creation. It provides the rationale for studying the relationship between social entrepreneurship and social value creation. The study is based on a comprehensive review of the literature. The study defines social entrepreneurship and its dimensions, including human capital, social capital, social mission and innovation, and propositions were suggested for each dimension. It proposes human capital, social capital and innovation as the resources in enhancing social value creation and gaining sustainable competitive advantage. It is found that social entrepreneurship is an important predictor of social value creation. Therefore, social enterprises should build strong social ties/networks within and outside the organization to leverage engagement and maximize their reach. The dimensions identified from the literature can be empirically validated in order to know which dimension is the strongest predictor of social entrepreneurship. Future research needs to incorporate other dimensions, including financial capital, risk taking and entrepreneurial mindset, for providing a better understating of social enterprise.

© 2017 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Success Factors and Barriers for Crowdfunding Campaigns for Arts-Based Projects in the UK

--Wenjun Lin and Robert A Phillips

Crowdfunding has become a valuable source of funding for new businesses and projects, and this study investigates what makes a successful campaign in the Arts. The study reports similar findings as other studies such as need to be prepared with a clear and transparent video disclosing the content and uniqueness of projects, appropriate modest funding target and many investors being geographically close to the artists and their existing network. Although investors were not strictly early adopters as might be found with hi-tech investors, they still want something unique and personal as a reward. However, it is found that they are worried by the amount of time and resources needed to promote the project and supply rewards. Some did not feel comfortable in asking for money, and copyright was mentioned as an issue. Interestingly, most cases investigated used crowdfunding as one of the sources along with other sources like grant funding.

© 2017 IUP. All Rights Reserved.