Angel Luis Meroño Cerdan

The number of studies around the business model of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has increased during the last decade in several fields such as entrepreneurship or strategic management. Despite the increasing attention, there are still scarce contributions around the factors that better fit with a specific business model configuration. This research develops two studies to gain a better understanding of this phenomenon. First, multiple qualitative case study research provides insights into the value dimensions of different business model innovation configurations (evolutionary, adaptive, focussed and complex). Second, an extensive quantitative study drawing on 1,328 European SMEs offers valuable findings on the impact of value capture, value creation and value proposition on business model innovation performance for each type of business model considered, from evolutionary to complex business models. The discussions offer recommendations on specific dimensions depending on the type of business model configuration adopted by the firm.

A business model, defined as the underlying logic of a company, is not permanent over time. Instead, companies need to introduce innovations in the business model to be competitive in the market. This is even more critical for family firms which are continuously looking for a way to obtain sustainable growth, together with satisfactory performance. The objective of this research is to analyze the impact that business model innovation activities have in the short/long-term growth and performance of family firms. This study was obtained from panel data made up of 112 valid responses from family firms involved in business model innovation. A composite model approach has been used for data analysis. The significant components of BMI that lead to greater growth and performance are identified, the distinction between long-term and short-term effects of BMI on those outcomes is made, and BMI is proven as an authoritative source of competitive advantage and growth in family firms. Those aspects are valuable insights for researchers and managers with regards to which innovation propositions help sustain growth and performance over time.

The literature on innovation has been very prolific in highlighting the importance of companies developing new products, processes or business models in order to be more competitive in the marketplace. Empirical studies have shown that this innovative activity has translated into superior results for companies that have engaged in innovation. However, most of these initiatives have been studied mainly from the company's point of view without considering the contribution that academia can make to these innovation processes. This paper explores precisely how it is possible to achieve better results in innovation objectives through industry-academia collaboration (IAC). To this end, a sample of 7638 Spanish companies is analysed, distinguishing between those that have linked their innovation objectives to collaboration between the company and higher education centres. The results reveal that this IAC helps reinforce innovation objectives, demonstrating that the union of the academic and business worlds improves the results of business innovation processes. This has important theoretical implications as it offers new insights into the analysis of innovation processes and business implications as it proves that there is a need to develop platforms that encourage IAC.

Taking a qualitative approach, this study aims to identify the effects of family involvement on firms' innovation decisions and examine how this relationship is affected by the presence or absence of firm founders. Content analysis facilitates building a map to identify two modes of family influence on business and innovation: the business‐first and family‐first modes. In the former, commitment and long‐term orientation encourage innovation as the principal means of survival, especially when the founder is no longer present. In the latter, unity constrains innovation, most commonly in firms led by a present founder. In contrast to the tenets of the socioemotional wealth approach, a first‐generation family firm may suffer from myopia when family interests prevail over the firm's interests, even when business continuity is at stake.

This article aims to explain the innovative behaviour of large Spanish companies by comparing the hospitality industry with other service providers and industrial manufacturers. Several hypotheses are proposed and tested for different innovation stages: innovation effort, outcome and performance. The sample includes 2944 Spanish companies with 200 or more employees. Using one-way ANOVA analysis, this study fills an important gap in the impact of innovation and technology on the performance of the hospitality sector. The results show that catering establishments have differentiated innovation behaviours not only to manufacturers but also compared to service providers. The findings support the hypothesis and suggest that hotel companies complement in-house R&D with other innovative activities. Furthermore, hospitality organisations have the highest percentage of innovation revenue due to fewer innovation efforts and innovation outcomes, mainly due to the organisation’s innovations.

Female managers are more common in family firms largely due to women’s incorporation into management positions via succession. Nonetheless, extrinsic and intrinsic factors constrain to some extent the access and the outcomes of female managers as potential successors. This study aims to uncover the particular conditions under which women frequently have access to CEO positions in family firms. Using a database of 177 SME Spanish family firms and using cluster analysis based on TwoStep technique, women are found to be unexpected successors to a greater extent than male successors. Oftentimes, they are chosen as a last resort to cope with poor business performance and low family orientation. More than an opportunity, this unplanned access becomes a trap since it fails to comply with all the requirements of successful transmissions.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the differences and similarities that arise between manufacturing and service firms with regard to the impact of business model objectives on marketing innovation activities.Design/methodology/approach: This study focuses on business model objectives and marketing innovations activities. As described byOslo Manual, marketing innovations involve changes in product design, promotion, placement and pricing. Relationships between business model objectives and marketing innovations are based on the analysis of 9,525 firms, 5,488 of which are manufacturing companies and 4,037 of which are service companies.Findings: Findings reveal distinctive results in the adoption of marketing innovation, depending on the business model objectives being pursued and the type of companies (manufacture or service) considered.Research limitations/implications: This research goes further than prior studies by identifying more precisely the particularities that differentiate the manufacturing and service sectors.Practical implications: Firm’s age and size are not significant restrictions to introduce new marketing innovations in manufacturing or service sectors. In contrast, the business model objective to enter a new market is a significant driver of marketing innovations in most cases.Originality/value: The focus on business model objectives and their impact on marketing innovations is novel. In addition, this study focuses on a large-scale sample that allows us to compare differences between manufacturing and service companies.

During the last decades the economy has undergone a huge transformation in terms of telecommunication industry evolution. The use of mobile applications has been generally accepted in society but still little is known about how customers use these applications and how managers can obtain high levels of return on their investments in this domain. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been used for several years to predict the attitudes and behaviours of consumers of mobile services. However, several authors have recognized the limited applicability when it comes to explaining mobile service acceptance by customers. This paper uses a meta-analytic approach to review the acceptance of mobile services and analyse the relationships between TAM variables and consumer acceptance of mobile services. The authors searched all available academic computer databases to get a deeper understanding of this topic and uncover the most significant drivers of mobile application acceptance by consumers.

An analysis of the effect of family governance on the relationships among risk aversion, innovation and performance is the purpose of this study. Beyond the level of risk and innovation, we are interested in analysing the relationship between them and their influence on performance in family firms. Traditionally, risk-seeking has been associated with innovation and performance. Our results confirm both components to be independent and, furthermore, show relationships with opposite signs as expected in the literature. In a sample of 500 firms, the results confirm an idiosyncratic behaviour in family firms; innovation contributes to performance to a higher extent in family firms, and at the same time, risk aversion is positively associated with performance only in non-family firms.