Oscar Mauricio Cruz-Sanchez

Although business model innovation (BMI) is a critical process for entrepreneurial adaptation, research lacks fine-grained explanations of how it unfolds in practice. This study develops a microfoundational perspective on BMI in high-technology startups. Using an abductive qualitative design, we analyze 22 semi-structured interviews with founders and CEOs of university spin-offs and independent startups in Barcelona’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The findings indicate that BMI unfolds through three interconnected phases: Opportunity Discovery and Recognition, Convergent Business Modeling, and Dynamic Resource Configuration. Each of these is supported by relational, organizational, and individual mechanisms that operate in combination and are connected through layered forms of learning—hypothesis-driven, reflective, experiential, collaborative, and institutional—that support the progression of BMI across phases. The study advances a process-based explanation of BMI by showing how microfoundational mechanisms become aligned through learning processes that connect opportunity framing, experimentation, and resource configuration under uncertainty.