Cultivating business model agility through focused capabilities: a multiple case study

Focusing on strategic agility and business model concepts, the present paper proposes a framework for recognising common strategies, activities and paths to business model reconfiguration developed through the activation of a set of micro-capabilities. We argue that successful companies nurture specific capabilities in order to act proactively and to reach strategic agility and direct these to specific key elements of the business model (building blocks), thus enabling the renewing of the entire business model. The methodology is a multiple case study analysis of four successful companies in different industries. We identified three main classes of capabilities for strategic agility and we explored which ones are valid and how they can be activated in a company's business model through an in-depth within-case and cross-case analysis. Results show that strategy innovation capabilities could be focused on motto and value offer, research and development and social responsibility building blocks; resource capitalisation capabilities on education and knowledge, management and human resource building blocks, and networking capabilities on branding and retail and network building blocks. From a literature point of view, we contributed to the ongoing debate about business model change and critical capabilities, by investigating the “black box” of business models. From the practical point of view, the linkage between capabilities and the building blocks of the business model is important in order to capitalise on resources and time, focusing on specific actions and specific areas of the business model.