Chapter 14: Business Models and Innovation Activities Within New Industries: The Case of Medical Biotechnology

The themes of how organizational resources and strategies relate to the way environmental factors place constraints upon the organization have been at the essence of organization theory for decades (Child, 1972; Nadler & Tushman, 1999). The relatively new concept of business models seems to have renewed this debate, and has in recent years become increasingly popular among academia, business, and policymaking (Magretta, 2002; Zott, Amit, & Massa, 2011). The concept is, however, often used in a wide and abstract manner within the literature, and has also been used in a number of different meanings. Recent studies on business models have therefore urged for placing a renewed attention on the business model concept with the aim of furthering its theoretical and methodological usefulness (Teece, 2010; Zott et al., 2011). The purpose of this chapter is to contribute to this field by way of suggesting one way of operationalization of the concept at the sectoral level. In spite of the multiple meanings and applications of the business model concept, can the concept nevertheless be used as a stepping stone towards increased understanding of similarities and differences between intrasector firms?