The role of business model innovation for product innovation performance

We analyse the effect of business model innovation (BMI) on the product innovation performance of firms, based on a dynamic capabilities theoretical framework. Our empirical study is based on a large-scale representative sample of cross-industry Swedish firms participating in three waves of the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) from 2008 to 2012. We hypothesise that BMI in the form of product innovations combined with different complementary and simultaneous innovations in processes, marketing and organisation will act as isolating mechanisms towards replication by competitors, resulting in superior firm performance. Our findings provide support for such hypothesis. BMI is significantly and positively associated with superior product innovation performance. Managers should frame and align product innovations in BMI context, i.e., dynamically adapting product innovations with process, marketing and organisation innovations.