Cited by 653Digital Innovation in IndustriesBusiness Strategies and InnovationInnovation and Knowledge Management

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 124 of the 131 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 10 of the 65 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Digitalization, business models, and SMEs: How do business model innovation practices improve performance of digitalizing SMEs?

Open access
Bouwman, Harry, Nikou, Shahrokh, de Reuver, Mark·2019·Telecommunications Policy

Abstract

Digital transformation is requiring companies to rethink and innovate their business models (BMs). However, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have scarce time and resources for experimenting with their BMs and implementing new strategies. This paper examines whether SMEs that undergo digital transformation perform better if they allocate more resources for BM experimentation and engage more in strategy implementation. An empirical study was conducted on 321 European SMEs that actively use social media, big data, and information technology to innovate their BMs. Furthermore, structural equation modelling showed positive overall firm performance effects of more resource allocation to BM experimentation and more engagement in practices of strategy implementation. These effects were mediated by BM experimentation practices and company innovativeness. Moreover, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) revealed the presence of equifinality by identifying different configurations in which these antecedent conditions affect overall firm overall performance. The results of two methodological approaches showed that SMEs may take different routes to improve their performance when digital transformation is changing their BM. This paper is one of the first to analyse how SMEs can handle the impact of digitalization by spending more time and effort on innovating their BMs. Practical and policy implications are discussed.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.telpol.2019.101828

Cites

124 of 124 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

10 of 65 cited sources checked · 4 supported · 1 flagged · accuracy not yet measured

Show all 51 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 41
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 25
58 of 58
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Dedicating resources to a specific task enables increased activity on that task.

    “We assume that dedicating resources to a specific task enables increased activity on that task.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Experimentation leads to learning.

    “Assuming that experimentation leads to learning, there is hence a conceptual link between the learning dimension of innovativeness and the act of experimentation within BMI (Chesbrough, 2010;Teece, 2010).”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Realizing a BM innovation requires allocating resources.

    “In order to realize a BM innovation, resources have to be allocated; therefore, we focus on resources for BM experimentation as an explanatory factor.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    There can be many pathways to the same outcome (equifinality).

    “First, fsQCA assumes that there can be many pathways to the same outcome (referred to as equifinalityfoot_3 ).”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Each pathway can contain different combinations of conditions, and the effect of combinations of necessary and sufficient conditions is sought rather than the net effect of each individual condition.

    “Second, it assumes each pathway can contain different combinations of conditions, thus seeking for the effect of combinations (also known as configurations) of necessary and sufficient conditions, rather than seeking for the net effect of each individual condition with the same importance.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The 321 European SMEs studied are representative of SMEs engaged in digital transformation, so that the findings generalize to that population.

    “This was analysed in the context of 321 European SEMs firms' experimenting with their BMI during the last 12 months.”
6 of 6

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

  • Strategy-only solution has incompatible consistency values

    Major

    Table 9 defines Solution 2 solely by the presence of BM strategy implementation practices. Its sufficiency consistency should therefore equal the coverage reported for that same condition in Table 8, but the values are 0.838 and 0.738. The difference matters because 0.738 falls below the paper's 0.75 threshold for retaining a sufficient solution.

  • Direct strategy-performance relationship is described both ways

    Major

    The mediation section first says there is no significant direct relationship between strategy implementation practices and performance. It then calls that direct relationship significant when explaining the mediation result, changing the interpretation of that result.

2 of 2

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Show all 131 references

7 of the 131 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 601–647 of 647

Metadata

Authors
Bouwman, H., Nikou, S., & de Reuver, M.
Affiliations
  • Delft University of Technology (NL)
  • Åbo Akademi University (FI)
Corresponding author
Nikou, Shahrokh
Venue
Telecommunications Policy
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2019-10
Volume
43
Issue
9
Pages
101828
ISSN
0308-5961 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2945158447
Cited by
653
References
131
Citations by year
2026: 62 · 2025: 119 · 2024: 153 · 2023: 128 · 2022: 93 · 2021: 61 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 2
FWCI
80.29
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Telecommunications Policy (publishedVersion)
  • Åbo Akademi University Research Portal (submittedVersion)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • Research Repository (Delft University of Technology) (submittedVersion)
Funders
European Commission (645791, HORIZON2020)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management of Technology and Innovation › Digital Innovation in Industries
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Business Strategies and Innovation
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Innovation and Knowledge Management
Keywords
digital transformation, business model innovation, small and medium-sized enterprises, firm performance, strategy implementation, resource allocation, equifinality, social media, big data, information technology, business model experimentation

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-10-11, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).

A second model labelled each claim on 2026-10-11 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).

Cited sources are checked with a language model’s help (gpt-6-sol).

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review