Performance implications of business model design in a disruptive global environment

Business model (BM) design has been found to be important in explaining firms' performance. We applied the theoretical lens of contingency theory and the strategic fit approach to examine the optimal alignment between BM design and firm performance under the influence of internal and environmental contingency factors. We used empirical data from 309 Finnish firms collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings showed that alignment between efficiency-centered BM, marketing, technological, and networking capabilities, and technological and institutional turbulence had positive performance implications. In contrast, the fit between novelty-centered BM and contingency factors is not associated with superior performance, suggesting that the performance implications of this BM design depend on the performance dimension considered. Furthermore, our results indicated that not all types of capabilities supported novelty-centered BM design, which contributes to a better understanding of its antecedents. These findings have important implications for BM research by offering novel insights into the drivers and performance implications of efficiency- and novelty-centered BM designs under conditions of global turbulence. Additionally, our study illustrates the explanatory power of the strategic fit approach in BM research, although it has previously been largely applied to the examination of other marketing aspects.