Navigating the business model design space: A case of insects as food and feed in Sweden

Linus Thomson, Chattraporn Chatthong and Thomas Taro Lennerfors

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2025, vol. 216, issue C

Abstract: Business model innovation (BMI) plays a key role in driving sustainability transitions, yet its interplay with the broader socio-technical system is often overlooked. This study investigates BMI in the emerging niche of insect-based food and feed in Sweden, employing a combined Business Model Design Space (BMDS) and dynamic capabilities perspective. Drawing on interviews with ten insect firms, we examine how firm-level dynamic capabilities shape BMI strategies and interact with the BMDS. Our findings show that firms adopt different strategies to navigate the opportunities and constraints they perceive within the BMDS. We introduce a novel typology that outlines how firms perceive and respond to the BMDS through two dimensions: BMDS Sensing (systematic & intuitive) and BMDS Enactment (fit-and-conform & stretch-and-transform). This typology identifies four distinct BMI seizing modes: Analytical Adaptation, Analytical Shaping, Instinctive Adaptation, and Instinctive Shaping, highlighting how firms interpret and enact the BMDS through BMI. By integrating dynamic capabilities theory with the BMDS framework, we address the gap of accounting for varied perceptions of the BMDS among different actors. We show how firms exercise strategic agency in shaping and responding to system-level dynamics, offering new theoretical insights that bridge firm-level and system-level perspectives on BMI within emerging niches.

Keywords: Business model innovation; Business model design space; Dynamic capabilities; Sustainability transitions; Empowerment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162525001799
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:216:y:2025:i:c:s0040162525001799

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2025.124148

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().