Copy me if you can? Surviving institutional voids through business model evolution in Africa.

Peprah, Augustine Awuah, Giachetti, Claudio, Larsen, Marcus M. and Rajwani, Tazeeb S. (2020) Copy me if you can? Surviving institutional voids through business model evolution in Africa. Academy of Management Conference, A Virtual Conference. 07 - 11 Aug 2020. (doi:10.5465/AMBPP.2020.11613abstract).

Abstract

The question of how a firm’s business model evolves in an institutionally voided environment still deserves research attention in the business model literature. Bridging the institutional-based view of strategy and interorganizational imitation literature, this study examines how a firm’s business model evolves in an institutionally voided environment in a developing economy. Using a qualitative data on Jumia—an e-commerce giant in Africa, our results suggest that the business model of a firm enfolded by significant institutional voids evolves through the following: first, the firm intentionally seeks to learn vicariously by imitating a successful firm’s business model template. Second, because of the substantial impact of the institutional voids, the intentional pure imitation of the business model template of the successful firm becomes impossible and therefore, the firm begins to modify various components of the imitated business model template through experiential learning that blends the business model imitation process with innovation. Based on our finding, we propose a business model evolution process-model we called “imitate-but-modify”, that explains how a firm’s business model evolves in four unique stages in institutionally voided environments in developing economies. Implication on theory and practice of this finding are discussed."

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Contributors

Author: Augustine Awuah Peprah

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