Heterogeneous business models and heterogeneity in networked services: do they lead to heterogeneous performances, also?”

The sources of competitive advantage have been investigated over the years first following the tradition of industrial organization (IO), later from a resource-based view (RBV) and, more recently, through dynamic capabilities (DC). In this paper we combine the perspectives including industry-and firm-specific factors in explaining firm performance in order to investigate its determinants in terms of the adaptation of the business models to the innovations in the industries. Using the business model framework to explain heterogeneity among firms, we argue that the configurations of business models respond to the need for networking and complementarity from a dynamic capabilities’ perspective. In fact, they are related to different outcomes in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, and ultimately to competitive advantage.