The Role of Knowledge-Intensive Relationships in Business Model Innovation : An Exploration of Relational Novelty in Digital Servitization

To date little is known about firm-level factors accounting for the use of external knowledge-intensive service providers in service-oriented business model innovation. This paper adopts a configurational approach for investigating knowledge-intensive relational novelty in digital servitization. Findings are founded on a multi-method investigation based on a structured survey and semi-structured interviews to Italian manufacturers. The study contributes to the business model innovation literature showing the conditions that lead firms to open to different types of external knowledge-intensive service providers contributions, highlighting the role of firm’s size, digital readiness, internal participation, and specific hiring programs in digital servitization paths