Business models, intangibles and firm performance: evidence on corporate entrepreneurship from Italian manufacturing SMEs

This paper examines the factors that affect firm performance in a sample of 376 small- and medium-sized Italian enterprises over the period 2000–2010. It looks in particular at changes in business models and investments in intangibles. We compared firms that continued to be managed through an existing business model with matched firms that changed their business model over the period. We found that a modification of the business model has a positive effect on the ability of the firm to perform well. There was also a positive complementary effect on performance of business model change and intangibles. These results are even more evident when business model changes were categorised by their degree of innovation, suggesting that business model innovation is core to firm performance and that intangibles are positive moderators. They play a crucial role in shaping the firm’s competences, which favour the success of an innovative business model configuration.