Strategy under discontinuity : revisiting the role of business model, value network and resource management

In today’s world, firms are going through abrupt changes very frequently. These changes either occur under their control, within the scope of the enterprise or they get exposed to the changes that take place in their external environment as emergence of new technologies, new products, new competitors etc. In fact, the nature of these events is not very suited to be called as a change, but as a discontinuity. The purpose of this study is to revisit the roles rising concepts in Strategic Management like the Business Model, the Value Network and the Resource Management with an aim to include them in the process of strategy execution and determination under discontinuity. The study is based on a four-fold literature review performed on “Discontinuity”, “Business Model Design”, “Value Network Model” and “Resource Management”, looking at the evolution of the concepts in time. After the literature review, a single, in-depth longitudinal case study was performed, which was originated from a permanent “Observatory on Information & Communication Technology and Management”. The case is based on analysing the effects of discontinuities over the business strategy developed by TIM, an incumbent mobile network operator. First, its business model was analysed based on the proposed business model blocks of Osterwalder. Later, the discontinuities, their effect on the strategies and re-planned strategies were studied. Finally, each strategic tool was analysed individually, with their strategic impacts on discontinuity and with the explanation of how they can be used for strategy monitoring and the discontinuity assessment. The findings suggested that BM, VN and RM can support the execution of the planned strategy; monitor its performance and also spot discontinuities; operationalize the resulting uncertainties; and drive a re-planning process.