The impact of digital platform introduction on business models in SMEs—The interplay of efficiency and innovation orientation
通过四家纺织企业的案例研究，分析了数字平台引入的三个阶段，发现企业初始采用效率导向，只有深度嵌入并提升数字、敏捷和网络能力的企业才能发展出创新导向，实现商业模式变革。
This study examines how digital platform introduction drives business model change in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on a case study of four textile firms, we analyze three phases of platform introduction: pre-platform, engagement, and post-platform launch. The findings reveal a dynamic platform orientation, understood as a cumulative and capability-contingent pattern of SMEs’ engagement with the platform over time. All firms initially adopt an efficiency-focused orientation as a resource-conserving entry logic. However, only those that embed the platform deeply enough to enhance their digital, agile, and network capabilities develop episodic innovation-oriented engagement, which may become dominant and enable more transformative business model change. Others remain primarily efficiency-oriented, achieving only incremental gains. The study demonstrates that pre-existing organizational capabilities shape how the platform orientation unfolds and that improvements in these capabilities determine whether an innovation orientation becomes viable. This study theorizes dynamic platform orientation as the mechanism explaining why similar SMEs participating in the same joint digital platform introduction experience divergent business model outcomes. This mechanism advances research on SME digital transformation and clarifies how tightly coupled SMEs can leverage digital platforms for business model change.