Business Models and Strategy Configurations in Small and Medium Enterprises

We adopt a configurational approach for exploring how Small and Medium Enterprises combine business models design themes and competitive strategies with each other. Analyzing a sample of 96 manufacturing firms, we identified four equifinal configurations leading to high performance and five equifinal configurations associated with low performance. Three out of four high performing configurations combine at least one of the four business models design themes and a competitive strategy, while the fourth configuration relies only on a firm’s competitive strategy. Configurations of low performing SMEs, instead, rely on the absence of the differentiation strategy, while the niche market strategy can be present or absent according to the different combinations with the business model design themes. Our study contributes to research on business models and to debate about the relationship between business model and strategy.