The role of entrepreneurial alertness, digital platform capability, organisational agility and business model innovation on young innovative companies’ performance

ABSTRACTABSTRACTStudies on entrepreneurship trajectories of young innovative companies (YICs) are rare and discussion of the specific dynamics taking place within them has remained lacking. This research aims to explore these dynamics by focusing on the relationships between a set of factors and ultimately YIC's performance. Specifically, first we examined the effects of entrepreneurial alertness (EA) on three factors, namely digital platform capability (DPC), organisational agility (OA) and business model innovation (BMI); second, we focused on the effects of DPC on OA and then on those of OA on BMI; lastly, we explored the effects of DPC and BMI on YICs' performance, in terms of market performance (MP), product innovation (PROD) and process innovation (PROC). We adopted the PLS-SEM approach to test our hypotheses and the results support them, in fact, all with significant and positive effects. Our findings highlighted a set of capabilities and factors helping YICs to deal with uncertain and changing environments and to achieve a higher level of competitiveness and performance. YICs should develop crucial capabilities and create/nurture a culture focused on innovation and digital transformation. Main stakeholders (e.g. policymakers/governments) should at the same time stimulate cultural changes and introduce specific incentives and programmes to support YICs.KEYWORDS: Young innovative companiesdigital platformsagilitybusiness model Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsCiro TroiseCiro Troise is Senior Assistant Professor (qualified as Associate Professor) at the University of Turin. He is an active scholar in innovation, entrepreneurship, crowdfunding, small business fields. He has published his work in leading international journals including BJM, TFSC, IJEBR. He is EiC of IJETRADE and AE of EJIM and JSMA.Paul JonesPaul Jones is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the School of Management at Swansea University. He has worked in further higher education for over 27 years, is an active researcher in entrepreneurship, small business management fields, has published many edited books, book chapters, conference papers. He is EiC of IJEBR.Elena CandeloElena Candelo is Full Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Turin; she teaches Corporate strategy, Marketing, and has served as Director of several Masters (MBA International-Executive-program with FCA). Her topics of research deal with innovation management, strategic marketing, automotive industry management. She has published many papers, book chapters and monographs.Mario SorrentinoMario Sorrentino is Full Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Campania Vanvitelli; he serves as Director of the Academic-Lab for Entrepreneurship-and-Open-Innovation and teaches Startup-Management & Crowdfunding. His research interests include entrepreneurship, open innovation, technology transfer, equity crowdfunding. He has published in various journals including JBV, TASM, JKM. He was Visiting Scholar/Researcher at the Wharton School.