Exploring the management of multiple business models in one company

Increased demands for responsiveness and efficiency have led specialized Swedish manufacturing firms and contractors to adopt new production and product strategies. Some firms have adopted multiple business models (BMs) concurrently in order to be competitive in the modern market. A BM can be seen as a conceptual blueprint of a company’s money earning logic, and can act as a guiding instrument towards competitiveness. It is known that companies trying to compete with both low-cost and differentiation BMs face challenges such as conflicting value chains and straddling costs. However, further understanding of various aspects of BMs, their implementation and effects (particularly in the construction industry) is required. Thus, the aim of this paper is to explore BM management in a manufacturing firm in the Swedish construction industry, which has adopted evolving BMs (some concurrently) in recent years. The results, based on analysis of long-term (15 years) process data, indicate that strategic events and decisions influence the management of parallel BMs, and that strategic events are important for competitiveness. They also show that successful balancing of concurrent BMs can yield synergistic benefits, such as resource flexibility and lower vulnerability in the construction market. Due to its exploratory nature, this work serves as a first step towards a wider and more general understanding of the management of multiple BMs in construction firms.