How companies configure digital innovation attributes for business model innovation? A configurational view

Digital innovation (DI) has garnered considerable attention across a broad array of literatures. However, empirical evidence about the impact of DI on business model innovation (BMI) is sparse with frameworks probably not fully capturing the complexities of DI attributes. We use the fuzzy-set approach by conducting qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore the configurations of DI attributes and IT infrastructure capability that exist among the 167 manufacturing and service firms in China that undergoes different levels of BMI. Results reveal that DI attributes work in three pathways to promote BMI, including organization-oriented with emphasis on improvisation, product-oriented by focusing on user experience and value proposition, and product-organization complemented. When to additionally include IT infrastructure capability for deeper analysis, results demonstrate three more representative configurations among DI attributes and IT infrastructure capability to facilitate BMI: IT-enabled organization-product orchestration, IT-enabled product-organization orchestration, and IT-dominated orchestration. This research contributes to DI literature by uncovering the configurations among DI attributes in promoting BMI, and clarifying the complicated interacting effects between DI attributes and IT infrastructure capability to facilitate BMI. •Individual DI attributes pose asymmetry effects on innovation. They form multiple equifinal pathways to promote BMI: 1) organization-oriented with emphasis on improvisation, 2) product-oriented by focusing on user experience and value proposition, and 3) product-organization complemented by concentrating on both product and organization levels.•DI attributes and IT infrastructure capability form three important configurations to BMI: 1) IT-enabled organization-product orchestration, 2) IT-enabled product-organization orchestration, and 3) IT-dominated orchestration.•fsQCA is a new method for investigating configurative effects in digital innovation domain. This study is the first to introduce fsQCA into the digital innovation domain and apply it to investigate how configurative effects of DI attributes performing in firms' business model innovation.