Abstract
The Incumbent Small and Medium Enterprises (ISMEs) are at risk of losing their market shares or being out of the markets as they threaten by disrupting the traditional business models. Recently, an emerging type of BMI calls Sharing Economy (SE) has wiped out and overthrown some of the market leaders of ISMEs in several sectors around the world. ISMEs have to tackle newcomers’ competition by innovating their Business Models (BMs) to emerge in sharing economy activities. Yet, the process of how these companies are transforming their BMs to engage in Sharing Economy activities is still largely unexplored. This study has adopted a qualitative approach, specifically a multiple in-depth case study, to understand the complexity and contemporary nature of six DPSMEs’ BMI from developed and developing economies. This study contributes to filling the theoretical gap between Sharing Economy (SE) and the ISMEs by extending Dynamic Capabilities (DCs) to develop the transformation process of ISMEs from non-sharing BMs to sharing BMs. The Incumbent Small and Medium Enterprises (ISMEs) are at the risk of losing their market shares or being out of the markets as they threaten by disrupting the traditional business models. Recently, an emerging type of BMI calls Sharing Economy (SE) has wiped out and overthrew some of the market leaders of ISMEs in several sectors around the world. ISMEs have to tackle newcomers’ competition by innovating their Business Models (BMs) to emerge in sharing economy activities. Yet, the process of how these companies are transforming their BMs to engage in Sharing Economy activates is still largely unexplored. This study has adopted a qualitative approach, specifically a multiple in-depth case study, to understand the complexity and contemporary nature of six DPSMEs’ BMI from developed and developing economies. This study contributes to filling the theoretical gap between Sharing Economy (SE) and the ISMEs by extending Dynamic Capabilities (DCs) to develop the transformation process of ISMEs from non-sharing BMs to sharing BMs.