商业模式与企业绩效:控制机制的调节作用

基于组织匹配的观点,文章指出商业模式和控制机制之间存在匹配关系,因为商业模式由企业成员运营,其能否有效运作取决于这些成员的行为。因此,企业需要设计恰当的控制机制来保证商业模式有效运作。文章通过分析控制机制对商业模式与企业绩效关系的影响来发现商业模式和控制机制的匹配关系。研究发现:结果控制正向调节新颖型商业模式与企业绩效的关系,负向调节效率型商业模式与企业绩效的关系;过程控制负向调节新颖型商业模式与企业绩效的关系,正向调节效率型商业模式与企业绩效的关系。文章从控制机制视角回答了如何保证商业模式有效运作的问题,对理解商业模式价值有促进作用,并丰富了对控制机制设计的认识。同时,文章可以指导企业针对其商业模式设计控制机制,通过实现两者的匹配来保证商业模式有效运作进而提高企业绩效。

Business Model and Firm Performance: The Moderating Effects of Control Mechanism

Business model refers to the transaction activities designed to create value by exploiting business opportunities. Through effective operation of business model, a firm could obtain high-level performance. Thus, how to ensure the effective operation of business model becomes a serious research question.Based on the organizational fit perspective, this study argues that the operation of business model needs the support of control mechanism. Specifically, business model is operated by organizational members. Whether it operates effectively depends on the behaviors undertaken by these organizational members. To ensure the effective operation of business model, a firm has to control the behaviors of organizational members by using appropriate control mechanism, indicating that there may be a fit between business model and control mechanism. However, few studies have examined such a fit.To remedy the research gap, this study identifies the fit between business model and control mechanism through examining the moderating effects of control mechanism on the relationship between business model and firm performance. Specifically, research has identified novelty-centered business model, characterized by adopting new ways to conduct transactions, and efficiency-centered business model, which throws light on the improvement of transaction efficiency and reduction of transaction cost. Because of the distinction between efficiency-centered and novelty-centered business model,their requirements on organizational members may also be different. Control mechanism was divided into behavior control and output control. Behavior control pays attention to the process of organizational members’ behaviors, while output control focuses on the output of organizational members' behaviors. To dig into the fit between business model and control mechanism, this study investigates the moderating effects of behavior and output control on the relationship between novelty-centered business model and firm performance as well as the linkage of efficiency-centered business model to firm performance respectively.Empirical research was conducted in this study. We collected data through questionnaire surveys on 249 manufacturing firms in China. The results show that output control positively moderates the linkage of novelty-centered business model to firm performance, while negatively moderates that of efficiency-centered business model to firm performance; behavior control negatively moderates the linkage of novelty-centered business model to firm performance, but positively moderates that of efficiency-centered business model to firm performance.This study makes two theoretical contributions. On one hand, it explains how to ensure the effective operation of business model and enriches the discipline’s knowledge on the performance implications of business model. On the other hand, this study explores how to design control mechanism based on business model, which advances our understanding on the design of control mechanism. Moreover, in practice, this study can guide firms leveraging control mechanism to ensure the operation of business model and then realizes its performance effects.