Inscribing value on business model innovations: Insights from industrial projects commercializing disruptive digital innovations ☆ Geoff Simmons a, ⁎, Mark Palmer a , Yann Truong b a Queen's University Management School, Queen's University Belfast, Riddel Hall, Stranmillis Road, Northern Ireland BT9 5EE, UK b Groupe Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Rennes, 2 rue Robert d'Arbrissel, 35065 Rennes Cedex, France abstract article info Article history: Received 20 February 2012 Received in revised form 30 January 2013 Accepted 25 April 2013 Available online 25 May 2013 Keywords: Marketing strategy Digital marketing Business model Disruptive innovation Value In this paper we seek to show how marketing activities inscribe value on business model innovation, repre- sentative of an act, or sequence of socially interconnecting acts. Theoretically we ask two interlinked questions: (1) how can value inscriptions contribute to business model innovations? (2) how can marketing activities support the inscription of value on business model innovations? Semi-structured in-depth inter- views were conducted with the thirty-seven members from across four industrial projects commercializing disruptive digital innovations. Various individuals from a diverse range of firms are shown to cast relevant components of their agency and knowledge on business model innovations through negotiation as an ongo- ing social process. Value inscription is mutually constituted from the marketing activities, interactions and negotiations of multiple project members across firms and functions to counter destabilizing forces and tensions arising from the commercialization of disruptive digital innovations. This contributes to recent conceptual thinking in the industrial marketing literature, which views business models as situated within dynamic business networks and a context-led evolutionary process. A contribution is also made to debate in the marketing literature around marketing's boundary-spanning role, with marketing activities shown to span and navigate across functions and firms in supporting value inscriptions on business model innovations. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Business models and business modeling represent complex systems of interfaces and exchanges (Al-Debei & Avison, 2010; Chesbrough, 2011; Ehret & Wirtz, 2011; Morris, Schindehutte, & Allenc, 2005). Marketing activities are considered integral, defined as having an internal-external focus (Chesbrough, 2010). Day (1994) categorizes capabilities-based marketing activities into outside-in (e.g. market sensing), inside-out (e.g. integrated logistics) and boundary-spanning activities encompassing point of sale, product development, channel selection and marketing planning. Similarly, literature defines the busi- ness model concept as a mechanism used to bridge the gap between the outside-in and the inside-out perspective. Recent industrial marketing literature conceptualizes business models as evolving interconnecting firm, interfirm and market practices, attributing agency to them (Mason & Spring, 2011). Interaction between organizations and, and by extension, within networks of relationships, is critical to doing business (Ford, 2011). This reflects work in the mar- keting literature emphasizing the boundary-spanning perspective of marketing activities, focused on multiple actors inside and outside an organization and including multiple exchanges (Hult, 2011). In this paper we build upon these literature streams by proposing that market- ing activities inscribe value on a business model. This is representative of an act, or sequence of socially interconnecting acts, by which humans cast relevant components of their agency and knowledge on business models through negotiation as a continual social process. We further propose that value inscription has particular relevance for disruptive digital product innovations and associated business model innovations, which deviate from and threaten existing market conventions and orders. The inscription of value on business model innovation is repre- sented as the alignment of diverse interests within firms and networks of firms, in overcoming tensions and disagreements arising. We draw on sociology literature and particularly work around actor–network theory (Akrich, 1992; Akrich & Latour, 1992; Latour, 1987, 1991), as well as the work of Joerges and Czarniawska (1998) focusing on technology and how organizations inscribe the world. Actor–network theory posits that stability and social order are contin- ually negotiated as a social process of aligning interests through networks. Theoretically we ask two interlinked questions: (1) how Industrial Marketing Management 42 (2013) 744–754 ☆ Research Project: This research is part of an ongoing project involving a Media and Networks Cluster and associated with technologies in the image value network (HD TV, mobile TV, interactive communication, optical technologies, virtual reality, platform and network broadcasting, telecoms, security systems…), spanning creation to actual use. Its members include multinational firms, technologically innovative SMEs, content providers, research labs and graduate schools located in France. ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 2890974716; fax: +44 2890974201. E-mail addresses: g.simmons@qub.ac.uk (G. Simmons), m.palmer@qub.ac.uk (M. Palmer), yann.truong@esc-rennes.fr (Y. Truong). 0019-8501/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2013.05.010 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Industrial Marketing Management