What do business models do?: Innovation devices in technology entrepreneurship

Abstract

Building on a case study of an entrepreneurial venture, we investigate the role played by business models in the innovation process. Rather than debating their accuracy and efficiency, we adopt a pragmatic approach to business models — we examine them as market devices, focusing on their materiality, use and dynamics. Taking into account the variety of its forms, which range from corporate presentations to business plans, we show that the business model is a narrative and calculative device that allows entrepreneurs to explore a market and plays a performative role by contributing to the construction of the techno-economic network of an innovation.