Enhancing Business Model Efficiency through Digital Alignment and Strategic flexibility: Evidence from Italy

The digital age has brought about significant changes to both innovative and more traditional sectors, leading many firms to develop digital business models to leverage new digital technologies to improve their value creation and capture mechanisms (Baden-Fuller and Haefliger, 2013; Volberda et al., 2021). In this perspective, SMEs have been particularly challenged to adapt to the digital age, as they often face size-related disadvantages such as lack of resources and expertise (Eggers, 2020). Achieving enhanced digital alignment, the joint support of strategic decision-making and operational activities, can help SMEs overcome these challenges and improve their business model efficiency (Pati et al., 2018; Tai et al., 2018). Despite the importance of digital alignment and business model efficiency, many questions remain open, as the concept of business model efficiency itself has received relatively little attention in the existing literature. Therefore, it is crucial for scholars to focus more on the study of business model efficiency and its influence on value creation and value capture in digital business models (Pati et al., 2018; Zott and Amit, 2010). The present study also deepens the importance of strategic flexibility in adapting to changes and responding to crises (Zhou and Wu, 2010). Building on these premises, the proposed research aims to address the gap in literature by investigating the impact of digital alignment and strategic flexibility on business model efficiency.