Abstract
Architectural firms experience difficulties to establish healthy and sustainable business models as they have to reconcile the often-competing value systems that they are based upon. Organizational members continuously negotiate professional values and beliefs with the firm's commercial goals, resulting in identity-strategy struggles. This study adopts a 'work lens' to investigate the reciprocal tensions between identity and strategy in 17 business model design workshops with members of architectural firms. Observational data show that practitioners collaboratively construct their business models around professional values, thereby strengthening organizational identity but constraining innovation in their business models. The research contributes to the literature on strategic management of architectural firms by articulating how professional aspects of identity enable and constrain practitioners to shape and be shaped by their strategic actions and decisions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceeding of the 33rd Annual ARCOM Conference |
| Editors | Paul W Chan, Christopher J. Neilson |
| Place of Publication | Manchester |
| Publisher | ARCOM, Association of Researchers in Construction Management |
| Pages | 491-500 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-0-9955463-1-8 |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |
| Event | 33rd Annual ARCOM Conference - University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom Duration: 4 Sept 2017 → 6 Sept 2017 |
Conference
| Conference | 33rd Annual ARCOM Conference |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | ARCOM 2017 |
| Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
| City | Cambridge |
| Period | 4/09/17 → 6/09/17 |
Keywords
- business model
- identity tensions
- strategy-as-practice
- value creation