Business model tools as cognitive mediators: sensebreaking and sensemaking in business model innovation

Purpose Business model innovation represents a central challenge for companies facing technological, competitive and institutional change, requiring incumbent firms to move beyond the taken-for-granted assumptions embedded in their established business models. This article examines how business model tools enable sensebreaking and sensemaking throughout the business model innovation process, investigating how their complementary mobilisation helps organisations construct and develop alternative business models in the context of digital servitisation. Design/methodology/approach The article draws on an interventionist case study conducted over nearly four years in an Italian manufacturer developing smart connected products for industrial machines. The empirical material was collected predominantly through meetings held during the project, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Findings Using sensebreaking and sensemaking as the theoretical lens, we show how business model innovation unfolds through three interrelated cognitive mechanisms. First, business model tools destabilise incumbent business model assumptions by exposing the limitations of existing product logics. Second, they provide a shared interpretive platform through which alternative service-oriented business models are collectively reframed. Finally, they stabilise these emerging interpretations by translating them into organisational and calculative commitments. Originality/value The article conceptualises a break–then–make process in which sensebreaking opens interpretive space and sensemaking constructs alternative business model logics and translates them into organisational commitments. The study contributes to business model innovation research by shifting attention from business model design to the cognitive mechanisms that enable it.