This research explores how focal tea companies facilitate supply chain business model innovation (SCBMI) to meet consumer demands and achieve sustainable development.By applying a case study method and dynamic capability theory, we find that: (1) the end-user innovation-driven is the precondition for tea SCBMI; (2) the user-driven innovation leads to the change of the supply chain focal company dynamic capabilities and the tea supply chain network structure, and thus promote the tea SCBMI;(3) SCBMI will, in turn, enhance the focal company's dynamic capabilities and promote the change of tea supply chain network structure in order to meet the consumers' changing demands. Our research suggests that the supply chain should pay attention to the construction of dynamic capabilities and proactively manage supply chain network structure. Ultimately, the entire supply chain business model will continuously adapt to the external changes and achieve sustainable development in the long term.
K E Y W O R D Sbusiness model innovation, dynamic capability, supply chain business model, tea supply chain, user-driven innovation
| INTRODUCTIONCompanies are operating in a constantly changing environment (Christopher & Holweg, 2011). To cope with the external dynamics, every company in the supply chain needs to continually change its business models on value creation, value delivery, and value capture (Teece, 2010;Trkman et al., 2015). The call for dynamic capabilities to respond to these changes requires new business models, which not only refer to high-tech industries but also traditional sectors such as the tea sector.China is the world's largest tea-growing country with more than 3000 years of tea drinking cultural history. 1 Along with the "Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)" proposed by the Chinese government in 2013, the tea industry has met fantastic opportunities to develop further (Li, 2018). In 2017, the total area of tea gardens in 18 tea-producing provinces (regions) nationwide was 45.887 million mu, 2 accounting for about 50% of the total area of world tea gardens. The output of tea reached 2.55 million tons, an increase of 6% over the previous year, accounting for 33.3% of the world's tea production. 3 Tea exports in China account for about 20% of the world's total tea trade. 4 China has become a crucial focus in the global tea market. However, China still faces many challenges, such as the farmers' low profitability, hard to meet international regulations, and facing different cross-border cultures in tea exporting (Xue et al., 2018).Many tea firms are willing to change the current business model and achieve sustainable competitive advantages (Bocken et al., 2014;Lin & Xiong, 2016;Zhang & Zhao, 2018). The external environmental factors, including macroeconomic issues, market conditions, fluctuations in end-user demand, negatively affect tea supply and demand