This conceptual paper offers a research agenda in examining the role of standards for innovation in high-tech SMEs’ business models from a capability perspective. This paper aims to address the research question, how are SMEs using standards in a new environment of rapidly emerging technologies to produce innovations and what are the new directions for research? A conceptual paper is needed to guide a new trajectory of research, especially given the speed of emerging technologies and the changing utility of technology standards on SME innovation. I make four contributions. First, I contribute to entrepreneurship literature as the paper provides new insights into how high-tech SMEs sustain efficient innovation by using emerging standards. Second, I contribute to business model literature as the study highlights how technology-based standards drive nuances in SMEs’ business model design. Third, I contribute to SME innovation literature as this paper extends the notion of re-innovation by shifting the focus from a value proposition perspective to a value capture view. Fourth, I make a methodological contribution by designing a novel multi-method approach by first undertaking a systematic literature review by employing a CIMO-framework as an analytical lens and then undertaking a more fine-grained abductive validation using empirical cases.

Full text article available on Taylor & Francis website: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08985626.2025.2556331