Firms are increasingly running multiple business models within activities. When adopting a business model portfolio, literature mentions that companies are choosing between a separation or an integration strategy to manage their multiple business models. However, business cases show that companies adopting a separation strategy may then plan an eventual integration strategy. Despite the growing knowledge related to BM portfolio literature, scholars and practitioners still lack a comprehensive understanding of the integration process of two business models that were initially managed separately. This qualitative research draws on a multiple case study of five traditional retailers to analyze how incumbent firms that have strategic activities with different business models (digital and physical business models) manage the integration of these two business models. We show that rather having planned a potential integration of business models of their business model portfolio, firms have been engaged within a logic of pivoting to change the organization of their BM portfolio. When managing a business model portfolio, established firms need to deviate their plans from their original expectations (i.e integrating BMs that were supposed to be disconnected). Finally, by considering pivoting at the business model portfolio level, this research adds to the ongoing discussion in strategic management on the way firms manage the dynamics of their business model portfolio.
