The Sales Function’s Role in Sensing and Seizing - Enabling Business Model Adaptation in B2B Firms

Sammanfattning

This thesis explores how the sales function contributes to sensing and seizing processes that enable business model adaptation in B2B firms. It examines how sales actors identify changing customer and market needs, how these insights are brought into the organisation, and how they support organisational responses. While previous research on dynamic capabilities has shown that sensing and seizing are central to business model adaptation, less is known about how these processes are carried out in practice through specific organisational functions. By focusing on sales as both a customer facing and boundary-spanning function, this study provides insight tothis gap and contributes to a more practice-oriented understanding of dynamic capabilities.Using a qualitative approach, the study is based on semi-structured interviews with respondents from six B2B firms. The empirical material is analysed through a Gioia-inspired method and connected to theory on dynamic capabilities, microfoundations, boundary-spanning, and sales. The findings show that sales contribute to sensing through continuous customer dialogue, needs analysis, and the recognition of repeated patterns across customer interactions. Sales also playsan important role in translating customer insights into organisational attention by framing, sharing, and legitimising customer-related information internally.The study further finds that sales contribute to seizing through selective adjustments to offers,pricing, and commercial terms. However, this role is bounded by profitability, standardisation, technical feasibility, and internal decision authority. Broader business model adaptation therefore depends on cross-functional mobilisation, managerial support, and internal ownership beyond the sales function alone. Ultimately, the thesis shows that sales is not only a revenue generating function, but a boundary-spanning microfoundation that connects customer insight with sensing, seizing, and potential business model adaptation in B2B firms.