Shake It Off or Take It On? Investigating the Perception of Stakeholder Demands and Cognitive Framing in Biodiversity‐Oriented Business Model Innovation

ABSTRACT Organizations are increasingly expected to integrate biodiversity considerations into their value logic. Little is known about the cognitive mechanisms that shape whether managers translate biodiversity‐related stakeholder expectations into intentions to pursue biodiversity‐oriented business model innovation (BMI). Drawing on cognitive framing theory, this study investigates how managers in the construction sector perceive external biodiversity stimuli and translate them into BMI intentions, focusing on opportunity and threat framing as mediating layers. Based on survey data from 137 decision‐makers in German construction firms, our study develops and empirically tests a model linking stakeholder stimuli to innovation intent, conceptualized by the Stimulus‐Organism‐Response framework. To further uncover the interpretive mechanisms, we rely on a qualitative dataset comprising 15 interviews conducted in a construction firm, thereby adopting a mixed‐method approach. Structural equation modeling shows that the perception of stakeholder stimuli affects BMI intentions indirectly through framing processes. Opportunity framing strengthens innovation intent, whereas threat framing suppresses it, though both act as mediators. The study contributes especially to the microfoundations of biodiversity‐oriented BMI by demonstrating that strategic responses arise not directly from external pressures but from managers' individual ways to interpret them cognitively. It offers practical guidance for opportunity‐oriented framing in biodiversity innovation.