Przeglądaj Business Model Innovation - A Concept Between Organizational Renewal and Industry Transformation, 2015, vol. 11, issue 1 wg Temat "entrepreneurial venture"
(Nowy Sacz School of Business – National-Louis University, 2015) Günzel-Jensen, Franziska; Holm, Anna B.
In e-business freemium business models have become legitimate. However, current
research provides little insight on how the free and premium offering should be employed
to lead to growth and success in the long run. The presented research aims to fill this
gap by investigating how the property ‘free’ was employed in young entrepreneurial
ventures’ business models in the initial life-cycle stages – opportunity recognition,
market entry, and market exploitation. We find that various forms of freemium business
models are employed through the initial life-cycle stages of a new venture for reasons
of trial-and-error, learning, exploration, legitimization and resource acquisition. A
freemium business model can also serve as a nascent business model, though without a
sustainable monetization component, for finding a sustainable business model through
a series of dynamic adjustments. With our findings we contribute to the business
model literature in three ways: First, our empirical findings show the many-sidedness
of the component ‘free’ in freemium business models. Free users are of importance for
network building, exploration and exploitation and growth over time. Moreover, free
users enable directly and indirectly further resource acquisition. Second, while previous
literature has taken a static perspective, we contribute by illustrating the dynamic
process of strategic business model design for growth. Finally, we introduce the concept
of the nascent business model which is new to the literature.