IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bushor/v58y2015i3p285-293.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

SMEs and new ventures need business model sophistication

Author

Listed:
  • Kesting, Peter
  • Günzel-Jensen, Franziska

Abstract

Business models are a current hot topic, and their design has become a key to performance. In fact, business model design is often associated with innovation. Many firms, though, fail to realize the full potential of their current business model simply because they are not aware of it. Nevertheless, Google succeeded in realizing its business model's full potential by offering its main service, Internet search, completely for free while capturing value from secondary opportunities such as Google AdWords. Especially for new ventures and SMEs, capturing value from secondary opportunities or business model sophistication is of critical importance toward increasing the pool of resources at hand and giving momentum to the firm's development. But what are these opportunities, and where can they be found? Based on various examples including Google, Ryanair, the Super Girl Contest on Hunan TV, and Spreadshirt, this article develops a framework that introduces five business model sophistication strategies: (1) uncover additional functions of your product, (2) identify strategic benefits for third parties, (3) take advantage of economies of scope, (4) utilize cross-selling opportunities, and (5) involve users and the crowd. All five strategies place a strong emphasis on stakeholder commitment.

Suggested Citation

  • Kesting, Peter & Günzel-Jensen, Franziska, 2015. "SMEs and new ventures need business model sophistication," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 285-293.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:58:y:2015:i:3:p:285-293
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2015.01.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681315000038
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bushor.2015.01.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Morris, Michael & Schindehutte, Minet & Allen, Jeffrey, 2005. "The entrepreneur's business model: toward a unified perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(6), pages 726-735, June.
    2. Henry Chesbrough & Richard S. Rosenbloom, 2002. "The role of the business model in capturing value from innovation: evidence from Xerox Corporation's technology spin-off companies," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 11(3), pages 529-555, June.
    3. Ellen Enkel & Florian Mezger, 2013. "Imitation Processes And Their Application For Business Model Innovation: An Explorative Study," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 17(01), pages 1-34.
    4. Gerard George & Adam J. Bock, 2011. "The Business Model in Practice and its Implications for Entrepreneurship Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 35(1), pages 83-111, January.
    5. Shafer, Scott M. & Smith, H. Jeff & Linder, Jane C., 2005. "The power of business models," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 199-207.
    6. Tullberg, Jan, 2013. "Stakeholder theory: Some revisionist suggestions," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 127-135.
    7. Christoph Zott & Raphael Amit, 2007. "Business Model Design and the Performance of Entrepreneurial Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(2), pages 181-199, April.
    8. Reynold E. Byers & Kut C. So, 2007. "Note--A Mathematical Model for Evaluating Cross-Sales Policies in Telephone Service Centers," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 9(1), pages 1-8, January.
    9. Panzar, John C & Willig, Robert D, 1981. "Economies of Scope," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(2), pages 268-272, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wenchang Fang & Tzong-Hann Wu & Tai-Wei Chang & Cheng-Ze Hung, 2021. "What Could Entrepreneurial Vision Do for Sustainable Development? Explore the Cross-Level Impact of Organizational Members’ Green Shared Vision on Green Creativity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-15, May.
    2. Laudien, Sven M. & Reuter, Ute & Sendra Garcia, Francisco Javier & Botella-Carrubi, Dolores, 2024. "Digital advancement and its effect on business model design: Qualitative-empirical insights," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    3. Broekhuizen, Thijs L.J. & Bakker, Tom & Postma, Theo J.B.M., 2018. "Implementing new business models: What challenges lie ahead?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 555-566.
    4. Augustyniak Dobrochna, 2017. "Sources of Value Creation in Born Global Companies," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 53(2), pages 7-22, June.
    5. Franziska Günzel-Jensen & Anna B. Holm, 2015. "Freemium Business Models as the Foundation for Growing an E-business Venture: A Multiple Case Study of Industry Leaders," Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation, Fundacja Upowszechniająca Wiedzę i Naukę "Cognitione", vol. 11(1), pages 77-101.
    6. Vinicius Minatogawa & Matheus Franco & Orlando Durán & Ruy Quadros & Maria Holgado & Antonio Batocchio, 2020. "Carving out New Business Models in a Small Company through Contextual Ambidexterity: The Case of a Sustainable Company," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-34, March.
    7. Marko Peric & Jelena Durkin & Vanja Vitezic, 2017. "The Constructs of a Business Model Redefined: A Half-Century Journey," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(3), pages 21582440177, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Barneto, Pascal & Ouvrard, Stéphane, 2015. "Is the firm's business model related to segment reporting?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 122-137.
    2. Clinton, Eric & McAdam, Maura & Gamble, Jordan Robert, 2018. "Transgenerational entrepreneurial family firms: An examination of the business model construct," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 269-285.
    3. Belussi, Fiorenza & Orsi, Luigi & Savarese, Maria, 2019. "Mapping Business Model Research: A Document Bibliometric Analysis," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(3).
    4. Albøge, Kristian Groth & Andersen, Jesper Gyldenlev & Lueg, Rainer & Nielsen, Kristian Posselt, 2015. "A framework for business model development in technology-driven start-ups," Die Unternehmung - Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 69(1), pages 67-80.
    5. Matthias Filser & Sascha Kraus & Matthias Breier & Ioanna Nenova & Kaisu Puumalainen, 2021. "Business model innovation: Identifying foundations and trajectories," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 891-907, February.
    6. Marko Peric & Jelena Durkin & Vanja Vitezic, 2017. "The Constructs of a Business Model Redefined: A Half-Century Journey," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(3), pages 21582440177, September.
    7. Ales Novak, 2014. "Business Model Literature Overview," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(1), pages 79-130.
    8. Raphaël Maucuer & Alexandre Renaud, 2019. "Business Model Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of Origins and Trends," Post-Print hal-01918188, HAL.
    9. Burmeister, & Lüttgens, & Piller,, 2016. "Business Model Innovation for Industrie 4.0: Why the "Industrial Internet" Mandates a New Perspective on Innovation," Die Unternehmung - Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 70(2), pages 124-152.
    10. Yuan Jing, 2022. "The Relationship Between Business Model Innovation and Operational Performance of Incubator Enterprise," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 16(1), pages 153-191.
    11. Pascal Barneto & Stéphane Ouvrard, 2013. "Existe-T-Il Une Relation Entre L'Information Sectorielle Et Le Tableau Des Flux De Tresorerie ?," Post-Print hal-00991963, HAL.
    12. Göran Roos, 2014. "Business Model Innovation to Create and Capture Resource Value in Future Circular Material Chains," Resources, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-27, March.
    13. Cinzia Battistella & Gianluca Murgia & Fabio Nonino, 2021. "Free-driven web-based business models," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 445-486, June.
    14. Wenyao Zhang & Tugrul Daim & Qingpu Zhang, 2019. "Exploring the Multi-Phase Driven Process for Disruptive Business Model Innovation of E-Business Microcredit: a Multiple Case Study from China," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 10(2), pages 590-617, June.
    15. Iheanachor, Nkemdilim & David-West, Yinka & Umukoro, Immanuel Ovemeso, 2021. "Business model innovation at the bottom of the pyramid – A case of mobile money agents," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 96-107.
    16. Sascha Kraus & Alexander Brem & Miriam Schuessler & Felix Schuessler & Thomas Niemand, 2019. "Innovative Born Globals: Investigating the Influence of Their Business Models on International Performance," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Alexander Brem & Joe Tidd & Tugrul Daim (ed.), Managing Innovation Internationalization of Innovation, chapter 11, pages 275-328, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    17. Xuerong Li & Han Qiao & Shouyang Wang, 2017. "Exploring evolution and emerging trends in business model study: a co-citation analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(2), pages 869-887, May.
    18. Randhawa, Krithika & Wilden, Ralf & Gudergan, Siegfried, 2021. "How to innovate toward an ambidextrous business model? The role of dynamic capabilities and market orientation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 618-634.
    19. Daniela Andreini & Cristina Bettinelli & Nicolai J. Foss & Marco Mismetti, 2022. "Business model innovation: a review of the process-based literature," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(4), pages 1089-1121, December.
    20. Lambert, Susan C. & Davidson, Robyn A., 2013. "Applications of the business model in studies of enterprise success, innovation and classification: An analysis of empirical research from 1996 to 2010," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 668-681.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:58:y:2015:i:3:p:285-293. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.