Rationalizing business models to mitigate the Darwinian effects of creative industries

Despite an impressive growth over the last decades, the creative industries display high selective mechanisms and low survival rates. Many are called but few are chosen. One of the main difficulties faced by organizations in creative industries pertains to the high level of uncertainty concerning the success of their products. While the literature in creative industries has demonstrated the necessity to rationalize the product offering in order to limit demand uncertainty, we take a more holistic perspective by using a business model lens. Our research question is: "What are the business model choices made by entrepreneurs to cope with an uncertain environment"? Based on the comparison between multiple case studies in the French video game industry, we investigate to what extent independent studios adapt their business model to survive under conditions of strong uncertainty and constrained resources. We find out that studios face sources of uncertainty in all components of their business model, and that they learn to favour rationalization in their business model. We show that the rationalization of their business model combines the search for a greater efficiency and for a more disciplined management of risk.