Understanding new ventures' business model design in the digital era: An empirical study in China

摘要

What factors enable new ventures' business model design in the digital era? In this study, we examine the relationships between new ventures' external relationships (i.e., inter- and extra-industry relationships and government relationships), resource combination capability, and their business model designs (efficiency-centered and novelty-centered). We propose that new ventures' external relationship enable the ventures to plug into these networks and contribute to the ventures' business model designs by providing various resources; and resource combination capability enables the ventures to combine various resources for their business model designs. Moreover, we argue that the relationships between external relationships and business model designs are mediated by resource combination capability. We collected and analyzed a data contained 312 manufacturing new ventures located in Pearl River Delta (in southern China), supporting these arguments. The findings of this study provide several important implications for business model research. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.