Abstract: In this paper, we propose that scientific research and managerial practice on business model design could be advanced by developing a classification system built upon first principles related to how value is created and for whom; and by deriving mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive business model ideal categories (types) that might be robust to changing context and time. We develop this idea using the network-relational view from sociological-economic literature as a starting point. We identify four categories: work-for-hire, product, market-matchmaking, and platform. We explain how these categories can be generative, and that they can be used to shed insights into what is meant by business model innovation and the role of changes in technology; and to improve theorizing, policy and empirical work.

Abstract: This study provides complementary accounts as to why firms often do not increase risk-taking after negative performance feedback. I propose that the response to failures varies depending on the nature of failures; failures are categorized by whether they are mostly attributed to prior engagement in exploitative business or explorative one. In case of exploitative failures, the general prediction of traditional BToF argument holds robust. On the other hand, in case of explorative failures, firms are driven not to increase, but to decrease risk-taking since risky explorative investments are regarded as the main source of problem. And such drive gains all the more strength as category-dependent illegitimacy discounts discriminates against explorative failures. I examine this phenomenon based on new product development investments of film producer organizations in the United States from 2000 to 2012.

Abstract: This study investigates how a hybrid market category that encompasses competing logics fails to become a sustainable market category due to changing balance of logics over time. Specifically, we follow the trajectory of edutainment, a hybrid category combining education and entertainment logics, for a ten-year period and examine how the inherent tension and gradual imbalance between the two logics leads to a failure in meeting audience expectations, eventually resulting in the demise of a potentially viable new market. Overall, we suggest the need to understand the interrelated nature of category emergence and dissolution and argue that that it is important to examine the nuanced processes behind the co-evolution of meanings, features, members, and labels over the full life-cycle of a category.

Abstract: The current study investigates how a misfit between a firm’s claimed category membership and audience’s assigned categories impact audience’s evaluation of the firm. Specifically, this study focuses on the mismatch between firms’ self-categorization and the Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) assigned categories for firms that are going public in the Internet sector. This study argues that such category mismatch implies ambiguity in placing the firm into the existing category structure and examines how the degree of category mismatch influences analyst coverage and evaluation. Preliminary findings suggest that a greater degree of category mismatch results in increased forecast dispersion and heterogeneity in analysts who follow the firm; however, such effects will likely be attenuated as the Internet sector becomes increasingly mainstream.

Abstract: This paper explores the process by which innovations negotiate membership in existing product categories in a longitudinal historical case study of the entire lifecycle of creation, evolution, and diffusion of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in the U.S. between 1960 and 1987. I find that innovators use a combination of rhetorical, material, and political strategies to claim membership in an existing product category. These claims are evaluated by the product category’s audience, i.e. the potential buyers, with the rejection of claims triggering changes to the innovator’s strategies and the innovation’s design. The iterative process of membership claiming, the evaluation and rejection of the claims, and changes in innovator’s strategies triggered by such rejections leads to changes in the category boundaries that permit the acceptance of the innovation.

Abstract: This paper studies the negative effect of high status when social groups have segmented preferences. We show that, when different social groups commonly observe agent’s action, status is a multidimensional construct that affects the meaningfulness of the information provided. High status decreases access to survival resources when it reinforces information that are in contrast with the preference of a wide social group. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 950 film crowdfunding campaigns and we run an algorithm of content analysis to measure the extent to which a film project is intended to the artistic movie audience. Results of econometric models totally confirm our predictions.