Using business model tools in entrepreneurial start-ups: insights and inconsistencies

Figures & data

Table 1. Key concepts.

Theme	Authors	Business model definitions
Basic Understanding of Business Model	Magretta (2002)	Business models as ‘stories that explain how enterprises work’ (4) – a good business model will answer the questions: Who is the customer? What does the customer value? How do we make money in the business and what is the underlying rationality that describes how to provide value to customers profitably?
	Morris, Schindehutte, and Allen (2005, 732)	Business model lifecycle, ‘involving periods of specification, refinement, adaptation, revision and reformulation. An initial period during which the model is fairly informal or implicit is followed by a process of trial-and-error, and a number of core decisions are made that delimit the directions in which the firm can evolve’
Innovation and Evolution	Zamani et al. (2021)	Business model innovation as the discovery of a fundamentally different business model in an existing business
	Demil and Lecocq	Business model evolution: ‘a fine-tuning process involving voluntary and emergent changes in and between permanently linked core components’
Structural and Functional	Teece (2010)	‘Defining the manner by which the enterprise delivers value to customers, entice customers to pay for value, and converted those payments to profit’ (172)
	Zott and Amit (2007)	‘A business model elucidates how an organization is linked to external stakeholders and how it engages in economic exchanges with them to create value for all exchange partners’ (181). Zott and Amit (2007) introduced two business model design themes: design novelty and design efficiency; both themes were associated with improved firm performance and could function together.
	Zott and Amit (2008)	‘The business model is a structural template of how a focal firm transact with customers, partners, and vendors (3). It refers to the overall picture and interrelatedness of components
	Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010)	‘Business model are like a blueprint for a strategy to be implemented through organizational structures, processes, and systems’ (15).
	Johnson and Lafley (2010)	It ‘defined the way the company delivered value to a set of customers at a profit’ (7).
	Casadesus-Masanell and Ricart (2010)	A business model reflects the firm’s realized strategy, while business model innovation refers to the search for new logics of the firm and new ways to create and capture value for its stakeholders
Value Creation, Erosion and Capture	George and Bock (2011)	Value comes from (i) organizational design; (ii) link between resources and business outcomes; (iii) the narrative of the organization; (iv) link between technological innovation and organizational structure; (v) how transactions are structured; (vi) intermediaries in the process of progressing from opportunity to value creation.
	Gassmann, Frankenberger, and Michaela (2014)	Identifies 4 key components: What do you offer to the customer? How is the value proposition calculated? Who is your target customer (segment)? How is revenue created?
	McGrath (2013)	Business model erosion caused by the declining competitiveness of established business models
	Do Vale, Collin-Lachaud, and Lecocq (2021)	Dynamic business model innovation includes incremental changes in individual components of business models, extension of the existing business model, introduction of parallel business models, and creative destruction of the business model

Table 2. Data structure.

1^st-order codes (Founder #)	2^nd-order themes	Aggregated themes
‘I firmly believe in diving in from the get-go – it sets the tone for our entire venture’ (#1) ‘Yeah, I’m convinced that doing a BMC is one of the first things people should do – it’s pivotal for strategic clarity’ (#11) ‘Our commitment is unwavering, starting from the very beginning to embed a robust business model foundation’ (#12)	Exploring the importance of working on a business model at different stages of a start-up revealed a reactive approach to business model development triggered by external influences (RQ 1)	Reactive Iteration
‘the business model canvas makes people think that they have everything answered, which cripples their thinking’ (#1) ‘documentation is a pain’ (#2) ‘time spend doing a business model canvas is probably better spent than you doing all other things’ (#3)	Investigating weaknesses of business model tools highlighted concerns about tools limiting creativity and the impact of individual personalities on tool perception (RQ 2)
‘I’m convinced that doing a BMC is one of the first things people should do – it’s pivotal for strategic clarity and making decisions’ (#11) ‘the BMC is like having a Sat Nav to guide you… it helps us stay focused and keep our head above the water vis-à-vis the competition’ (#8) ‘it’s like a troubleshooting manual that helps us address challenges head-on and identify problems on the horizon… we’re proactively shaping our startup journey (#9)	Examining the purposes of business model tools in start-ups emphasized their role in mapping business trajectories, value propositions, and assisting strategic decision-making (RQ 3)	Adaptive Training
‘I think the BMC needs to be more open, less of a closed box… it’s about nurturing innovation, so a more flexible approach would better suit the dynamic nature of start-ups’ (#4) ‘to see how effective our business model is, we need some measurable metrics; it’s not just about structure, it’s about quantifying outcomes’ (#7) ‘BMC could be more useful if we had some training around it… but of course if someone isn’t willing to learn, even the best tool won’t make the slightest difference’ (#6)	Focusing on improving business model tools inspired suggestions ranging from making tools more open and quantitative to emphasizing the need for proper training and integration with other tools (RQ 4)

Table 3. Stage in which BM development starts (exemplary quotes).

Founder	Founders’ opinion
# 1	‘From the get-go’
# 2	‘The whole stage’
# 3	‘From the beginning’
# 4	‘Yeah, I think doing a BMC is one of the first things people should do’
# 5	‘At the beginning, because it’s a big part of our value proposition.’
# 6	‘I do not know’
# 7	‘As soon as the need arise’
# 8	‘When a business starts to grow’
# 9	‘From the very beginning’
# 10	‘When the business starts growing’
# 11	‘The sooner, the better’
# 12	‘When the need arises, when business gets bigger’

Figure 1. General criticism of business model framework.

Figure 2. Weaknesses of BM tools.

Figure 3. Purpose of using BM tools.

Figure 4. Overall advantages of BM.

Figure 5. Specific advantages of BMC.

Figure 6. Learning about BMI tools.

Table 4. How entrepreneurs learned about tools for BM (exemplary quotes).

Founder	Learning process	Founder’s academic background
# 1	Self-taught	Engineering
# 2	By building businesses.	Science
# 3	By the university course	Science
# 4	Incubators	Science
# 5	By building businesses.	Engineering
# 6	Self-taught	Engineering
# 7	Self-taught	Business studies
# 8	Self-taught	Media studies
# 9	University, incubators	Construction
# 10	By the university course	Applied mathematics
# 11	A course for entrepreneurs	Cinematography
# 12	A course for entrepreneurs	Law, technopreneur

Figure 7. Improvement suggestions for BMI tools.

Figure 8. Improvement suggestions for business model Canvas.

Figure 9. Improvement of BM tools.

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