Business model adaptation: Evidence of lean experimentation in digital startups

Abstract

Digital startups frequently adapt their business model, but in doing so they face resource scarcity and need to “make-do” in validating and implementing their design changes at a practical level. We thus argue that digital startups employ a Lean Experimental approach when adapting their BM to contextual conditions. By means of an exploratory multiple-case study on Digital startups, this research investigates the factors driving the deployment of an experimental approach and proposing some factors that may drive differences in its application. Results suggest that most startups dealing with BM adaptation engage in experimentation practices that can be identified with the Lean Startup Approaches (LSAs), although with different extents of application. In this sense, startups move from scarce resource availability in resembling selected elements of the framework, whereas those with higher resource availability seem to be more prone to adopting LSAs in a structured and customized way at the organizational level.