Knowledge Agora

Title	Business model evolution in university startups of the healthcare sector
ID_Doc	78215
Authors	Terra, N; Rodrigues, JC; Maia, C
Title	Business model evolution in university startups of the healthcare sector
Year	2019
Published
Abstract	The Business Model is recognized as a valuable tool that helps companies leverage their competitive advantage while dealing with market uncertainty. It enables startups to organize in an efficient way, helping them to rapidly adapt to the different challenges they might face. By using a multiple case study this research aims at understanding how and why startups commercializing technology-based products that support healthcare providing activities changed their business model in the path to a sustainable growth. Based on the Business Model Canvas (BMC), it was possible to analyze different approaches used by those startups to face the challenges encountered. Three main challenges were identified that drove change in the business models: lack of knowledge about the customers' needs, lack of knowledge about the best fitting configuration of a standard product to the market, and lack of knowledge about configuration and interests of the different players. Moreover, even though the literature argues that business model evolution is driven by market and technology conditions, the business models of the startups included in this study changed exclusively due to market conditions.
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