Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Springer Nature - PMC COVID-19 Collection logoLink to Springer Nature - PMC COVID-19 Collection
. 2023 May 31:1–24. Online ahead of print. doi: 10.1007/s11365-023-00869-y

The study of value network reconstruction and business model innovation driven by entrepreneurial orientation

Chengbin Wang 1, Minju Chen 2,✉, Qingyang Wang 3, Yongyan Fang 1
PMCID: PMC10230135

Abstract

The impacts of business models on the successes of companies are convincing. Business Model Canvas (BMC) provides the basic framework that describes business logic. Yet it lacks an academic understanding of the internal structures of business models. This paper uses the grounded theory method, qualitative analysis as well as entrepreneurial orientation theory to conduct an individual case study on SHEIN’s business model. The research shows that SHEIN accurately addresses the customer pain points and customer benefits of fashionable women, and gains the trust of end-users by integrating its supply chain based in China. Entrepreneurial orientation drives SHEIN to set up its value network. From the perspective of value discovery, SHEIN accurately targets segmented customer groups. The enterprise reaches end users through social networks and establishes customer relationship with high viscosity. From the perspective of value creation, SHEIN reconstructs the value network, delivering great shopping experiences with low costs. From the perspective of value acquisition, SHEIN has scalability in cost structure and expandability in revenue source. The research found that SHEIN has occupied the low-end market of fast fashion through low-end entry, and is moving to the mainstream market of fast fashion through customer group upgrading, design upgrading and supply chain upgrading, bringing competitive challenge to the fast fashion market incumbents. The innovation of this research lies in: First, the Business Model Iterative Canvas (BMIC) could interpret the business models and their logic in-depth. Second, the research reveals how the competitive advantage is created through value network reconstruction.

Keywords: Lean start-up approach, Business model iterative canvas, Value network reconstruction, Business logic, Entrepreneurial orientation

Introduction

Business models have become an indispensable part of the economy. Competition through business models has changed the logic of the entire industry. Better business models will beat better ideas or technologies and become the standard for the next stage of competition (Teece, 2010).

Research on business models has always focused on business activities, addressing social and sustainability issues (Seelos & Mair, 2007; Yunus et al., 2010). Business model is an important tool that helps companies innovate, enabling them to commercialize new ideas and technologies. The business model itself, covering aspects including operation processes, products, and organizations, is also a source of innovation. (Zott & Amit, 2007).

With technology developments and e-commerce establishments, business model becomes increasingly important. China's cross-border e-commerce brands are deeply integrating into many aspects of European and American customers and becoming an indispensable part of their lives (Qi et al., 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic accelerates the transition of traditional business to online services (Pantano et al., 2020) and forcing them to respond to consumer demands with agile strategies (Sjodin et al., 2020).

The impact of the business model on corporate success is convincing, yet little of this concept is known (Teece, 2010). SHEIN is a leader of Chinese cross-border e-commerce companies. Driven by entrepreneurship, the company effectively integrates the advantages of China's supply chain and quickly meets the fast fashion demands of young women in Europe and America. SHEIN can be regarded as a representative case of Chinese e-commerce companies. In May 2021, SHEIN e-commerce limited company (SHEIN), from Nanjing, China, replaced Amazon as the most downloaded shopping app on iOS and Android platforms in the United States, worrying fast fashion companies such as ZARA and H&M. As SHEIN’s successful network reconstruction practice has its unique value for research, we took the company as our research subject and used the entrepreneurial orientation theory to conduct a case study on SHEIN, in order to provide reference for traditional enterprises’ transformation and upgrade.. The academic contribution of this paper lies in: First, by conducting a representative case study, it studies the internal logic between value discovery, value creation and value acquisition of complex business logic, and improves the depth of research on business models from a micro perspective. Second, utilizing the entrepreneurial orientation theory and lean startup approach (LSA), focusing on the “single customer group and single product, this paper studied the influence of the entrepreneurship to business models,improved academic insight (Wang et al., 2022c). Third, it uses disruptive innovation theory (Christensen, 1997) to verify whether there is still potential for disruptive innovation in business models, identifying the path and method of disruptive innovation of business model.

This paper is organized as follows: First, we conduct a brief review of the previous literature on LSAs, business models and business model canvas (BMC); second, we state the research technique and list the data sources of this article with a detailed explanation about the methods of data analysis; third, using the advanced LSA, we analyze the business logic of SHEIN from aspects including business focus, value discovery, value creation and value acquisition; fourth, from the perspectives including value network reconstruction, business model sustainability and business model disruptive innovation, we thoroughly investigate the internal logic regarding how SHEIN obtain its competitiveness and commercial value; fifth, based on the study, we draw a research conclusion and provide readers with a few research prospects.

Literature review

Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial orientation

The entrepreneurship drove the innovation and development of enterprises, and was observed as entrepreneurial orientation in the start-up phase. Schumpeter (1934) was the first to come up with the concept of entrepreneurship, which was an indispensable resource of organizations, and could bring competitive advantage continuously. Entrepreneurship could be seen as creativity, initiative, risk-bearing, competitivity and motivation (Covin & Lumpkin, 2011).To overcome the highly uncertain strategic environment, researches put forward the concept of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) to gain insights of the organizational feature of the entrepreneurship (Wales et al., 2020), including three aspects: management style, element allocation and new business entrance (Wales et al., 2020).The Entrepreneurial Orientation was not only applicable to the enterprises, but also useful in personal level, forming entrepreneurial directions for teams (Covin et al., 2020). From the internal lean startup practice, benefits could be reflected to environment, society and the operations (Chavez et al., 2020), showing fast market speed, quickly provided new products to the market (Ferreras-Méndez et al., 2022).

Globalization further inspired the entrepreneurial orientation’s application under various social and culture background (Wales et al., 2019). Network capabilities and experience learning enhanced the competitiveness in the oversea markets (Karami & Tang, 2019).Therefore, facing the challenge of globalization, enterprises still need to implement sustainable strategic innovation and transformation through internal lean practices.

The LSA theory and its development

Blank (2013) from Stanford University proposed the Lean Startup Approaches (LSA) in respond to highly uncertain entrepreneurial environments(Gans et al., 2019; Yu, 2020). This theory contained customer development (Blank & Dorf, 2012), agile development (Ries, 2011) and BMC (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010). Under the setting of LSA, entrepreneurs used minimal viable products (MVP) to get user feedback and testify their business models (Blank, 2013; Ries, 2011). LSA changed the general views regarding entrepreneurial activities (Mansoori & Lackeus, 2020; Mollick, 2019). LSA gained huge momentum (Contigiani & Levinthal, 2019) and became the most extensive and practical approach to start a business (Frederiksen & Brem, 2017). This theory was also used by companies such as GE for inner development or business activity redirection (Ries, 2017).

Business experiments (Ehrig & Schmidt, 2022), found test strategies to verify the quality of ideas while reducing the uncertainty of entrepreneurial activities (Agrawal et al., 2021). However, in the "multi-customer group and multi-product" scenario, the iterative function of business model canvas is suppressed, leading to the problems of high utilization rate and low satisfaction level of the theory(Ghezzi, 2019).Wang et al (2022c) puts forward the advanced Lean Startup Approaches theory, where entrepreneurs focus on the iterative business model in the scenario of "single customer group and single product", and then return to the real entrepreneurship scene through customer group management and product management.

Therefore, the LSA theory and its derivatives provided entrepreneurs with tools, and at the same time inspired enterprises in positive aspects for their transformation.

Business model and business model canvas

Business model (BM) is the mechanism by which enterprises create, deliver, and share value (Teece, 2018). Enterprises found a consensus in the process of value discovery and acquisition (Kulins et al., 2016; Teece, 2010; Zott et al., 2011) The common agreements include value proposition, target market segments, value chain organization and revenue sharing (Foss & Saebi, 2017). All of which were sources of competitive advantage (McGrath, 2010).Business model innovation (BMI) played a key role in the company's success. In fact, BMI, including connectivity, inspiration, and transformation (Johnson et al., 2008), was as important as product innovation (Kaplan, 2012). BMI would also encounter the innovator’s dilemma proposed by Christensen (1997) (Wang et al., 2022b).

As enterprises’ value structure, BM included concepts, structures and management processes (Teece, 2010; Wirtz et al., 2016).

Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010) developed the Business Model Canvas (BMC) tool that covers three business aspects and nine dimensions: 1. Creation of Value, including dimensions of Value Proposition (VP), Key Partners (KP), Key Activities (KA) and Key Resources (KR); 2. Discovery of Value, including dimensions of Channels (CH), Customers Segments (CS) and Customer Relationships (CR); 3.Capture of Value, including dimensions of Income Sources (IS) and Cost Structure (CS) (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010). Maurya (2012) made creative modifications to BMC and developed the "Lean Canvas" to verify innovative ideas based on the rapid iteration between product and market (Maurya, 2012). As the entrepreneurial scenario of "multi-customer group and multi-product" restricts the iterative function of BMC, Wang et al. improve the business model canvas and propose the business model iterative canvas (BMIC), with which the entrepreneurs could focus on "single customer group, single product" scenario and thereby enhance the iterative function of BMC (Wang et al., 2022a, c).

As the existing literature suggests, Entrepreneurial Orientation theory and LSA theory are becoming increasingly developed, and the BMIC could help entrepreneurs to focus on users and products, providing a basic framework to visualize the business logic. However, as the business logic is relatively complex, the academic insight into the internal logic of the business model needs to be accumulated. Cross-border e-commerce in the digital age has promoted a new wave of global business model innovation. Study on business model innovation of leading enterprises in this field would promote the driving effect of the entrepreneurial orientation to business models, accelerate the understanding regarding the internal logic of business models and provide academic insight for the academia and referable cases for the business community.

Method

Research methods

Utilizing the Grounded Theory Method (Glaser, 1992) and Qualitiative Comparative Analysis (Bettis et al., 2015), this paper conducts an individual case study on SHEIN and uses LSAs theory to interpret the commercial value brought by the company's value network restructuring and utilize the Entrepreneurial Orientation theory to dissect the impact of entrepreneurs to business models. The rationalities are as follows: First, We focus on the intrinsic mechanism of SHEIN’s value network reconstruction and its impact on business logic. The research focusing on questions such as "why" and "how" would be suitable for an individual case study (Yin, 2009). Second, multiple data sources would cause the problem of inconsistent data. We perform "data triangulation" to ensure consistency and credibility of the data. Third, in the new economy environment, unicorns such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi were born in China while there are only few business model case studies objecting Chinese companies.

Case selection

Founded in 2008, SHEIN is a fast fashion cross-border e-commerce platform dedicated to building a cross-border fast fashion brand. In its early days, SHEIN succeeded in the wedding dress category with advertising traffic benefits from Google and other platforms. Since 2013, SHEIN has expanded from young women's clothing to all clothing categories through web celebrity, self-built website and mobile phone applications and original brands, entering "cross-border fast fashion" realm. SHEIN’s revenue in 2020 was around $10 billion, as a result of growth rate more than 100% for eight consecutive years. In June 2021, SHEIN accounted for 28% of total fast fashion sales in United States, equivalent to the sales of H&M and Zara combined. The Economist magazine nicknamed SHEIN as "fast fashion’s favorite".

SHEIN, with a user base from more than 220 countries and regions globally, was searched more than three times more on Google than Zara was, only lower than Amazon.

Research design

Data collection

This paper collects SHEIN data through the network platform, with sources including: Google, Netease, Zhihu, Sina Finance, Observer, Reuters, cross-border e-commerce, Yuguo, China Business News, and SHEIN’s official website, cloud factory official account, APP, etc. At the same time, we consulted the industry research report of Zhongtai Securities Research Institute and CITIC Securities Research Department and the 2020 China Fashion Cross-border E-commerce Development Report, jointly released by Deloitte and Google.

Data codification

The research team coded SHEIN’s data systematically. Business focus and three business aspects are coded as A, B, C, D respectively. Secondary code uses numerical subscript (see Table 1), and tertiary code adds numerical subscript according to the information and data of each field. For example, information from customer work, which is the sub level information of customer insight, if identified as B11, Specific information about customer work would be further subdivided. For the convenience of classification management, we used Xmind software to organize the data.

Table 1.

The SHEIN data coding method

Level 1 coding Level 2 coding
Business Focus (A)

First Customers (A1)

First Products (A2)
Discovery of Value (B) Customer Insights (B1)
Channels (B2)
Customer Relationships (B3)
Creation of Value (C) Value Proposition (C1)
Key Resources (C2)
Key Activities (C3)
Key Partners (C4)
Capture of Value (D) Income Sources (D1)
Cost Structure (D2)
Open in a new tab

Data processing

In oder to guarantee the credibility and effectiveness of the data, the validity and accuracy of the data were repeatly testified during the data collection process. The reliability and validity of the case study were guaranteed by "triangle validation" (Yin, 2009). By thinking about the relationship between the research theme, data evidence and theoretical basis, the research team repeatedly refines, compares, validates, and iterates the coding results, to maintain the consistency and objectivity of the data and minimize the any biased conclusions.

Results

According to Wang’s (2022b) BMIC, it is necessary to focus on the first customer group and the first product to effectively utilize the iterative function of canvas (Wang et al., 2022c). SHEIN's first customer group is fashionable women, and the first product is fast fashion clothing. Combined with the data collected from SHEIN, a business model canvas can be constructed to depict SHEIN's business model (see Fig. 1). The following is the business logic of SHEIN in terms of business focus, value discovery, value creation and value acquisition. The Value discovery section includes customer relationship, channel and customer insights. The value creation section includes value proposition, key activities, key resources and key partnerships. The capture of value section includes cost structure and revenue sources.

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

Open in a new tab

The SHEIN’s BMIC

Business focus

The SHEIN’s customers include fashionable women, fashionable men, and children. Products include fast fashion clothing, beauty makeup, home furnishing, pets and digital products. This paper takes fashion women as the first customer segment and fast fashion clothing as the first product to analyze the SHEIN’s business model for a more focused business insight.

First customer group analysis

SHEIN’s first customer segment is fashionable women in European and American countries. This customer segment has the following characteristics:In terms of the age structure, they are Generation Z teenagers. The Z generation is a generation of people born in 1995 to 2009, who were heavily influenced by technologies such as the Internet, instant messaging, smartphones and tablets. From the perspective of occupation distribution, there are mainly college students and young mothers in this customer segment. They like fashion products and pursue personalized consumption experience.From the perspective of income level, the overall income level of this customer segment is relatively low. In recent years, due to waves of unemployment and COVID-19, the consumption budget of Gen Z population in European and American countries has been severely squeezed. The US Policy Institute has estimated that 43.5 percent of the US population is living with poor living situation or low income.

Thus, young fashionable women are having a strong desire for consumption and facing a strict budget constraint at the same time.

Analysis of the first product

Since 2014, SHEIN has established its own brand "SHEIN", and launched a website and an APP, positioned as a "cross-border fast fashion" that focusing on women's clothing. The products are gradually expanded to the full category of clothing, providing clothing, accessories, shoes, bags, and other products.In the fast fashion realm, SHEIN has is taking the advantage of its fast, cheap, and fashionable characteristic that captures the psychological preference of young customers. Through excellent operation such as swift iteration and quality control, SHEIN has surpassed ZARA in Spain and H&M in Sweden in terms of sales revenue in 2021.

In conclusion, with the first customer group focuses on fashionable women and first product focuses on fashion clothes, the business model of SHEIN is revealed with better clarity.

Value discovery

Value discovery includes: Customer Insight (CI), Channel (CH) and Customer Relationship (CR). Among which, the Customer insight is the key as it is the logical starting point of business model design.

Customer insight

According to the suggestions of Wang et al. (2022c), the research integrates Osterwalder et al.’s (2015) Value proposition design (VPD) into the Customer Canvas (CC). Focusing on the first customer segment helps to enhance SHEIN's insight to its customers. Customer insight includes customer work, customer pain points, and customer revenue (Osterwalder et al., 2015). From the perspective of customer work, young fashionable women would need to dress to fit in various scenes. For example, appropriate clothes for work and school, comfortable clothes for home and leisure, and dress that shows personality for travel and workout. From the perspective of customer pain points, there are constraints as following: first, relatively high price, especially of famous fashion brands such as ZARA and H&M; second, budget constraints: low-income young women would have little money to spend on outfits; third, it would be difficult for young fashionable women to meet the dressing needs for those various scenes as their choices of styles are limited. From the perspective of customer revenue, customers expect to gain fashionable designs, various styles, cheap prices, and excellent shopping experiences at the same time.A thorough customer insight is the foundation to design a value proposition.

Channel

It is viable to establish a channel that can reach end users from the perspective of customers. SHEIN establishes channels through obtaining platform traffic, social traffic, online celebrities’ traffic, and alliance marketing. By doing so, SHEIN can obtain wider traffic channels and maintain lower traffic costs and better traffic utilization. First, obtain the platform traffic. SHEIN has launched its cross-border e-commerce business through third-party platforms such as Amazon and Alibaba's AliExpress. Using ShareASale promotion, the advertisement accurately reaches Reddit, Twitter, and other target customer groups. Second, obtain the social traffic. SHEIN uses social media such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and Reddit to build a we-media matrix. In May 2021, SHEIN had nearly 300 million followers on social media. Third, obtain the online celebrities’ traffic. SHEIN takes the early advantage of the online celebrity economy. In 2011, SHEIN began to cooperate with Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) and Key Opinion Consume (KOC) to promote its product and obtain traffic for its website. KOL and KOC participate in SHEIN’s Fashion Week and charity performances. Fourth, alliance marketing. SHEIN looks for smaller and influential KOC and help them become members of the alliance. These KOCs include students with certain influences in universities, bloggers, and young mothers with numbers of fans. Alliance members receive not only discounts but also commissions of certain percentage. For example, having 36,000 followers on Instagram, Laura, an athlete from University of South Carolina, is an alliance member. She could "gain six free items a month by posting her SHEIN purchases to her personal account."

Customer relationship

The core value of customer relationship lies in maximizing the customer value. SHEIN keeps the customer repurchase rate as high as 30%. The first approach is online interaction. SHEIN built a interactive community that provides services such as experience sharing, shopping guidance, friendship development, delivery. During the epidemic prevention and control period, SHEIN held the "SHEIN Together" online charity show, inviting various famous American singers including Katy Perry and Lil Nas X to perform. The traffic of the live broadcasting room reached a peak of 1.59 million. SHEIN's customers are used to sharing shopping experiences, and comments about SHEIN's products in texts, pictures, and videos fill the social media world. The second approach is offline interaction. SHEIN hosts localized events such as fashion shows, lighting programs, "SHEIN X 100 K Challenge" and "SHEIN X Rock the Runway" to promote interaction with fans and improve customer purchase experience and repurchase rates. The third approach is the pop-up store experience. SHEIN offers offline experience venues for fans through pop-up stores in Paris, Lyon, London, and other cities. Loyal fans need to make reservations in advance to get the experience opportunity, and the scarcity enhances the brand value. The fourth approach is building the brand image. Based on Direct to Customers (DTC), SHEIN built its own e-commerce website and APP with which the company could directly communicate with customers and create its own brand image. Although SHEIN did not hire celebrities to endorse, the brand won the favor from stars and online celebrities. SHEIN’s APP has 120 million registered users and more than 30 million daily users, with amount of both downloads and users already in the forefront of fashion e-commerce websites.

In conclusion, SHEIN accurately addresses the work, pain point and gains of fashionable women and effectively reaches the first customer group through its self-media matrix. Moreover, SHEIN discovers brand new value potential through the combination of on-line and off-line channels.

Value creation

Value creation includes four parts: Value Proposition (VP), Key Resources (KR), Key Activities (KA) and Key Partnerships (KP). Among which, the value proposition is the core. A value proposition that could make the customers obsess is designed based on the customer insight.

Value proposition

According to the Osterwalder et al.’s (2015) proposal, value proposition should fit customer insight and it should include product function, pain relief plan, and revenue creation scheme (Osterwalder et al., 2015).

From the perspective of product function, SHEIN’s business model has the following characteristics: First, the price is lower. SHEIN, relying on its own designers and well-rounded supply chain, design and produce products directly to customers without any middle agencies. Most of the products are priced under $20. For example, in Shequarian Pleasant’s (a student from a University in Georgia) shopping cart, 16 items totaled $108, in which the cheapest item was only priced at $1.38. Second, the quality is reliable. SHEIN’s Chinese site has a complete supply chain from sample clothing design through clothing production and storage management to logistics distribution, delivering reliable and quality products to customers. Third, the delivery is timely. SHEIN can complete the process of product design, fabric selection, and production packaging within 5 days. In New York, for example, the standard delivery cycle is two weeks, and the express delivery cycle is 8–9 days. This improves the experience of online shopping.

From perspective of the pain relief plan, there are two main characteristics: one is the extreme cost performance ratio. SHEIN sells fashion products designed and manufactured in China to the European and American markets, pursuing the ultimate cost performance. This not only meets Gen Z population’s shopping needs in Europe and America, but also solves the pain point of their budget constraints. The other characteristic is the rapid renewal. SHEIN keeps updating its catalog, offering more than 3,000 new styles a day, nearly 20,000 new styles a week, which is more than 20 times as many new products than Zara and H&M.

From the perspective of revenue creation scheme, SHEIN’s business model has the following characteristics: The first is fashionable design. SHEIN uses Google Trends Finder to capture popular market elements and update its design accordingly. Online illustrations align with the mainstream fashion aesthetic taste of European and American buyers. Before shooting each product, photographers have to make 5 rounds of collocation selection, and then choose 5 photos as the product illustration. The second characteristic is shopping experience. SHEIN has built the ultimate consumption experience scenario through O2O interaction and offline experience. According to Similar Web, SHEIN received more than 150 million mobile device and PC visits in May 2021, which is 33%, 44%, 84%, and 85% more than Nike, H&M, Zara, and Asos, respectively. SHEIN’s customers spend an average online browsing time of up to eight minutes, twice as long as Nike customers.

Key resources

SHEIN has explored mature operation methods for cross-border e-commerce, and has unique cognition and insights on traffic resources, supply resources, design resources, logistics resources and digital resources.

First, traffic resources. SHEIN can not only skillfully utilize the network traffic such as Google, Amazon and Alibaba, but also handle the social media traffic such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and Reddit. Especially, SHEIN cooperates with KOL and KOC to activate traffic resources at a low cost. For example, SHEIN has worked with countless internet celebrities, fashion bloggers and candidates from reality shows, inspiring them to post videos on TikTok and Instagram that show off their purchases from the company. Second, the supply resources. SHEIN effectively integrates China's matured clothing industry chain, which can not only deliver reliable products at fast and low prices, but also realize flexible manufacturing to meet the small-batch and diversified market demand. Third, design resources. SHEIN cooperates with well-known designers to launch co-design clothes, and establish a good cooperative relationship with new designers. Launch designer incubators to efficiently integrate designer resources. Fourth, logistics resources. With an increasingly grown logistics system, SHEIN built six logistics centers in Foshan, Nansha, Belgium, East America, West America, and India, from where its products can be delivered to 168 countries. SHEIN provides rapid shipments through overseas warehouses. In case of soaring orders, SHEIN arranges charter flights to ensure timeliness. Fifth, digital resources. SHEIN integrates digital strategy into business processes, covering design creativity, traffic acquisition, agile manufacturing and fast logistics, to improve operational efficiency.

Key activities

Key Activities involve the company's core competitiveness. SHEIN has developed a unique competitive advantage through customer management, data intelligence, fast fashion design and self-built brands. First activity is the customer management. SHEIN takes fashionable women as the first customer segment, skillfully controls all kinds of traffic resources, and continues to expand fan bases and registered users. In addition, customer service centers in Los Angeles, Liege, Belgium, Manila, Philippines, Dubai, Mumbai, India, Yiwu and Nanjing are established to enhance customer relations, activate online users, and promote order transformation. SHEIN chose to launch an independent website to bypass Amazon. CrunchBase showed that SHEIN has more traffic from PC than mobile devices, in line with the US credit card-based shopping culture. As of August 2021, 40% of SHEIN’s visitors came from web search, while Zara has only 4%. Second activity is the data intelligence. SHEIN's data intelligence covers the whole business process, including product design, supply chain, warehousing, logistics, online operations and Internet research and development. SHEIN establishes data centers in Nanjing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hangzhou, China, to integrate data resources and capture fashion elements through Google Trends Finder. The company hatches design ideas through SHEIN X and improve flexible manufacturing and supply capacity through Manufacturing Execution System (MES). SHEIN also builds feedback loop for designs through Large-scale Automation Test and Re-order (LATR) model. Third activity is the fast fashion operation. Design is the core competitiveness of fast fashion companies. SHEIN attaches great importance to the construction of the design team. In 2016, the design team has more than 800 members. Innovating the design process, SHEIN develops a "tracking system" to capture the product illustrations of retail websites and predicts fashion elements such as color, fabrics, and style, according to popular searches and trends. SHEIN then combines these elements to new products, which is reviewed by the design team before entering the sales system. LATR model is used to establish user feedback closed loop, and improve the business process of shelf renewal and shelf scrapping. For example, short sweater vests are favored by customers and will be automatically ordered and restocked. Fourth activity is to create their own brand. SHEIN has built a global operation center, maintained its overall brand image, and created its own cross-border fast fashion brand. In 2018, SHEIN was awarded AliExpress’ "Top 10 Overseas Brands"; in 2019, SHEIN won Twitter’s Most Influential Overseas Brand; in 2020, SHEIN was listed as the most frequently mentioned brand in TikTok; in 2021, Brand Z report showed that SHEIN ranked 11th in the Annual Global Brand Index of China, surpassing brands including Tencent and Tsingtao Beer. In terms of market share and recognition, SHEIN has become a world-class fast fashion brand platform.

Key partnership

SHEIN's business model essentially effectively matches China's developed supply chain system with fast fashion demand through digital technology. Important partners include: traffic platforms, Chinese supply chain, designers, logistics and software. First partnership is the traffic platform. For the PC traffic, SHEIN continues to work with Google, Amazon and AliExpress; For the mobile devices traffic, SHEIN works with social media such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and Reddit; For the traffic acquisition, SHEIN pays to partnership with ShareASale, Google, in order to precisely reach end users on Reddit and Twitter; For the traffic vehicle, SHEIN works with KOL, KOC, internet celebrities, fashion bloggers and so on to increase online activity and exposure. Second partnership is China's supply chain. According to the requirements of "small order quick return", a flexible supply chain has been built by SHEIN and the company has nearly 6,000 cooperating factories in Panyu, Guangzhou. Building a complete supply chain consisting of fabric development, sample clothing development, mass production, quality management, warehousing management, and logistics distribution, SHEIN broke the traditional split production link. SHEIN developed the MES management system for "cloud manufacturing" management, reducing factory delivery time from 15 to 7 days and only 5 days for top suppliers. SHEIN leaves the pressure of inventory to itself, with the minimum order volume of 100 pieces. The company timely checkout with suppliers and support supplier growth through support plans, and ensure quality through quality control. SHEIN creates a supply chain community with the ability of "small batch, fast, high quality and low latency". Third partnership is other cooperation. In March 2021, SHEIN launched SHEIN X, a designer incubator, providing collaboration opportunities for independent fashion designers to launch new designer co-branded clothes monthly, where designers are only responsible for creating, retaining copyright, and sharing profits. SHEIN has six logistics centers in Foshan, Nansha, Belgium, East United States, West United States and India to improve distribution efficiency.

In conclusion, SHEIN effectively integrates the resources of the “China supply chain” via digital technologies, to quickly deliver “inexpensive, quality and fashionable” products to first customer group, which brings extreme consumption experiences and achieves value creation.

Capture of value

Capture of Value includes cost structure (CS) and revenue sources (RS), reflecting the sustainability of the business model.

Cost structure

We analyze the advantages of SHEIN in cost structure in terms of cost scalability, competition-driven growth, and key competitive advantages. First characteristic of SHEIN’s cost structure is the cost scalability. SHEIN's MES system for small and medium-sized vendors and its incubator for designers, SHEIN X, are scalable in management costs. For example, SHEIN requires MES system developers to "help production departments output management processes, rules, and concepts to garment factories." As a result, SHEIN does not simultaneously increase management costs as business orders grow substantially. The second characteristic is the competition-driven mode. SHEIN adopts a "cost-driven + value-driven" competitive model. SHEIN’s priority in supply chain management is: cost > delivery period > quality > supplier relationship > supplier growth, from which SHEIN has established an advantage of low cost. SHEIN creates value by shortening the interlink between suppliers and end-users. In the next part, we would elaborate the logic of SHEIN’s value creation. The third characteristic is the competitive advantage. SHEIN's "small single fast return" mode, combined with the LATR model, is a long tail business model (Osterwalder et al., 2015), achieving an overall scale advantage. After SHEIN put up new products, according to the customer feed-backs, the company would accelerate inventory turnover through intelligent recommendation and limited time promotion.

Revenue sources

We analyze the commercial value of SHEIN from whether the revenue source is stable and whether there is new growth space. First, the revenue source is stable. With 30 percent of consumer repurchases, the SHEIN business model is addictive to consumers. "I can't stop buying it, I am addicted to SHEIN," Pleasant joked on Facebook. SHEIN's market share in the US fast fashion category has jumped from 7% in January 2020 to around 30% in June 2021. Second, there is new growth space. During the Amazon's "account banning event", SHEIN seized the opportunity to attract Chinese brands to enter its platform with its traffic capabilities which is a creation of new businesses. SHEIN is building a high-end product line, the MOTF, where consumers can enjoy premium clothing with no extra cost.

In conculsion, SHEIN’s cost structure has the potential to upgrade, and the company has developed a “small&unique, quick to return” business model, which would excel when capturing values.

Discussion

Through the BMIC, we have outlined SHEIN’s business model of focusing on "fashionable women" and "fast fashion clothing". On this basis, we would go on and further explore the intrinsic value and business logic of SHEIN business model.

How does entrepreneurial orientation influence business model?

The entrepreneurial orientation of SHEIN’s founder Yangtian Xu and his team determined the business model of the enterprise from the perspective of business selection, business model iteration and value network reconstruction.

Business selection

Graduated from Qingdao Technology University in 2007, the founder Yangtian Xu recognized the online export business model from SEO (Search Engine Optimization). In 2008, Yangtian Xu, Xiaohu Wang and Peng Li established the Nanjing Weidian Information Technology Company Limited, focusing on the cross-border e-commerce business of wedding dresses. SHEIN’s new business selection is oriented from its founder Xu’s business insight. Entrepreneurial orientation brings new opportunities of businesses, which matches the third method mentioned by Wales et al. (2020).

Business model iteration

SHEIN’s development oriented from founder’s personal entrepreneurial orientation, developed to team’s entrepreneurial orientation, and gradually formed a competitive advantage of the enterprise, which matches with Covin’s view (2020). Moreover, from the view of business development, SHEIN oriented from cross-border e-commerce software services, developed to cross-border e-commerce business exploration. Based on lean startup practice, SHEIN dynamically selects its business model, which matches with Chavez’s view (2020).

Value network reconstruction

In 2014, Xu, the founder, visited Guangdong, China to build supply chain system by himself. The MES management system is implemented at the same time, achieved a throughout process management to the workers and the factories. The average completion time of orders were shortened from 15 to 7 days, as a result. Moreover, the founder effectively grasped the opportunity of cross-border e-commerce and innovated marketing resources allocation through social media (Wales et al., 2020), swiftly constructed a platform for fashionable women and obtained oversea marketing capabilities (Karami & Tang, 2019).

How does value network reconstruction create value?

The KR, KA and KP section in the canvas describe how SHEIN delivers value propositions and creates value. We utilize value chain analysis (Porter, 1985) to analyze the business value of SHEIN’s network reconstruction.

Porter divides the value chain into basic and support activities. Basic activities include: Inbound Logistics, Operations, Outbound Logistics, Marketing & Sales, and Service. Support activities include: Procurement, Human Resource Management, Technological Development, and Infrastructure (Porter, 1985).

Traditional model dilemma

From the foreign trade business process of Chinese traditional manufacturing industry, we can describe the serial process of Chinese services from garment factories to end-users (see Fig. 2). The traditional international trade of garments has the following shortcomings: First, the process is cumbersome. From the garment factory to the end users, the order needs to go through processes including manufacturers, exporters, importers, distributors, etc. Moreover, the product would need quota management, export customs clearance and other import and export management links. Second, the cycle is long. The business processes described above such as design, samples, orders and so on often need repeated confirmation, and the whole business process would take more than 6 months. Third, only batch orders would be accepted. The cumbersome trade process predetermines that only batch orders are accepted under this business model.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

Open in a new tab

Traditional process of garment export sales

The value of SHEIN’s Model

SHEIN’s model reconstructs the traditional serial business process into a parallel service platform mode. First, through the supply chain management and customer service center, the distance between the clothing factory and the users can be shortened. Through decentralization, the intermediate processes can be compressed by two-thirds, and intermediate costs could be reduced by 80%. Therefore, the products would have a cost advantage in the terminal market. Second, designers directly update new styles through the designer incubator. After users place orders, the garment factory will arrange the production plan simultaneously, followed by on-time delivery with the logistic companies. In this case, the business cycle is compressed to 1 / 10 of the original process. Third, directly oriented to end users, SHEIN’s platform can meet personalized orders and timely obtain market feedback of new products. Through rapid iteration, SHEIN could build a business closed loop.

Thus, through value network reconstruction, SHEIN’ business model could provide with ultimate shopping experience to end users, stable order flows to garment factories and cooperation opportunities for designers and logistics companies, all at the same time.

Can implementing a digital strategy create value?

In the digital age, enterprises create value in new ways and use IT technology to accurately grasp new market opportunities (Cenamor et al., 2019), and build long-term relationships with customers (Paiola & Gebauer, 2020). Implementing digital strategy requires a major shift across the organization (Kohtamaki et al., 2020), to achieve organizational change (Hanelt et al., 2021). SHEIN’s digital strategy is reflected in four processes: data center, digital design, digital manufacturing and digital marketing.

Data center

SHEIN has set up four data centers in Nanjing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou to support the company comprehensively promote the digital strategy and collect data through multiple channels. Data centers are the central system of the company's digital strategy, by which the company can link design, manufacturing, sales, and logistics, and use professional software and algorithms to improve the accuracy of business operations.

Digital design

SHEIN provides users with a large number of fashion designs by working with external original designers. First, SHEIN uses Google Trends Finder to find the search volume and rising trend of hot words in different countries, and then predicts the colors, fabrics and styles that may be popular in the future, combining these elements into new clothing styles. Second, the launch of SHEIN X, an incubator of designers, established a good cooperative relationship with new designers. Designers only need to be responsible for the creation. They would own the design copyright and share the sales profits. After the designer makes the prototype garment, the sample would directly enter the operation system. The design process is similar to the industrial assembly line.

Digital manufacturing

SHEIN built the "cloud manufacturing" system through the MES management system. First, the company integrates one-third of the garment production capacity of Guangdong, China, to ensure that the production can meet the market demand. Second, SHEIN utilizes penetrating process management for garment factories and related processes, responds to the personalized needs of users in real time through the software. The "small single quick return" model meets the market demand of "C2M".

Digital marketing

SHEIN has accumulated many followers on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and other social media, and has realized digital marketing by developing LATR models. First, through the small batch shelf sales, the company automated tests of user response. Second, based on user feedback, designers quickly iterate the design, aiming to improve. Finally, through intelligent recommendation, the system efficiently match potential users, improve the operation results.

Is the SHEIN business model a disruptive innovation?

SHEIN started from the low-end market and is creating disruptive innovations in the low-end market by creating an "extremely low price" user experience (see Fig. 3). We need to further discuss whether SHEIN disruptive innovation can disrupt the high-end market (e. g., ZARA and H&M), and whether it will repeat the scenario that Christensen (1997) observed in the hard disk market, excavator industry and steel industry (Christensen, 1997).

Fig. 3.

Fig. 3

Open in a new tab

SHEIN business model’s disruptive innovation

Successfully occupying the low end of the market, SHEIN has succeeded in the low-end market through multiple rounds of iterations, creating an "extremely low price" consumer experience for users. The evolution of SHEIN’s business logic in the low-end market includes the following dimensions: The first dimension is the evolution from low frequency to high frequency. SHEIN first sold wedding dresses as low frequency products, then switched to high frequency fashion clothing. The company established user trust through high frequency business and continued to expand the scale of users. The second dimension is the evolution from a single product to multiple products. SHEIN expands its product portfolio from fashion clothing to fashion accessories and items, maximizing the value of the user. The third dimension is the evolution from a single customer group to multi-customer groups. From the user group of fashion women, SHEIN has gradually expanded its target group to fashion men, children, and other related customers. In the European and the American market, the high downloads of SHEIN shopping APP, as well as fashion women's obsession and addiction to SHEIN, shows that SHEIN has successfully occupied the "low-end market". The low end of the market is the first step to disruptive innovation.

The feasibility of occupying the high-end market

ZARA and H&M are the incumbents in the fast fashion market, and their biggest concern is whether SHEIN successfully enters the mainstream market of fast fashion. In fact, SHEIN has started the MOTF brand to build a high-end product line. Through high-end fabrics, quality and craftsmanship, the brand would provide users with high-quality fast fashion clothing at no extra cost. For the high-end market, SHEIN requires user upgrades, design upgrades, and supply chain upgrades. First is the user upgrade. SHEIN needs to re-identify the characteristics of the new customer group. SHEIN would obtain insight into the minds of users especially from the perspective of user work, pain points and user revenue. This is the basis of business insight to successfully enter the high-end market. Second is the design upgrade. SHEIN needs to attract top designers to join the open designer system through open cooperation, and create a unique "fast fashion" brand premium. The third is supply chain upgrading. With the transformation of China's manufacturing industry, fast fashion manufacturing process and technology can meet the needs of SHEIN’s high-end market. SHEIN operates a cross-border e-commerce platform through the concept of cooperation and openness, with small risk of design upgrade and supply chain upgrade. While there is certain uncertainty in user upgrade, the company would control this risk by successfully occupying the mind of high-end customer groups.

Research conclusions and prospects

Research conclusion

Utilizing the grounded theory method and qualitative analysis, with entrepreneurial orientation theory and advanced LSA (Wang et al, 2022c), focusing on fashion women (first customer segment) and fast fashion clothing (first product), this research conducts an individual case study on SHEIN’s business model. The results are as follow:

Entrepreneurial orientation drives the development of business models

Based on the entrepreneurial orientation of SHEIN’s founder, the enterprise gained the ability of agile development. Through the lean startup approach, its business model is iterated and its value network is effectively reconstructed. Corresponding to Christensen (1997)’s disruptive innovation theory, SHEIN cuts in the low end market in the fast fashion industry and is shifting into the high end market. Through customer upgrade, design upgrade and supply chain upgrade, SHEIN is creating disruptive innovation in the fast fashion industry.

The SHEIN business model is sustainable

SHEIN focuses on low income young women and integrates the matured Chinese supply chain, winning the preference of end users. Through social media, the company effectively reaches its target groups and establishes high viscosity user relationships. SHEIN’s digital structure further inproves the efficiency of design, the quality of manufacture, the accuracy of customer service and the efficiency of the deliveries. The SHEIN business model is scalable in both cost structure and revenue sources. The business model of SHEIN’s cross-border e-commerce is sustainable and replicable.

Reconstruction of the value network is the key to the competitive advantage

SHEIN’s cross-border e-commerce model reconstructs the traditional serial foreign trade business model to the parallel service model consisting of design, manufacturing, logistics and users, reducing the middle processes by 2 / 3, and saves more than 80% of the cost. The new value network shortens the business cycle to 1 / 10 of the original model, delivering the ultimate cost-effective consumption experience for fast fashion consumers.

Research contribution

The innovation of this research lies in: First, the Business Model Iterative Canvas (BMIC) could interpret the business models and their logic in-depth. Second, the research reveals how the competitive advantage is created through value network reconstruction. The main academic contributions of this paper are:

First, this paper testified the mechanism of how the entrepreneurial orientation theory influences the business model. The traditional business model is overturned from three ways: management style, element allocation and new business entrance (Wales et al., 2020). the value discovery is the driving factor, and the value network reconstruction is the key factor, and the digital strategy can effectively improve the operation efficiency of the business model.

Second, SHEIN's business model was clearly analyzed focusing on "single customer group, single product". The research tests the effectiveness of the advanced Lean Startup Approaches, which helps to enhance the academic insight into business logic.

Third, the research verifies that there are still disruptive innovations of business model. After entering the fast and low-end market of fast fashion, SHEIN is evolving to the mainstream fast-fashion market through customer group upgrade, design upgrade and supply chain upgrade, challenging ZARA and H&M.

Management insights

This case study provides the following insights for enterprise transformation under new economic model,

First, enterprises need to establish a global perspective to design and innovate business models. From the perspective of the case company, SHEIN is adept at reconstructing the new value network between the advantages of China's supply chain and the needs of fashionable women in Europe and the United States. Thus, integrating resources to create value from a global perspective is a crucial competitiveness of enterprises.

Secondly, enterprises need to make good use of big data and AI to optimize their business models. With the rapid application of AI applications, enterprises need to be proficient at using AI technology to improve operational efficiency in the process of business model innovation.

Research limitations

Taking SHEIN as an example, this paper studies the business model and its internal logic. The limitations come from:

First, the limitations of the data sources. As SHEIN is relatively low-key, the company conservatively receives the media and research personnel. We mainly collect the company's data from the existing network data, APP, and website, which may distort some data and information. We utilized triangle verification and obtained objective information as far as possible. In addition, SHEIN business model has controversial information such as design infringement, quality defects and labor problems. Since the information source comes from competitors or non-mainstream customers, we do not use this information. As for the risks and hidden dangers brought by this information to SHEIN business model, they need to be verified and tested in practice.

Second, the limitations of business understanding. This paper focuses on the business logic of "first customer group and first category", and lacks business insight from cross-customer group and cross-category collaboration. Especially after the transformation of SHEIN to the platform, customer group collaboration and category collaboration will play an increasingly important role in the platform business model, which requires the multilateral business model to analyze.

Research prospect

This part analyzes the limitations of this study, while it also indicates the direction of the internal logic research of the business model:

First, because the business model is a complex process, single-case and multi-case studies remain the focus areas of future research. Looking forward to adopting a commercial experimental approach (Agrawal et al., 2021), the researches would obtain more first-hand information and get more accurate insight into the internal logic of the business model.

Second, the business model includes three internal logic cycles: value discovery, value creation and the capture of value. Each logic cycle contains several sections. The competitiveness of different industries and companies comes from the uniqueness and effective combination of several cycles or sections. It is suggested that scholars choose appropriate cases to evaluate the internal logic and build corresponding models to provide a research framework for subsequent quantitative research.

Third, the advanced Lean Startup Approaches helps to improve the academic insight of business logic, as Wang et al (2022c) advocates to return to the real entrepreneurship scene through "customer group management" and "product management" (Wang et al., 2022c). Especially for platform companies, they need to pay more attention to the commercial value brought by customer group collaboration and category collaboration.

Footnotes

Highlights

• Entrepreneurial Orientation drives the reconstruction of value network and the innovation of business model.

• Accurate definition and in-depth insights of customer segment is the starting point of the business model.

• Value network reconstruction is a key way of value creation.

• The scalability of the cost and the expandability of the income resources open the space of value capturing.

• The business model is tested and iterated based on user feedback.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Contributor Information

Chengbin Wang, Email: chambion@tzc.edu.cn.

Minju Chen, Email: 894927220@qq.com.

Qingyang Wang, Email: cyh24463@163.com.

Yongyan Fang, Email: 997260330@qq.com.

References

  1. Agrawal, A., Gans, J. S., & Stern, S. (2021). Enabling entrepreneurial choice. Management Science, 67(9), 5510–5524. 10.1287/mnsc.2020.3920
  2. Bettis, R. A., Gambardella, A., Helfat, C., & Mitchell, W. (2015). Qualitative empirical research in strategic management. Strategic Management Journal, 637–639. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43897794
  3. Blank S. Why the lean start-up changes everything. Harvard Business Review. 2013;91(5):63–72. [Google Scholar]
  4. Blank, S., & Dorf, B. (2012). The startup owner's manual: The step-by-step guide for building a great company. K&S Ranch, Pescadero, CA.
  5. Cenamor J, Parida V, Wincent J. How entrepreneurial SMEs compete through digital platforms: The roles of digital platform capability, network capability and ambidexterity. Journal of Business Research. 2019;100:196–206. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.03.035. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  6. Chavez, R., Yu, W., Sadiq Jajja, M. S., Lecuna, A., & Fynes, B. (2020). Can entrepreneurial orientation improve sustainable development through leveraging internal lean practices?. Business Strategy and the Environment, 29(6), 2211–2225. 10.1002/bse.2496
  7. Christensen CM. The Innovator’s Dilemma. Harvard Business School Press; 1997. [Google Scholar]
  8. Contigiani, A., Levinthal, D. A. (2019). Situating the construct of lean start-up: adjacent conversations and possible future directions. Industrial and Corporate Change, 28(3), 551–564. 10.1093/icc/dtz013
  9. Covin, J. G., & Lumpkin, G. T. (2011). Entrepreneurial orientation theory and research: Reflections on a needed construct. Entrepreneurship theory and practice, 35(5), 855–872. 10.1111/j.1540-6520.2011.00482.x
  10. Covin JG, Rigtering JC, Hughes M, Kraus S, Cheng CF, Bouncken RB. Individual and team entrepreneurial orientation: Scale development and configurations for success. Journal of Business Research. 2020;112:1–12. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.02.023. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  11. Ehrig, T., & Schmidt, J. (2022). Theory‐based learning and experimentation: How strategists can systematically generate knowledge at the edge between the known and the unknown. Strategic Management Journal. 10.1002/smj.3381
  12. Ferreras-Méndez, J. L., Llopis, O., & Alegre, J. (2022). Speeding up new product development through entrepreneurial orientation in SMEs: The moderating role of ambidexterity. Industrial Marketing Management, 102, 240–251. 10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.01.015
  13. Foss NJ, Saebi T. Fifteen years of research on business model innovation: How far have we come, and where should we go? Journal of Management. 2017;43(1):200–227. doi: 10.1177/0149206316675927. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  14. Frederiksen DL, Brem A. How do entrepreneurs think they create value? A scientific reflection of Eric Ries’ Lean Startup approach. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal. 2017;13(1):169–189. doi: 10.1007/s11365-016-0411-x. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  15. Gans JS, Stern S, Wu J. Foundations of entrepreneurial strategy. Strategic Management Journal. 2019;40(5):736–756. doi: 10.1002/smj.3010. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  16. Ghezzi, A. (2019). Digital startups and the adoption and implementation of Lean Startup Approaches: Effectuation, Bricolage and Opportunity Creation in practice. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 146, 945–960. 10.1016/j.techfore.2018.09.017
  17. Glaser, B. G. (1992). Basics of grounded theory analysis. Mill Valley, CA: Sociology Press.
  18. Hanelt A, Bohnsack R, Marz D, Antunes Marante C. A systematic review of the literature on digital transformation: Insights and implications for strategy and organizational change. Journal of Management Studies. 2021;58(5):1159–1197. doi: 10.1111/joms.12639. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  19. Johnson MW, Christensen CM, Kagermann H. Reinventing your business model. Harvard Business Review. 2008;86(12):57–68. [Google Scholar]
  20. Kaplan, S. (2012). The business model innovation factory: How to stay relevant when the world is changing. John Wiley & Sons.
  21. Karami, M., & Tang, J. (2019). Entrepreneurial orientation and SME international performance: The mediating role of networking capability and experiential learning. International Small Business Journal, 37(2), 105–124. 10.1177/0266242618807275
  22. Kohtamäki, M., Parida, V., Patel, P. C., & Gebauer, H. (2020). The relationship between digitalization and servitization: The role of servitization in capturing the financial potential of digitalization. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 151, 119804. 10.1016/j.techfore.2019.119804
  23. Kulins C, Leonardy H, Weber C. A configurational approach in business model design. Journal of Business Research. 2016;69(4):1437–1441. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.10.121. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  24. Mansoori Y, Lackeus M. Comparing effectuation to discovery-driven planning, prescriptive entrepreneurship, business planning, lean startup, and design thinking. Small Business Economics. 2020;54(3):791–818. doi: 10.1007/s11187-019-00153-w. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  25. Maurya, A. (2012). Running Lean: Iterate From Plan a to a Plan That Works. O’Reilly Media, Incorporated, Sebastopol, CA.
  26. McGrath RG. Business models: A discovery driven approach. Long Range Planning. 2010;43(2–3):247–261. doi: 10.1016/j.lrp.2009.07.005. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  27. Mollick E. What the lean startup method gets right and wrong. Harvard Business Review. 2019;10:1–4. [Google Scholar]
  28. Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business model generation: a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers (Vol. 1). John Wiley & Sons.
  29. Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Bernarda, G., & Smith, A. (2015). Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want. John Wiley & Sons.
  30. Paiola M, Gebauer H. Internet of things technologies, digital servitization and business model innovation in BtoB manufacturing firms. Industrial Marketing Management. 2020;89:245–264. doi: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2020.03.009. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  31. Pantano E, Pizzi G, Scarpi D, Dennis C. Competing during a pandemic? Retailers’ ups and downs during the COVID-19 outbreak. Journal of Business Research. 2020;116:209–213. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.05.036. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Porter, M. E. (1985). Competitive advantage of nations: creating and sustaining superior performance. simon and schuster.
  33. Qi X, Chan JH, Hu J, Li Y. Motivations for selecting cross-border e-commerce as a foreign market entry mode. Industrial Marketing Management. 2020;89:50–60. doi: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2020.01.009. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  34. Ries, E. (2011). The lean startup: How today's entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. Currency.
  35. Ries, E. (2017). The Startup Way: How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial Management to Transform Culture and Drive Long-Term Growth. Currency.
  36. Schumpeter, J. A. (1934). The Theory of Economic Development. Cambridge Mass.
  37. Seelos C, Mair J. Profitable business models and market creation in the context of deep poverty: A strategic view. Academy of Management Perspectives. 2007;21(4):49–63. doi: 10.5465/amp.2007.27895339. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  38. Sjödin D, Parida V, Kohtamäki M, Wincent J. An agile co-creation process for digital servitization: A micro-service innovation approach. Journal of Business Research. 2020;112:478–491. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.01.009. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  39. Teece DJ. Business models, business strategy and innovation. Long Range Planning. 2010;43(2–3):172–194. doi: 10.1016/j.lrp.2009.07.003. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  40. Teece DJ. Business models and dynamic capabilities. Long Range Planning. 2018;51(1):40–49. doi: 10.1016/j.lrp.2017.06.007. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  41. Wales, W., Gupta, V. K., Marino, L., & Shirokova, G. (2019). Entrepreneurial orientation: International, global and cross-cultural research. International Small Business Journal, 37(2), 95–104. 10.1177/0266242618813423
  42. Wales WJ, Covin JG, Monsen E. Entrepreneurial orientation: The necessity of a multilevel conceptualization. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. 2020;14(4):639–660. doi: 10.1002/sej.1344. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  43. Wang C, Dai M, Fang Y, Liu C. Ideas and methods of lean and agile startup in the VUCA Era. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal. 2022;18(4):1527–1544. doi: 10.1007/s11365-022-00797-3. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  44. Wang, C., Fang, Y., & Zhang, C. (2022b). Mechanism and countermeasures of “The Innovator's Dilemma” in business model. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 7(2), 100169. 10.1016/j.jik.2022.100169
  45. Wang, C., Wang, H., Dai, M., Fang, Y (2022c). Lean Startup Approaches: Convergence, Integration, and Improvement. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 179, 121640. 10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121640
  46. Wirtz, B. W., Pistoia, A., Ullrich, S., Göttel, V. (2016). Business models: Origin, development and future research perspectives. Long Range Planning, 49, 36–54. 10.1016/j.lrp.2015.04.001
  47. Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods (Vol. 5). sage.
  48. Yu S. How do accelerators impact the performance of high-technology ventures? Management Science. 2020;66(2):530–552. doi: 10.1287/mnsc.2018.3256. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  49. Yunus M, Moingeon B, Lehmann-Ortega L. Building social business models: Lessons from the Grameen experience. Long Range Planning. 2010;43(2–3):308–325. doi: 10.1016/j.lrp.2009.12.005. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  50. Zott C, Amit R. Business model design and the performance of entrepreneurial firms. Organization Science. 2007;18(2):181–199. doi: 10.1287/orsc.1060.0232. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  51. Zott C, Amit R, Massa L. The business model: Recent developments and future research. Journal of Management. 2011;37(4):1019–1042. doi: 10.1177/0149206311406265. [DOI] [Google Scholar]

Articles from International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal are provided here courtesy of Nature Publishing Group

RESOURCES