Stay the Course or Pivot? Antecedents of Cognitive Refinements of Business Models in Young Firms (WITHDRAWN)

This paper focuses on the antecedents of the cognitive refinements that young firms undergo as they strive to define a viable business model. Drawing from detailed data on the business model honing processes of 143 founding teams over an 8-week period and in-depth fieldwork including longitudinal interviews with founding team members, we ask whether specific search behaviors and founder characteristics drive business model change. Our findings show that searching for market information and experimenting activate the business model refinement process. Moreover specific team compositions, such as having a member with management training, have significant heterogeneous effects on the business model validation process. This paper contributes to the emerging discussion about business model change, and to the distinction between opportunity and strategy.

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