University of Twente Student Theses
Clustering tenants based on the business model ontology to study the influence of business models on tenant utility
Telman, R.V. (2013) Clustering tenants based on the business model ontology to study the influence of business models on tenant utility.
|
PDF
3MB |
| Abstract: | The importance of entrepreneurship has been acknowledged in scientific research. Although entrepreneurship is associated with several economic trends a lot of new business fail due to lack of knowledge and resources. Business incubators help entrepreneurs’ start-up, survive, and succeed. Business incubators can significantly improve the survival and growth prospects of new and small firms at an early stage of development. In order to add value and help maximising tenant growth incubators provide tenants with several incubator mechanisms. In order to develop a successful incubator and enhance the incubation process the incubator should gain understanding of tenant needs. However, there is unlikely to be a best practice towards incubation. This research is based on the assumption that tenants differ in regard to which mechanisms provided by incubators meets their needs and contributes to incubate performance. This research focuses on developing an advice for document services incubator, a business incubator located in Venlo, the Netherlands, brought into existence in collaboration with Canon/Océ, Excer and Maastricht University. This research is conducted among tenants in the DSV PADSI program. OBJECTIVE This research examines the possibility to identify tenants with a similar utility in order to optimise the incubation process. In addition, this research aims to gain a deep understanding of tenants needs and preferences. METHODS Through standardised abstract interviews with business developers at DSV the business models of tenants will be identified. The two-step cluster analysis identifies similar tenants based on these business models. Through a self-explicated conjoint analysis the preferences of tenants will be identified regarding incubator mechanisms. To examine if there is a significant relationship between business models and tenant utilities several statistical tests will be done. FINDINGS The two-step cluster analysis provided four clusters with a good cluster quality. The findings show that if tenants create value through innovation their segmentation deviates towards platforms, while their revenue model deviates towards selling. The self-explicated conjoint analysis shows a strong tenant preference towards internal network, external network, internal financing and external financing and a low tenant preference towards administration assistance, infrastructure and training. Tenants that prefer external network are also likely to prefer business assistance, while tenants that prefer infrastructure are also likely to prefer administration assistance. The MANOVA test shows no significant difference in tenant preferences among clusters. However, the business model elements value proposition and segmentation show that there is a strong significant difference on external financing among clusters. The Kruskal-Wallis test indicates a significant difference regarding infrastructure between tenants in different PADSI phases. CONCLUSION There is no statistical evidence to conclude that tenant utilities can be predicted using tenant business models. There is a universal preference for financing and networking among DSV tenants. Tenants creating value through innovation and platform-based tenants strongly prefer external financing compared to non-innovative tenants and application-based. In addition, start-ups tend to prefer infrastructure, while experienced entrepreneurs tend to prefer an external network. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 85 business administration, organizational science |
| Programme: | Business Administration MSc (60644) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/64433 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
Show download statistics for this publication
Show download statistics for this publicationRepository Staff Only: item control page