Supporting Multi-Sided Platform firms to maintain rapid growth (and to avoid failure) over time through a Dynamic Business Modelling approach

Over the last few decades, the diffusion of the sharing economy has nurtured continuous changes in business model opportunities with multi-sided platforms (MSPs) in many industries. MSPs are digital exchange platforms aiming at connecting unmatched demand- and supply- side participants through the use of internet technology. In many cases, such start-up initiatives have led to the creation of scale-up or high-growth firms (HGFs). However, in spite of the significant contribution to both economic development and employment, current studies seem to investigate primarily in an isolated perspective HGFs, MSPs and their business model innovation (BMI). The existing literature on HGFs focuses on antecedents and consequences of high growth. Scholars on BMI tend to investigate either start-ups or established firms and MSPs are often studies as e-business model typologies. Due to the peculiar and complex characteristics of high-growth MSPs, this study proposes to adopt a Dynamic Business Modelling (DBM) approach aimed at making explicit the net of relationships between value creation and capture drivers and the way such drivers influence firm performance. To this aim, the paper illustrates its application through the means of a failed scale-up MSP case-study (Take Eat Easy). Findings show that the DBM can support MSPs’ entrepreneur to identify strategy levers on which he/she can act on to strengthen favorably (or to weaken undesired) value creation and value capture processes to maintain rapid growth (or to avoid failure) over time.