The subscription business model and new venture viability during a crisis

William C. Zhou, Sunny Li Sun and Peiyi Jia

Journal of Business Research, 2025, vol. 200, issue C

Abstract: Integrating insights from the service-dominant logic and the activity system perspective of business models, we explore and analyze three core design rules of the subscription business model: customer-orientation, interfunctional coordination, and digitalization. We find that the adoption of the subscription business model strengthens new venture viability during a crisis. More specifically, the negative impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the performance of subscription-based ventures is less pronounced than other business models in terms of changes in shareholder value, firm risk, and severity of loss. Furthermore, we find that new subscription-based ventures depend less on marketing expenses during a crisis.

Keywords: Business model; Service-dominant logic; New venture viability; Subscription business model; Crisis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:200:y:2025:i:c:s0148296325004837

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115660

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