Extending Digital Ventures Through Templating

Jimmy Huang (), Ola Henfridsson () and Martin J. Liu ()
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Jimmy Huang: Nottingham University Business School, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG8 1BB, United Kingdom
Ola Henfridsson: Miami Herbert Business School, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida 33146
Martin J. Liu: Nottingham University Business School China, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, China

Information Systems Research, 2022, vol. 33, issue 1, 285-310

Abstract: Digital ventures typically face significant growth expectations. A common response is to extend the current operations into new areas through repurposing its digital core (e.g., search engine, data mining technique, platform, or voice interface). Grounded in prior literature, we surmise that the high versatility of the digital venture’s digital core facilitates such an extension by reducing cost and increasing speed. However, we know little about the process by which digital ventures draw on their digital core to extend current operations. To this end, we use Penrose’s work to analyze a two-year in-depth case study of a Chinese digital venture’s extension of its initial operations based on its credit rating technology. Our findings suggest that digital venture extension is facilitated by templating, which is a digitally enabled process of generating and using generic solutions across business areas. Through our grounded analysis, we unpack templating by tracing three processes contributing to digital venture extension: concepting, generalizing, and porting. Synthesizing our findings, we contribute to the emerging digital innovation and entrepreneurship literature by developing a process model of digital venture extension.

Keywords: digital innovation; digital entrepreneurship; digital ventures; digital technology; firm extension; templating; scope; versatile resources; case study; business value of IT (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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