Technology Push or Market Pull? Strategic Orientation in Business Model Design and Digital Start-up Performance*

The digital revolution is fundamentally reshaping the business landscape by generating abundant new opportunities and novel business models. As a new source of value creation, a start-up’s business model is critical for its survival and growth. How, then, should a digital start-up design its business model? The present study departs from existing viewpoints on the topic and proposes a strategic orientation view. By integrating the resource-based view and the demand-side perspective, we examine the impact of strategic orientation in business model design on the performance of start-ups in the digital economy. Using a data set of digital start-ups, our empirical results show that both technology and consumer orientations are beneficial to the performance of start-ups. However, it would be counterproductive for a digital start-up to seek a balance between both strategic orientations in business model design. Furthermore, the positive relationship between consumer orientation and firm performance becomes more prominent in a highly open technological environment, but is weakened in environments characterized by high user interactivity. This study advances business model design research by proposing a strategic orientation view, and contributes to business model theory building by offering an integrated view that embraces the resource-based view and the demand-side perspective.