Growing on Steroids: Rapidly Scaling the User Base of Digital Ventures Through Digital Innovaton1

Jimmy Huang; Ola Henfridsson; Martin J. Liu; Sue Newell

doi:10.25300/misq/2017/41.1.16

Growing on Steroids: Rapidly Scaling the User Base of Digital Ventures Through Digital Innovaton1

Jimmy Huang¹; Ola Henfridsson¹; Martin J. Liu²; Sue Newell³

¹ Warwick Business School, The University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom; · ² Nottingham University Business School China, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100 China · ³ School of Business, Management and Economics, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RH United Kingdom

MIS Quarterly 2017

Digital ventures, start-ups growing by drawing on and adding to digital infrastructures, can scale their business at an unprecedented pace. We view such rapid scaling as a generative process by which a venture’s user base increases significantly between two points in time through digital innovation. We studied WeCash, a Chinese digital venture, nearly doubling its user base monthly, to learn more about this generative process. We trace three contingent mechanisms underpinning rapid scaling: data-driven operation, instant release, and swift transformation. We explain these mechanisms and how they interact in the rapid scaling of digital ventures. The research offers an agency perspective on scaling of digital ventures that speaks to the digital innovation literature.

DOI: 10.25300/misq/2017/41.1.16
Volume: 41 (1)
Pages: 301-314
Language: en
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