ABSTRACT

Purpose

Customer value propositions are promoted as critical for technology startups. However, empirical evidence supporting the beneficial effects of startups using customer value propositions is lacking. We draw on a theory of integrating devices to develop and empirically test a model that describes how a technology startup may use customer value propositions to learn about customers and adapt its market offering to gain pilot customers.

Methodology/approach

Using structural equation modeling, we test our theoretical model with a dataset of 293 German new technology-based startups.

Findings

We find support that adopting the customer’s perspective, quantifying monetary value, and substantiating the value proposition are critical steps to gaining pilot customers.

Research implications

Our findings suggest that a customer value proposition can be understood as catalyst for learning about customers and tweaking the market offering – making the offering more compelling because of the value proposition’s specificity through monetary quantification. Future research could investigate in more detail the role of monetary quantification in the uncertain context of startups, the role of pilot customers to provide support and resources, as well as antecedents and consequences for startups of working with pilot customers.

Practical implications

Our research underscores the importance for a technology startup to look at its own market offering from the customer’s point of view – that is the starting point for benefitting from customer value propositions. Furthermore, a startup should start early sharing ideas with prospective customers about its market offering and the initial customer value proposition. And despite considerable uncertainty, a startup should aim for monetary quantification, because that focusses data gathering and helps to substantiate the customer value proposition. The role of a customer value proposition is not to portray a definite calculation of customer value, but to provide a startup with a concrete but also evolving understanding of customer value to help the startup improve its market offering and attract pilot customers.

Originality/value/contribution of the paper

Most of the literature on customer value propositions has focused on established supplier firms. Startups, however, face some unique conditions that do not allow simply transferring ideas about customer value propositions for established firms to startups. The primary contribution of this study is the development and empirical test of a theoretical model of the process for how, together with customers, technology startups use customer value propositions in business markets to guide learning about their market offerings to achieve market success.

中文翻译：

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基于技术的初创企业如何利用客户价值主张来赢得试点客户

摘要

目的

客户价值主张对于技术初创公司至关重要。但是，缺乏支持使用客户价值主张的初创企业的有益影响的经验证据。我们利用集成设备的理论来开发和经验测试模型，该模型描述了技术初创公司如何利用客户价值主张来了解客户并调整其市场产品以赢得试点客户。

方法/方法

使用结构方程模型，我们使用293个德国新技术型初创企业的数据集测试了我们的理论模型。

发现

我们发现支持客户观点，量化货币价值和证实价值主张是获得试点客户的关键步骤。

研究意义

我们的发现表明，客户价值主张可以理解为了解客户和调整市场报价的催化剂-由于价值主张通过货币量化的特殊性，使报价更具吸引力。未来的研究可能会更详细地研究货币量化在不确定的初创企业中的作用，试点客户提供支持和资源的作用，以及与试点客户合作的初创企业的前因和后果。

实际影响

我们的研究强调了技术初创公司从客户角度看待自己的市场产品的重要性-这是从客户价值主张中受益的起点。此外，初创公司应开始与潜在客户及早分享有关其市场产品和初始客户价值主张的想法。尽管存在很大的不确定性，但一家初创公司应该针对货币量化，因为这可以集中数据收集并有助于证实客户价值主张。客户价值主张的作用不是描绘客户价值的确切方法，而是为初创企业提供对客户价值的具体但不断发展的理解，以帮助初创企业改善其市场产品并吸引试点客户。

论文的原创性/价值/贡献

关于客户价值主张的大多数文献都集中在成熟的供应商公司上。但是，初创企业面临着一些独特的条件，这些条件不允许简单地将关于已建立公司的客户价值主张的思想转移给初创企业。这项研究的主要贡献是对过程的理论模型的开发和实证测试，该过程用于研究技术初创公司如何与客户一起利用商业市场中的客户价值主张来指导他们对其市场产品的了解，以取得市场成功。