How digital startups use competitive intelligence to pivot

Abstract

Decision-making about startups' business models is highly dependent on available information, and the role of data analytics capabilities in business model innovation has been emphasized. Today's competitive intelligence tools such as Alexa, Google Analytics, Similarweb, NexLab TrackEngine, etc. easily provide the decision-makers with competitive intelligence. However, the quality of these decisions at the exposure of competitive intelligence is still unknown. We aim to investigate the role of competitive intelligence in entrepreneurs' decisions on business model pivoting at the early stages of their startups. We used a qualitative multi-case study of six startups to investigate the changes in the founders' attitudes toward their business models at the exposure of data analytics. Competitive intelligence led the early-stage entrepreneurs to pivot their business models. However, the quality of the resulted business models was questionable. To ensure the quality of decision-making, founders need to be supported by cognition service systems beyond the current competitive intelligence systems. Based on the findings we propose an extension to the Lean Startup build-measure-learn loop.

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