Defining the Businesses of Emerging Consumer Internet of Things Companies: Customers, Value Propositions, and Combinatorial Innovation

The purpose of this research is to explore emerging businesses in consumer IoT using the three core business dimensions: customer groups, value propositions, and combinatorial innovation. The research used qualitative data of 942 emerging companies registered in the Crunchbase. A combined deductive-inductive analysis was employed. It was found that emerging businesses targeted eight customer groups giving emphasis to smart home device users. Functional value aspects are more proposed for such customer groups than emotional and social values. These businesses also failed to address some value proposition factors. Recently, combinatorial innovation has been practiced as means to better value proposition by emerging businesses. Analysing business definition similarities, 24 groups of emerging companies competing in the market were identified. Our study illustrates that defining businesses carefully is important for a long-term growth and, these companies are using the three core business dimensions with different level of deployment to define their businesses. Practically, the research can help companies map their position from the perspective of customer groups, value propositions, and combinatorial innovation. Examining value in the actual value creation process, and the introduction of combinatorial innovation would be an important theoretical basis for future research.