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Customer search strategies of entrepreneurial telehealth firms – how effective is effectuation?

Susanna Pinnock (Department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway)
Natasha Evers (Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland) (Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden)
Thomas Hoholm (Department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway)

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research

ISSN: 1355-2554

Article publication date: 5 March 2024

Issue publication date: 24 September 2024

171

Abstract

Purpose

The demand for healthcare innovation is increasing, and not much is known about how entrepreneurial firms search for and sell to customers in the highly regulated and complex healthcare market. Drawing on effectuation perspectives, we explore how entrepreneurial digital healthcare firms with disruptive innovations search for early customers in the healthcare sector.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a qualitative, longitudinal multiple-case design of four entrepreneurial Nordic telehealth firms. In-depth interviews were conducted with founders and senior managers over a period of 27 months.

Findings

We find that when customer buying conditions are highly flexible, case firms use effectual logic to generate customer demand for disruptive innovations. However, under constrained buying conditions firms adopt a more causal approach to customer search.

Practical implications

Managers need to gain a deep understanding of target buying environments when searching for customers. In healthcare sector markets, the degree of flexibility customers have over buying can constrain them from engaging in demand co-creation. In particular, healthcare customer access to funding streams can be a key determinant of customer flexibility.

Originality/value

We contribute to effectuation literature by illustrating how customer buying conditions influence decision-making logics of entrepreneurial firms searching for customers in the healthcare sector. We contribute to entrepreneurial resource search literature by illustrating how entrepreneurial firms search for customers beyond their networks in the institutionally complex healthcare sector.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This research is partly funded by the The Research Council of Norway (project code 237766).

Citation

Pinnock, S., Evers, N. and Hoholm, T. (2024), "Customer search strategies of entrepreneurial telehealth firms – how effective is effectuation?", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 30 No. 8, pp. 2061-2081. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-05-2023-0560

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

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