Rocket Internet: Organizing a startup factory

TY - JOUR

T1 - Rocket Internet: Organizing a startup factory

AU - Baumann, Oliver

AU - Bergenholtz, Carsten

AU - Frederiksen, Lars

AU - Grant, Robert M.

AU - Köhler, Rebecca

AU - Preston, David L.

AU - Shane, Scott

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - While some firms build cars or smartphones, Rocket Internet builds companies. The incubator and investment firm has pioneered an extreme approach to new venture creation that is often referred to as a “startup factory:” it rapidly assembles and scales new companies, replicating business models that have been developed elsewhere. Separating the ideation of business models from their execution allows Rocket Internet to specialize on the latter, because it eliminates the need to create an environment that is conducive to both processes. Yet specialization may also be Rocket Internet’s largest liability, because it makes the firm dependent on the availability of appropriate (co-specialized) business models. In this edition of the Organization Zoo series, we asked several organizational scientists and scholars of entrepreneurship to share their thoughts on what we can learn from the case of Rocket Internet.

AB - While some firms build cars or smartphones, Rocket Internet builds companies. The incubator and investment firm has pioneered an extreme approach to new venture creation that is often referred to as a “startup factory:” it rapidly assembles and scales new companies, replicating business models that have been developed elsewhere. Separating the ideation of business models from their execution allows Rocket Internet to specialize on the latter, because it eliminates the need to create an environment that is conducive to both processes. Yet specialization may also be Rocket Internet’s largest liability, because it makes the firm dependent on the availability of appropriate (co-specialized) business models. In this edition of the Organization Zoo series, we asked several organizational scientists and scholars of entrepreneurship to share their thoughts on what we can learn from the case of Rocket Internet.

KW - Organization design

KW - Incubator

KW - Company builder

KW - Business model replication

KW - Imitation

KW - New venture creation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073593676&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1186/s41469-018-0037-2

DO - 10.1186/s41469-018-0037-2

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2245-408X

VL - 7

JO - Journal of Organization Design

JF - Journal of Organization Design

IS - 13

M1 - 13

ER -