Using an innovative price model to leverage the business model – The case of price model innovation in the largest Swedish taxi company

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to describe how the biggest Swedish taxi company (Taxi Kurir) de­veloped an innovative price model to leverage the business model.

Design/methodology/approach: The empirical data in the article describe Taxi Kurir’s development of a new price model. Data about the Swedish taxi market and about Taxi Kurir has been compiled though interviews and document studies. Detailed information about the background, development and implementation of Taxi Kurir’s new price model has been captured through interviews with representatives from Taxi Kurir.

Findings: Based on both the empirical example, and other investigations, we have found that a company can create substantial changes in their price model, by just changing some of its basic characteristics. A well designed price model can contribute to leveraging the intentions of the business model.

Practical implications: Most academic and practical texts about business models consider pricing to be an important component. However, they typically do not refer to the specifics of the price- or revenue models. According to the literature review in this paper, and the empirical findings, the configuration of a company’s price model should be aligned with its business model. This will contribute to leveraging the business model.

Originality/value: The Swedish taxi market is one of the most deregulated in the world. Differently from most other countries, any individual or company can start and operate a taxi business. This case offers a unique de­scription on how the biggest company in the market responded to the competition by introducing a fundamen­tally new price model, by making a small change in one of the dimensions in their existing price model.