Old but sexy: Value creation of old technology-based businesses models

The purpose of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the strategic and organisational configurations that companies can use to generate value with product-market systems and their business models that have been dominant in the past but forced back into niche positions by innovation.i

The former dominant music format vinyl was rapidly substituted after the introduction of digital music. However, still nowadays some customers use and buy old technology-based products – vinyl sales boom again since 2007. Due to the two-sided nature of the market, customers have to get access to complementary goods. We are thus interested in technologies which have been outdated by the emergence of new technologies. The originality lies in the combination of the two areas: business models and old technologies. Furthermore, vinyl is an example not analysed in depth by scholars so far.

We approached this by undertaking an in-depth literature review to generate hypotheses regarding the value-adding activities of old-technology based businesses as a basis for further research in this area. In addition the paper gives first insights into the constellations to be expected over time for old technology- based businesses models in platform markets.

We here focus on a neglected topic in the strategy literature which, however, bears relevance for many businesses locked into product-market systems which make it hard for them to (completely) switch to a new technology emerging in the market. It is especially valuable to describe the consequences in a systematic fashion.