Meaning is in the eye of the beholder: Reconciling business model design with customer meaning-making

Abstract

To remain competitive in a shifting sociocultural landscape, firms often introduce new meanings—new reasons why customers use their products or services—that must be embedded into their strategy. However, customers are active participants in value creation processes, rather than passive recipients. This is especially true in services, where value is created in the interaction between provider and consumer. When designing business models, firms must thus consider customers’ meaning-making activities, which are highly subjective and influenced by cultural frames and personal characteristics. Yet, the business model literature has largely overlooked how firms design business models to articulate new meanings and shape customer perceptions. In this study, we explore the role of business model design in determining how firms articulate new meanings that customers subsequently perceive. We present a comparative case study of two store concepts developed by the same entrepreneur, both introducing the same new meanings. Through in-depth interviews with the founder and CEO, in-store observations, and archival data, we analyze their strategy for introducing new meanings. Additionally, we apply topic modeling to online reviews to examine how customers interpreted these new meanings. Our findings suggest that firms can shape customer perceptions of new meanings through business model design, particularly by leveraging value creation mechanisms tied to value delivery. This study enriches the business model design literature and connects it to the innovation of meaning discourse. It also offers practitioners insights into how to use firm strategy to convey intended meanings to customers.