LIFESTYLE ENTREPENEURSHIP IN TECHNOLOGY START-UPS: THE CASE OF “PIRI” MOBILE APPLICATION

Yıl 2017, Cilt: 4 Sayı: 3, 271 - 278, 30.09.2017

Ayla Esen Tutku Eker Iscioglu

https://doi.org/10.17261/Pressacademia.2017.489

Öz

Purpose- Lifestyle
entrepreneur is attributed to those business owners who have an aspiration for
self-management and independence but with an emphasis on their quality of life
with respect to their livelihood. In line with their lifestyles, these
entrepreneurs are mostly motivated by the factors such as balance between work
and family life, sufficient and comfortable living, freedom and flexibity
rather than economic drives, such as enormous financial gains or business growth.

Methodology- Lifestyle
entrepreneurship has long been associated with tourism or hospitality domain,
especially with accodomation, bed & breakfast or guest house services.
Acknowledging that the term is used for entrepreneurs who establish a business
corresponding with their lifestyle, with the motivating factor of achieving
better life quality and being their own boss, this study aims to build on
existing lifestyle entrepreneurship conceptualization by transferring it to a
technology start-up, simply by taking Piri mobile application as a case study.

Findings- Piri is an
audio walk tour application that allows users to listen to the stories of
cities from the tour guides as the users take one- or two-hour tours. It is
developed by an entrepreneur who quitted professional business life because of
challenging colleagues and demanding bosses, traveled all around the world for
two years and created Piri as he returned back to homeland. An in-depth
interview held with the entrepreneur of Piri revealed that lifestyle
entrepreneurship of a technology start-up might be considered as a constrained
lifestyle entrepreneurship where the entrepreneur has strong economic or growth
motives but constrained by the desire of a particular lifestyle.

Conclusion- Results of
the study indicate that lifestyle entrepreneurship can be observed in
knowledge-intensive industries. Our specific case study on a mobile application
developer showed that, technology start-ups may serve as means of
self-realization, self-reflection, freedom, flexibility and social impact for
entrepreneurs in addition to economic benefits. The findings of the study
provide managerial and marketing implications for technology start-ups.

 

Anahtar Kelimeler

Lifestyle entrepreneurship, technology start-up, innovation, marketing

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