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

Year 2017, Volume: 4 Issue: 3, 271 - 278, 30.09.2017

Ayla Esen , Tutku Eker Iscioglu

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

Abstract

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.

 

Keywords

Lifestyle entrepreneurship, technology start-up, innovation, marketing

References

• Allardyce, S. (2015). A continuum approach to lifestyle entrepreneurship. Available from OpenAIR@RGU. [online]. Available from http://openair.rgu.ac.uk (Retrieved 06 January 2017).
• Andrews, R., Baum, T. and Andrew, M.A. (2001). The lifestyle economics of small tourism businesses. Journal of Travel and Tourism Research, 1, 16-25.
• Alvarez, S. A. and Busenitz, L. W. (2001). The entrepreneurship of resource-based theory. Journal of Management, 27(6), 755-775.
• BarNir, A. (2012). Starting technologically innovative ventures: Reasons, human capital, and gender. Management Decision, 50(3), 399-419.
• Bresnahan, T. F., Davis, J. P. and Yin, P. L. (2015). Economic value creation in mobile applications. In A. Jaffe and B. Jones (Eds.), The Changing Frontier: Rethinking Science and Innovation Policy, (pp.233-286). NBER University of Chicago Press.
• Claire, L. (2012). Re-storying the entrepreneurial ideal: Lifestyle entrepreneurs as hero?. Tamara Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry, 10(1), 31-39.
• Deacon, R. E. and Firebaugh, F. M. (1988). Family resource management: Principles and applications (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
• Dholakia, P. (2015). 3 essentials for marketing your mobile app. Available from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245780 (Retrieved 21 January 2017)
• Eisenhardt, K.M. (1989). Building theories from case study research. Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 532-550
• Gartner, W. B. and Shane, S. A. (1995). Measuring entrepreneurship over time. Journal of Business Venturing, 10(4), 283-301.
• Gibb, A.A. and Ritchie, J. (1982). Understanding the process of starting small businesses. European Small Business Journal, 1 (1), 26-45.
• Henricks, M. (2002). Not just a living: The complete guide to creating a business that gives you a life. Cambridge, MA: Perseus.
• Kanada, P. (2015). 6 App Monetization Models: How Will your App Make Money? Available from http://tech.co/6-app-monetizationmodels-make-money-2015-08 (Retrieved 23 January 2017)
• Lashley, C. and Rowson, B. (2008). Lifestyle businesses: Insights into Blackpool’s hotel sector. Proceedings of the 2008 CAUTHE Conference.
• Lynch, P. (1998). Female microentrepreneurs in the host family sector: Key motivations and socio-economic variables. Hospitality Management, 17, 319-342.
• Lynch, P. (2005). The commercial home enterprise and host: a United Kingdom perspective. Hospitality Management, 24, 533-553.
• Marcketti, S., Niehm, L. and Fuloria, R. (2006). An exploratory study of lifestyle entrepreneurship and its relationship to life quality. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 34(3), 241-259.
• McKay, R. (2001). Women entrepreneurs: Moving beyond family and flexibility. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, 7(4), 148-65.
• Miles, M. B. and Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis. Newbury Park, MA7 Sage Publications.
• Morris, M. (1998). Entrepreneurial intensity sustainable advantages for individuals, organizations, and societies. Westport, CT: Quorum Books.
• Morrison, A. (2006). A contextualisation of entrepreneurship. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 12(4), 192-209.
• OECD (2015). OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2015, OECD Publishing, Paris. Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264232440-en (Retrieved 05 January 2017).
• Peters, M., Frehse, J. and Buhalis, D. (2009). The importance of lifestyle entrepreneurship: A conceptual study of the tourism industry. Pasos, 7(2), 393-405.
• Shane, S. and Venkataraman, S. (2000). The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research. Academy of Management Review, 25(1), 217–226.
• Shaw, G. and Williams, A. (1998). Entrepreneurship, small business, culture and tourism development. In D. Ioannides and K. Debbage (Eds.), The Economic Geography of the Tourist Industry: A Supply-Side Analysis, (pp.235-255). London: Routledge.
• Sweeney, M. and Lynch, P. (2009). Classifying home hosts based on their relationships to the home. Tourism and Hospitality Planning and Development, 6 (2), pp. 159-170.
• Szerb, L. A., Acs, Z., & Autio, E. (2013). Entrepreneurship and policy: The national system of entrepreneurship in the European Union and in its member countries. Entrepreneurship Research Journal, 3(1), 9-34.
• Tellis W. (1997). Introduction to case study. The Qualitative Report, 3(2), Available from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR3-2/tellis1.html (Retrieved 05 March 2017).
• Tiarawut, S. (2013). Mobile technology: Opportunity for entrepreneurship. Wireless Personal Communications, 69(3), 1025-1031.
• Thornton, P. H. (1999). The sociology of entrepreneurship. Annual Review of Sociology, 25(1), 19-46.
• TTA-Turkey (2016). Entrepreneurship & Technology Commercialization Report 2016: Global Trends and Specific Look at Turkey. Available from http://ttaturkey.org/upload/haberler/Entrepreneurship_TechCommReport2016_final(30Jan16).pdf (Retrieved 05 January 2017).
• Tucker, H. and Lynch, P. (2005). Host-guest dating: The potential of improving the customer experience through host-guest psychographic matching. Journalof Quality Assurance in Hospitality and Tourism, 5 (2-4), 11-32.
• Yin, P. L., Davis, J. P. and Muzyrya, Y. (2014). Entrepreneurial innovation: Killer apps in the iPhone ecosystem. The American Economic Review, 104(5), 255-259.
• Yin, R. K. (1994). Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Sage Publications.
• YGA, n.d., Available from http://www.yga.org.tr/en/about (Retrieved 05 March 2017).