EMERGING BUSINESSES IN CONSUMER INTERNET OF THINGS: CUSTOMERS, VALUE PROPOSITION, AND COMBINATORIAL INNOVATION

Even though the consumer IoT sector has had a significant impact on the worldwide market, research in consumer IoT is still in its early phases. One of the challenges facing today's emerging business in the area is identifying individual customers and customer groups, designing sound value propositions, and deploying the appropriate technology combination to create or uncover better value for customers. Studies examining the competitive dynamics, such as the level of competition within the consumer IoT sector and the degree of competition within emerging companies, are scarce. The main purpose of this research was to examine emerging businesses in consumer IoT using the three core business dimensions: customer groups, value propositions, and combinatorial innovation. Understanding the market and competition in the consumer IoT sector by identifying companies that targeted similar customer groups, proposing similar product value, and deploying the same technology combinations was another objective. This research used qualitative data of emerging companies registered in the Crunchbase platform. 942 emerging businesses were considered for this study. The combined deductive-inductive approach was followed in collecting and analysing the data. Mapping emerging businesses on three-dimensional model, most emerging businesses focused on a similar market by producing similar or supplementary products. 24 groups of companies were identified based on business definition similarities, and three broad categories of emerging businesses were identified based on the number of value propositions considered in their value statements. These companies targeted eight major customer groups giving more emphasis to smart home device users. From nine desired value proposition factors considered, companies propose value propositions of functional value more than emotional and social value dimensions. From the seven CIoT features considered, significant number of companies give more emphasis to safety, interactivity, and connectivity. The most practised combinatorial innovations by these companies in designing such value propositions were the IoT technologies. The research provided product value dimensions, and product features that companies should consider the most when seeking to provide a better user experience. The findings also provide theoretical basis for future research on investigating consumer IoT value proposition in the actual value creation process, integrating customer groups, value proposition, and combinatorial innovation for emerging business. These emerging businesses in consumer IoT should clearly define their businesses to maintain growth and remain competitive, and the result of this research can be taken as an input in the process.