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Solving Paradox by Increasing Technological Capacity: A Critique of the Concept of Business Model Innovation at TikTok

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2022

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Xin Li*
Affiliation:
Newcastle University Business School, UK Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
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Abstract

This paper comments on Yulun Ma and Yue Hu's (2021) recent article ‘Business Model Innovation and Experimentation in Transforming Economies: ByteDance and TikTok’. It argues that TikTok's international success is not due to so-called business model innovation; instead, it is because ByteDance has overcome three major hurdles facing emerging market firms pursuing internationalization. It also posits that the case of TikTok offers inspiration for theorizing paradox, namely, individuals and organizations can solve paradoxical tensions by increasing capacity through the use of advanced technologies.

Keywords

business model innovationemerging marketinternationalizationparadoxtechnology
Type
Dialogue, Debate, and Discussion
Information
Management and Organization Review , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , pp. 203 - 208
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The International Association for Chinese Management Research

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Footnotes

ACCEPTED BY Deputy Editor Johann Peter Murmann

References

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