Standardization vs. Localization of Business Model Design in an International Context: The Case of Online Lending Marketplaces

Ongoing digitization, cross-industry business model innovations, and global sustainability developments are enabling new business models in the financial industry, with online lending marketplaces as one of the fastest growing areas worldwide. Utterback and Abernathy [1] have shown in many industries that after a ferment and growth phase, a so-called dominant design emerges that serves most of the customer needs and is usually followed by all successful players. This concept is frequently discussed in the literature in a technology-oriented manner but hardly in the context of business models. Thereby, the development of dominant designs in the service industry and the research on platform business models are still under-researched. To address this research gaps, we analyze if an international dominant business model has been established since the emergence of online lending marketplaces in 2005 using a framework that examines the development of a dominant design among two-sided markets. Therefore, we analyze the business models of the respective leading online lending marketplace in the UK, the US and Germany. Based on the results we propose why and how the emergence of international dominant business model could be prevented.