When to switch between subscription-based and ad-sponsored business models: Strategic implications of decreasing content novelty
研究证明，在特定条件下，从订阅制切换到广告赞助模式能比固定一种模式获得更多生命周期收入，因为切换改变了内容消费成本，实现了对异质性消费者的跨期区分。
Business model change is typically seen as an adaptation to market contextual changes or as experimentation to find the optimal model for a given context. We highlight an alternative rationale for business model change by showing formally that switching from a subscription-based to an ad-sponsored business model over time can generate more life cycle revenue (LCR) than committing to either business model in specific contextual conditions. This is because business model change involves an abrupt change in content consumption costs (i.e., “from fee to free”), facilitating intertemporal discrimination between heterogeneous consumers of content with decreasing novelty, which shortens the content life cycle and so limits LCR potential. These results have important implications for managing ad-sponsored digital content platforms in particular and illustrate the strategic viability of business model change in general.