Ólafsdóttir, B. S. (2008). An integrated approach to competitive analysis and business models identification for online multi-media social networking services [Diploma Thesis, Technische Universität Wien]. reposiTUm. https://resolver.obvsg.at/urn:nbn:at:at-ubtuw:1-29794
In this master thesis a method to systematically study a particular type of online services is proposed. With this method the competitive environment can be described in order to derive information about the brand positioning, the service offerings of the competing services, and to investigate business models that are used. This is especially important for new online services that need to position their service offering in the competitive environment. But also for existing services that can use the proposed method to analyze the competition and to re-position their offering. The method builds on describing the similarity of different online services based on the features they offer. This is achieved by building a feature set to describe the online services and by collecting data from a sufficient number of services. On the resulting data set both exploratory and confirmatory statistical procedures are applied to derive results. The statistical analysis shows that new online services as well as existing services can use this method to establish a brand positioning and services offering. Evidence is also provided that suitable business models can be selected. A new startup is used to illustrate the applicability of the method.<br />