The role of digital well-being services in the value chains of actors in the well-being field: Case ViaEsca

Abstract

This master’s thesis pursues to examine and find the most promising inter-organizational cooperation opportunities between larger firm and startup offering digital well-being services. The research aims to discover the current state of the well-being markets in Finland and to determine the role of a startup offering digital well-being services in it. The study is executed as qualitative study with grounded theory approach including multiple case analysis. The data was gathered from seven semi-structured interviews from potential partnering firms from insurance, food sales and health care industries, as well as from the interviews with the case company, ViaEsca, offering nutritional coaching. The research builds framework of inter-organizational cooperation between startup and larger firms concluding of three main dimensions: ecosystems and integration of services, service effectiveness, and trust and reliability. Ecosystems or integrating with partner’s services are the cooperation forms through which digital well-being services are recommended to be provided. Service effectiveness is important prerequisite for the digital well-being service. Major criteria for successful inter-organizational cooperation are trust and reliability on both the cooperation partner and their service functioning. The research provides six concrete opportunities for strategic value creation with inter-organizational cooperation and digital well-being services: 1) integrating digital service to partner’s rewarding programs or products, 2) creating service packages or rewarding programs for groups, 3) white labeling, 4) integrating recipes into online grocery store, 5) part of an ecosystem, and 6) guiding to each other’s services.