Styrning i företag med digitala affärsmodeller : En studie av Freemium i olika branscher

Sammanfattning: This paper dives into the world of business models where more precisely the business model called Freemium is inspected. The paper has multiple purposes where one is to examine why businesses decide to use a business model that is as volatile as Freemium. The other purpose of the paper is to examine what kind of management accounting is used within the business model. Reasoning behind that is to see if there are any specific traits that originates from the usage of the business model Freemium.   To fulfill this purpose the writers have decided to take a qualitative approach with the usage of interviews as the main instrument to gather data. The companies represented in the study are within different industries and are all considered to be SMEs. The chosen theoretical framework is built on previous research on business models and management accounting in SMEs and Start-ups.   The results of the study indicate that the business model originates from the changes in the market due to digitalization which allowed new ways for companies to present value to customers. Thanks to this, giving away part of the product for free became an acceptable way of conducting business as costs for distributing products were severely reduced. Once companies chose to adapt to this business model its competition were left with no choice but to adapt or get left behind. Nowadays most businesses choose the model thanks to its great benefits in advertising and the possibility to expand their business further beyond the business model. The role of management accounting within these companies has somewhat shifted to a greater emphasis on what the customer desires. Customers are the foundation for almost all decisions made within the companies. To leverage the customer for utmost efficiency companies collect user data and then use the information as foundation for its decisions. Due to this the business needs to adapt to quick changes and most of the tools used for management accounting have a controlling function along with the purpose of learning more about the user within the product.