Entrepreneurship and Sustainability of Airbnb: Insights and Recommendations

This report discusses the entrepreneurship and sustainability of Airbnb, including the characteristics of its founders, the pre-startup stage, and its unique selling points. It also provides recommendations for ensuring the sustainability of the organization and improving its entrepreneurial culture.

Enterprise and
Entrepreneurship

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Account and Findings......................................................................................................................3
Description of the entrepreneurs and reflection on entrepreneur/s current motivation and
behavioural characteristics...........................................................................................................3
Discussion on how the entrepreneurs identified the original idea of the startup and pre-startup
stage.............................................................................................................................................4
Discussion on the entrepreneurs of the startup business sees unique about business in order to
stay sustainable in the marketplace..............................................................................................6
Conclusion and recommendations...................................................................................................7
Based on the theory, insights and observations derived from this module, bestow 2-3
recommendations to ensure the sustainability of the organisation..............................................7
Based on the theoretical insights and observations derived from this module, bestow
recommendations of what the entrepreneur/s could do to ensure that the organisation develops
or improves entrepreneurial culture.............................................................................................8
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
With increasing globalization, new start-up businesses are growing in a large number.
Globalization also delivers several opportunities to these businesses helping them to grow and
sustain themselves in the marketplace. With the increasing globalization, competition is also
increasing at a fast pace wherein businesses want to compete with each other in terms of
products and services by offering differentiated market offerings to establish strong customer
perceptions and competitive advantage. To support the report, with relevant information and
examples, Airbnb is the chosen business startup. This business delivers accommodation services
allowing people (Host) or customers to temporary rent rooms or properties to other people
(guests). This report delivers entrepreneurs behaviours and characteristics, business model, USP
and sustainability and certain recommendations to improve current business functioning for
greater profitability and enhance business services (Alvarez and Barney, 2020).
Account and Findings
Description of the entrepreneurs and reflection on entrepreneur/s current motivation and
behavioural characteristics
Airbnb was founded by Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk in the year
2008. The organisation is headquartered in San Francisco, USA. This small business came up
with the idea for earning profit by delivering accommodation services in San Francisco as in
early 2009, accommodation services were expensive. The business gradually grew its market
share by using an effective business model and innovative approaches, today Airbnb offers more
than 7 billion places and operates in more than 190 countries. In the year 2018, the business
turnover was recorded more than 3 billion in the market valuation which is more than any other
big global business such as Marriot or Hilton. In the context of Airbnb.
An entrepreneurs thinking abilities and creative minds play an important role to deliver and
address innovation and creativity for establishing a new business venture. Looking at Airbnb’s
case, the entrepreneurs of the business were highly ambitious and creative. (Berglund, Bousfiha
and Mansoori, 2020). They were opportunistic as they started the idea of a new business venture
with the help of networking by taking calculated risks and accepting the business losses. Initially,
when they started the new business venture in the year 2008, they faced failures and hesitation

for business stability and financial capability in the marketplace. They were committed to their
work wherein the main focus was to maintain consistency and hard work by taking small steps
and adding great value to the business. Slowly and steadily the business startup started making a
profit and by the year 2020 the business became a public limited company through IPO, it
reflects the willingness and determination of the entrepreneurs of the association by inventing
new ideas and using the effective business model in order to make the startup business success. It
reflects also the self-efficacy and self-motivated characteristic, team working qualities and
collaborative behaviour that helps them to set a clear vision to accomplish organizational
objectives. (Blundel, Lockett and Wang, 2017).
By looking at the success of the start a business of Airbnb it confirms all the qualities, behaviour
and characteristics an entrepreneur should ascertain to accomplish business success and
goals. The lemonade principles to the entrepreneurial concept say an entrepreneur identify new
ways and approaches for converting the challenges into opportunities. Adding the lemonade
principle to the Airbnb case, instead of accepting the business failure for the fifth time they
didn’t give up instead they sold cereal boxes for acquiring financial stability, which did not
demotivate them rather it stimulated them to continue business by adding innovations to the
business and turning the challenges to the business opportunity. It took 12 years to build the
start-up business a success which reflects entrepreneur's consistency, determination, positive
entrepreneurial qualities and characteristics which helped them to accomplish business growth
and sustainability in the market place (Bylund and McCaffrey, 2017).
Discussion on how the entrepreneurs identified the original idea of the startup and pre-startup
stage
The entrepreneurs and the partners of Airbnb established a business model in order to
address innovative thinking and creativity to deliver value to the customers. The main motive of
the business was not to compete with the existing industries but by improving own services to
create demand in the marketplace. Airbnb used the model of B & B which says bread and
breakfast. They added innovations to the business model in order to accomplish the sustainability
of the business. Hotel businesses in the year 2009 used simple alternatives but missed to use
cost-effective and customer-centric alternatives to serve the customers. The association came up
with market offerings delivering value at lower prices. The main motive of the business was to

enter into the market focusing on the consumer to consumer market strategies wherein the
association focused on meeting the needs and expectations of the customers by delivering them
quality services and targeting a more diverse consumer group. Airbnb adopted the innovative
infrastructure to establish the right corporate culture at the workplace. This corporate culture
helped the association to create teamwork and group discussion and establish corporate
networks. The employee contribution helped to analyze the market pattern, the interaction of the
customers supported to resolve different challenges and problems about the business and so on.
The association adopted a working culture that promotes entrepreneurship by celebrating both
new ideas and bad decisions to learn and grow through mistakes and foster entrepreneurship in
the organisation (Chakraborty, Thompson and Yehoue, 2016).
Airbnb adopted customer-centric by listening and communicating to the customers and
collecting feedback from the targeted customers in order to improve the current business model.
In the year 2009, the business didn’t have a stable financial position to serve its project and
business ventures, thus, the founders sold cereal boxes in order to meet the financial
requirements of the business. The business founders also took training classes for gaining
knowledge about innovation and human relationships in innovation. In order to address real
issues and challenges faced by the business in the year 2009, The founders communicated with
the host and the customers who visited the company’s website, gathering information about the
targeted consumers from the feedbacks in the comments posted on the website to create
something better that meets the expectations of the targeted customers (Frederick, O'Connor and
Kuratko, 2018).
The entrepreneurs of the association travelled around and identified customer behaviour in order
to rightly address issues and challenges and accomplishing full knowledge of customer
behaviour and preferences. They also adopted the approach of experience mapping which says to
draw out requirements for meeting the customer expectations and building a strong business
model by design thinking. The help of design thinking, which helped the association to combine
innovative ideas and approaches to resolve identified problems. There were two innovations that
Airbnb addressed including promised security and ease of use to the customers using digital
platforms for booking the services on the company’s website. The two innovative approaches
focused on promising security to both the host and the customers. The association has also

adopted approaches by recruiting the most skilled and experienced talent such as digital
marketing directors in order to design the digital platforms of the association convenient and
friendly to use to both guest and host (Henry and Dana, 2019).
Discussion on the entrepreneurs of the startup business sees unique about business in order to
stay sustainable in the marketplace
The Unique Selling Point of Airbnb is “a marketplace for real people to rent out their
own homes which talks about the property in which they live or while they are away or rooms
in their home while they are present”.
Airbnb delivers services with hotels by establishing effective prices and delivering access to
people so that they can book the accommodation services irrespective of the location via virtual
platforms. The Association focuses on maintaining brand positioning and accomplish
competitive advantage by offering services at a cheaper price and delivering value to the
customers.
Airbnb applied the model of Tidd and Bessant 4 P’s Model in order to deliver differentiated
services and accomplish business sustainability in the marketplace. The model defines four P’s
position, process, product and paradigm, these are discussed below in brief:
Position: The entrepreneurs of Airbnb founded new ways and approaches in order to enter into a
new marketplace. These entry approaches answered different questions such as where to go,
what to do, how to get their strategies. The transportation Service strategies adopted by the
business Included collaboration and partnership with trains and airlines. The founders of the
association also recruited Fred Reild as the head of transportation globally. (Kuratko and Morris,
2018).
Product/ Service: Airbnb is focused on delivering quality customer services. The association
segregated the services offered to high-quality accommodations by introducing Airbnb plus in
order to satisfy customers with well-equipped and furnished accommodation for the guest and
the travellers. The association also focused on improving the process of the business functions by
rightly analyzing the customer preferences and demand and adding new ways innovative ways
for delivering services to the customers. The business established the Airbnb community in
order to maintain a strong connection and details about the host who is involved in delivering the

services to the guest and the travellers. Airbnb community was established to evaluate collect
details about the host by encouraging frequent discussions and meetings (Lyons and Zhang,
2018).
Process and Paradigm: Airbnb ad process and paradigm at the workplace by sharing their own
stories, failures, processes, thoughts so that the association do not make the same mistakes and
adopts approaches to learn from the past experiences. The association also interacts with the
customers using digital platforms to reach out to every customer irrespective of the location
through social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter in order to maintain a
good customer relationship.
Conclusion and recommendations
Based on the theory, insights and observations derived from this module, bestow 2-3
recommendations to ensure the sustainability of the organisation.
Sustainability of the organisation
The business model used by the association is strong and effective to influence the target
customers and the market environment but the business can add certain suggestions through
organic development and strategic alliance. The creators of the association should travel as
guests or hosts for taking accommodation services (Maritz and Donovan, 2015). The creators of
the business should interact with the people for collecting information and know that how far
people are aware of the sustainability business model of the association, the interaction with
people and related stakeholders would also help to determine the needs and preferences, their
expectations from the business and also suggestions to improve the existing business model.
The association should also need to focus on building creative teams and strong workforce
capital so that the business can sustain itself in the marketplace for the long run. Deploying
creative teams would help to add innovative content and ideas to the business model. The
creators of the association should travel to different places where the association is operating in
order to gather and retrieve relevant data about the customer’s opinions, preferences, the grey
areas of the business, the cultural preferences, the needs and so on about the business. It will help
the business in order to improve the business model and avoid the situation of strategic drift in

the market in place of Airbnb due to increasing competition in the global platform (Mayer,
Siegel and Wright, 2018).
Airbnb can add certain pointers to its business model based on accommodation rental for
individuals to offices or even restaurants so that the business can target another market. The
business must diversify its business model in order to maintain sustainability in the global market
place. Airbnb should grow into a new market by an existing focus on delivering customer value,
improving customer experience. The Association should expand its business model in a global
platform wherein the association must be careful about operating its activities to different
countries as the culture and the customer preferences vary to different locations. Airbnb must use
different pricing for purchases and rentals in different geographical locations.
Other suggestions that can be adopted by the business are as:
Prices should be changed with demand
The Business environment is dynamic, which means that the demand of the market trends keeps
on fluctuating. The host should set the prices as per the demand about a particular period,
comparing the prices with the competitors, and evaluating the performance of the business in a
particular period. Setting the price as per the market demand will help the business to see
sustainability in the marketplace as the price is the huge factor that influences the decision
making of the customers (Morris, 2015).
Capture great photos
Capture and uploading great pictures of the accommodation services play an important role, the
host should capture great pictures with bright lights which looks attractive to the customers and
upload them on the company’s website.
Based on the theoretical insights and observations derived from this module, bestow
recommendations of what the entrepreneur/s could do to ensure that the organisation develops or
improves entrepreneurial culture
Staying entrepreneurial
The recommendation in order to foster an entrepreneurial culture in the workplace:
Keeping track of everything

The creators should keep a track of everything right from offering training to the employees to
practicing effective leadership in the workplace enough to retain consistency (Ashraf and et.al.,
2019).
Set up a system of growth
Airbnb must remove rigid hierarchy structures rather allow all the employees to think for
themselves and encouraging them to deliver ideas and decisions at work.
Keep experimenting
Keep experimenting with new ideas is important in order to address new and innovative changes
in the business model. Airbnb should keep on experimenting with the business model by
analyzing the market trends based on customer preferences, the prices, the host and guest
responses and others (Olanrewaju and et.al., 2020).
Push team to decide next step
The team and employees at different levels must be delivered independence and the liberty for
making their own decisions in order to keep up with the entrepreneurial culture at work and
making them responsible and accountable for any problems and challenges faced by the
association. It would help employees to become more responsible and careful towards their work
by addressing desired solutions and opinions for identified problems.
Measure marketing
It is always recommended to track the business’s marketing activities. For example, how people
find or reach out to the company’s website, is it through advertisement or the blog post of any
other site. The association should use different analytical tools in order to track the website in the
traffic and analyze how good marketing activities on the social media content is influencing the
targeted customers (Omorede, Thorgren and Wincent, 2015).
Boost online presence
The Association should enhance the online presence such as by responding to customer concerns
or interacting with them in prospects calls or emails, search engine optimization and is also an

effective approach in order to influence customer decisions and deliver effective advertising and
marketing objectives to the final prospects.
Motivate employees
While talking about adding improvements to the business functioning, it is always important to
start by analyzing own strength and weakness that is how the business is performing internally.
Employers of the association should motivate the employees in order to derive smart and
productive work. Employers should focus on making social relationships with employees at
work so that they feel more fun and comfortable, an employer must always recognize good work
and ideas, employers should have delivered employees flexible working hours so that employees
can work to the best time when they are the most productive, most importantly employees must
focus on professional development by offering them effective training and in-person seminars to
enhance their technical and soft skills (Shepherd and Patzelt, 2017).
Invest in customer relationship
Improving customer relationships is one of the greatest assets to any business. The association
should maintain a connection with the host by collecting clear details of what quality of service
they provide about the facilities, the infrastructure such as water, electricity, the area equipped,
furnishing and the prices offered in specific different geographical locations. Apart from that, the
Association should also interact with the customers by collecting customer grievances and points
of the customer experiences. Responding to every customer is also recommended so that
customers feel engaged and take repeated services.
Share Vision with the employees
It is always recommended to share the vision with employees and encourage them to take for
adding their own decisions. Employers of the association must share the targets and vision
clearly with the employees so that they can rightly address what is to be accomplished by the end
of the day. Delivering vision and targets to the employees not only welcome improvement but
also encourages employee engagement towards the organizational objectives (Welter and
Gartner eds., 2016).
Seek specialized experts

The association should engage with attorneys, accountants and other professionals. It helps the
business to get quality of working with the help of experienced professionals. Before starting
with each new venture or making important decisions it is advisable to get expert solutions and
workings so that the business workings and decisions are free of blunders. Moreover, getting
experienced professionals help would impact the business positively be it enhances the
profitability, sales margin or any other business opportunities.
Conclusion
The above report talks about how entrepreneurship helps to add creativity innovation and
supports for starting a new business venture. In the context of Airbnb, this report delivered a
reflection on the entrepreneurial characteristics and behaviours that helped the association to
make the startup business successful. The creators of the association formulated different
innovative tactics and placed USP of the business to deliver differentiated services and
accomplish sustainability in the marketplace. The entrepreneurs adopted a customer-centric
business model in order to accomplish competitive advantage and market positioning. Apart
from all the entrepreneurial approaches used by the association, it should also focus on adding
improvements and developments to the business model as per the changing business
environment by addressing the changing consumer perception and the market trends in order to
accomplish sustainability in the global marketplace.

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