A TAXONOMY FOR TECHNOLOGY VENTURE ECOSYSTEMS

Abstract

We develop a taxonomy – Oxford Venture Ecosystem Taxonomy (OVET) -- to classify technology startup ventures along six dimensions: 1) the area of work, 2) purpose of technology use, 3) types of clients, 4) value capture strategy, 5) founder and funder characteristics, and 6) geographical footprint. This paper provides a theory and method for developing taxonomies, emphasizing the importance of clarifying the purpose for which a taxonomy is used and the determination of the appropriate level of abstraction. This approach is then applied to develop taxonomies for technology ventures in specific sectors with AI use cases – fintech, healthtech, proptech, and lawtech –to illustrate how a taxonomy might be adapted for sector use. In the last section, we discuss how such a taxonomy could be used for classification and analytics to improve the quality of judgement and decision-making by different stakeholders (notably founders, investors, and policy-makers) in the venture ecosystem.