Abstract

This essay looks at growth of Linktree using Actor-Network-Theory (ANT). To do so, it discusses how new product creation is crucial in a competitive environment and how ANT conceptualises entrepreneurship as a process of creatively assembling and mobilising agency through the connections between different actors, objects and events. It is reveled how interactions of people with technology and how markets create, develop and deliver Linktree.

The authors’ argument for distributed agency also works in the context of the present study to show that uncertainty and contingency creates or offers flexibility and adaptability for the business to be able to address issues and demands especially if these actions are non-linear and indeterminate in nature.

Background of Linktree

An advanced digital environment poses stiff competition and has therefore made business development alternatively crucial in business (Sage et al., 2020). New product or service development enables business organisations to meet customer needs, expand on market opportunities, and distinguish themselves in the market (McMullen et al., 2021).

In this context, Linktree was created in 2016 to help solve a recurring issue for users of social platforms: the ability to post multiple links on accounts that only permit one linked bio, for instance, the Instagram account.

Thus, Linktree’s purpose is to reduce the complexity of online presence fostering an opportunity for users to guide audiences to more than one location with a single link. Its primary target market involves Influencers, YouTubers, Small businesses, and brands who want to maximize their traffic online.

It is completely free or available as a paid service to create landing pages and integrate other features to monitor and track analytics, and selling and social media capabilities. The rationale for having Linktree, as seen above, is derived from the rising demand and increased importance of easy web browsing and comprehensive digitally targeted advertising tools.

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Entrepreneurial Theory: Actor-Network Theory

Discovery mode of identifying entrepreneurial opportunities, proposed by Eckhardt and Shane (2003) links opportunities with new means-ends relationships. Within it, an entrepreneur defines the shortcomings in the market, or, in other words, the difference between means and ends, and joins the former to the latter (Alzoubi et al., 2022). Entrepreneurial alertness perspective holds that opportunities exist out there waiting to be recognized by entrepreneurs who have eyes to see them fit together correctly (Li et al., 2021).

On the other hand, Korsgaard (2011) has introduced the Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) of Entrepreneurship that does not share such a conceptualization. According to ANT, agency is situated in a network, the collective elements of which are people, resources, and technologies. This means that the creation of new ventures is a network phenomenon and not an individual entity of the entrepreneur, as he advances (Choi et al., 2021). ANT’s argument is that entrepreneurship is nonlinear and indeterminate – it is an interaction that is not predetermined by any scheme of action (Hallen et al., 2020).

Application of ANT 

Creation:

Linktree was created in 2016, by its founders, Alex and Anthony Zaccaria and Nick Humphreys in response to the need to post many links on platforms like the Instagram platform (Brühl et al., 2023). The Business was not an invention of the founders’ mind but a product of the complex interactions of a number of elements.

Speaking to clients of Bolster, their digital marketing agency, majority of them complained about the challenge of managing digital traffic. About customers, their wants, and the effects of technology as social media influencers have led to the emergence of Linktree (Ormiston et al., 2023).

Technological inputs like cloud computing and web development tools were also implicated in the emergence of the business, which shows distributed agency formational part, entrepreneurs, users, technologies.

Development:

The development phase of Linktree was also non-linear and was indeterminate, which is clear from ANT perspective. For instance, problems like Instagram blocking Links in the page in 2018 as spam started resurfacing as the platform started to gain traction. This unfortuntely interrupted the functioning of the company, that the network of actors; founders, users and the stakeholders of the platform resumed to resolve the problem and enhance the platform (Scott et al., 2022).

Furthermore, new features added based on customers’ feedback included customization features and analytics which helped show how the link tree network of users and market conditions played a major role in this innovation. However, the journey to create Linktree was not as plain sailing, as many externality and multiple interacting features impacted the development of Linktree.

Delivery:

The process of taking Linktree to market is both material and conversational in nature. On the material side, technology requirements like cloud hostings, and the developmental tools were important, besides, aspects of supply chain like scalability, and server space were equally important in the easy usability of the platform (Ridley, 2022).

Social communications and discussions including sales promotions and bargaining with the first adopters, the investors, and opinion leaders likewise shaped how the product was marketed and developed. One noticed that feedback from influencers and regular citizens had an effect on the platform, thus direction was adjusted to incorporate desired changes accordingly.

Changes and Adaptations:

Over the course of the process, Linktree went through numerous changes, which, again, underlines the fact that the activity of an entrepreneur is best described as non-linear, as postulated in the framework of ANT. For instance, as the platform grew there was pressure from users to integrate the platform with popular platforms such as Shopify and YouTube (Denisov and Bäumer, 2022).

These changes were not planned in the initial concept development, but were constantly evolving through internal and external processes of interaction occurring in a network of users, partners, and technology suppliers. This made Linktree to maintain the dynamic growth of this network through constant evolution in the ever-shifting market.

Conclusion

Key Insight 1

Claire et al., (2021) observes how the distribution of agency among actors or the actors and material elements like technology and market disrupts actors and innovates. By engaging other stakeholders, Linktree was in a position to fulfil the needs of users hence developing new features and services that would complement the platform.

Key Insight 2

Scott et al. (2022) opines that business development process is unstructured and unpredictable. That is why it is impossible to call the increase in competition on the part of platforms, or the emergence of new requests from users as unfavourable conditions – while, but only constant interactions within the network, it was possible to adapt successfully at Linktree. 

 

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References

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