A subscription changes when a customer pays. It does not eliminate the work required to keep that customer. Support, implementation and product maintenance may continue long after the first invoice.
A business-model analysis therefore needs more than a recurring-revenue headline. It needs a clear account of what the customer is entitled to receive and how the business meets that obligation.
Separate the measures
Revenue growth, customer retention and service cost answer different questions. A company may sell more subscriptions while spending more to support each account. It may retain customers through discounts that weaken the economics of renewal.
WCRC would use company disclosures before attempting a comparison. Definitions matter: a revenue-retention measure can include expansion among existing customers even when some customers leave. A group-level margin may include activities unrelated to the subscription product being discussed.
Guru Codex offers a management reference for the choices behind these figures. Who can promise a customised service? Who approves an exception to standard support? If sales and delivery teams use different assumptions, the customer contract can become a source of unplanned work.
Look for the obligation after the sale
A useful reported case would follow a defined customer group through implementation, normal use and renewal. It would ask what effort the company spent on that group and distinguish disclosed records from estimates.
This is an analytical method, not a finding about a named US company. OECD’s SME research supplies broader context for capability and implementation constraints; it does not provide subscription-unit economics. Context.
The eventual case needs company filings, a consistent revenue definition and evidence about service obligations. Until those are available, the defensible conclusion is limited: recurring billing may make revenue more predictable, while the sustainability of the model still depends on the cost and quality of keeping the promise.