This research is a qualitative case study at the industrial business-to-business startup Nytt Tech aiming to understand how startups work with networkbased relationship marketing in the early phase and how they gain access to the business network and benefit from creating relationships. The following research question is presented: How can a business-to-business startup gain access to and benefit from the business network to create relationships? The study is limited to Nytt Tech and the circumstances that prevail for them. As a basis, unstructured and semi-structured interviews have been held with the employees and key customers to understand how success has arisen so far and then examine how it can be further developed. The data has been processed and analyzed using the ARA-model as the theoretical framework. The study finds multiple drivers which will help Nytt Tech for continued growth. In terms of Actors, the close collaboration with their customers contributes to both knowledge and feedback. Simultaneously, it generates revenue and spreads the word, which can cause more paying customers. In terms of Resources, the close collaboration between university and industry is an essential resource in several areas; recruitment of talented and ambitious students, product development deeply rooted in research, and direct opportunity to apply the theory in practice. Finally, in terms of Activities, direct contact reduces the risk of creating a distance between the company's offer and the customer's actual needs, leading to increased success. To conclude, companies can gain access to and benefit from the business network by activating direct and indirect business relationships and working closely together over time. A startup company may not have established business relationships, but its people do. Each person has a network that is combined uniquely. Therefore, recommendations are given that the case company should continue to work closely and use their own and partners' business networks to access new potential customers.

This study aimed to answer the question whether time to market and competition pressure are important issues for new companies with a software products and whether they affect the development process and decision-making regarding releasing or the product. The study is based on the literature data and interviews with six technology startup companies. It investigated how the concept of minimum viable product is used by the companies for testing the product-market fit and how they apply principles of user-centred design for providing a good user experience of their products. I found that innovative products helped the companies escape direct competition. The development cycle was mostly defined by the industry standards and concrete customer needs rather than the competition pressure. User-centred design practices are widely implemented by the startups, but they are not always complete. In today's software market, the experience that the customers are provided with new products seems to be more important for the startups than formalisation of the development process and the product's time to market. / Den här studien sökte besvara frågan huruvida tid till marknadsintroduktion och tryck från konkurrenter är viktiga faktorer för nya uppstartbolag inom mjukvaruutveckling och huruvida dessa faktorer påverkar utvecklingsprocessen och beslut rörande produktlansering. Studien baserar sig på en litteraturgranskning och intervjuer med sex teknologiuppstartbolag. Studien undersökte hur konceptet av minsta bärkraftiga produkt används av uppstartbolagen för att testa hur bra produkten passar marknaden och hur bolagen använder principer från användarcentrerad design för att ge en god användarupplevelse i sina produkter. Jag fann att innovatina produkter hjälpte bolagen undvika direkt konkurrens. Utvecklingscykeln bestämdes framför allt av industristandarder och konkreta behov från kunderna i stället för av trycket från konkurrenter. Användarcentrerad designpraxis är vida erkänd hos uppstartbolagen, men tillämpningen är inte alltid komplett. I dagens mjukvarumarknad verkar kunders användarupplevelse i nya produkter vara viktigare för uppstartbolagen än att formalisera utvecklingsprocessen och produktens tid till marknadsintroduktion.

Assessing the team is an essential part of the evaluation process conducted by venture capitalists before an investment opportunity. In turn, the team is completely influenced by its organizational culture. Therefore in this study, I investigate how organizational culture can become an integral part of the VC evaluation process to improve this pro-cedure. This is done by exploring how the culture assessment is performed and what culture factors that are considered important. For this purpose, semi-structured in-terviews have been conducted with seven investment managers from five different VC firms. My findings indicate that the investors lack a structured methodology to assess culture. The assessment is mainly focused on the founders and management team, and performed through interactions with their network, personality tests and discussions. Except from the founders and management team, the investors also highlights the im-portance of assessing the degree of teamwork and consensus, diversity and inclusion, receptivity and adaptability, talent attraction ability, employee turnover, defined and shared responsibility and focus within the venture. Ultimately, this thesis suggests an assessment framework regarding organizational culture for venture capitalists. / Att utvärdera teamet är en väsentlig del inom utvärderingsprocessen, som utförs av riskkapitalister, inför en investeringsmöjlighet. Vidare är teamet fullständigt influerat av dess organisationskultur. Av den anledningen undersöker jag, i denna studie, hur organisationskultur kan bli en integrerad del av riskkapitalisternas utvärderingsprocess, för att förbättra denna procedur. Detta görs genom att undersöka hur utvärderingen av kultur utförs, och vilka kulturella faktorer som anses väsentliga. För detta ändamål, har semi-strukturerade intervjuer utförts med sju investerare från fem olika riskkapitalbolag. Mina resultat visar att investerarna saknar en strukturerad metod för att utvärdera kultur. Utvärderingen fokuserar främst på grundarna och management teamet, och utförs genom interaktioner med deras nätverk, personlighetstester och diskussioner. Förutom grundarna och management teamet, sätter investerarna stort värde på att utvärdera nivån av teamwork och konsensus, diversitet och inklusion, lyhördhet och anpassningsförmåga, förmåga att attrahera talanger, personalomsättning, definierat och delat ansvar samt fokus inom startup bolaget. Slutligen, erbjuder uppsatsen ett förslag på ett analysramverk som gör det möjligt för riskkapitalister att identifiera viktiga kulturella faktorer.

International entrepreneurship is a prominent phenomenon in contemporary research, because of the ease of internationalisation for companies. Start-up hubs in Europe are booming and especially web-based tech companies internationalise quickly. This new type of company, which internationalises almost immediately after foundation, is called born global. Research showed that despite the interest in born global tech start-ups, there is no representative model visualising the process of their internationalisation. Therefore, secondary research is conducted, as well as empirical research in the form of qualitative interviews with three representative, successfully internationalised tech start-ups from Europe. These companies are the music streaming service Spotify, social marketing SaaS Facelift and business management SaaS Ivy. The internationalisation factors resulting from this research can be divided into a preparation phase, possible strategy development and an implementation phase. Within these phases, factors are separated into company- internal and external influences. Based on these findings, a new model on the internationalisation process of web- based tech start-ups is developed. / Internationell entreprenörskap är ett framstående fenomen inom modern forskning eftersom det blir enklare för företag att expandera över nationsgränserna. Startup-hubbar växer fram överallt i Europa och framförallt webbaserade techbolag är snabba med sin internationaliseringsprocess. Det handlar huvudsakligen om en viss typ av företag som kallas för born global, vilket innebär att bolaget börjar sälja sina produkter eller tjänster internationellt direkt efter grundandet. Forskning kring ämnet visar att det finns ett stort intresse för denna typ av företag men inga representativa modeller som visualiserar processen bakom deras internationalisering. Därför genomfördes sekundär forskning samt empirisk forskning i form av tre kvalitativa intervjuer med representanter från framgångsrika och internationella tech startups från Europa. Undersökningen ledde till upptäckten av olika faktorer som påverkar internationaliseringsprocessen. Dessa faktorer kategoriseras som interna eller externa påverkningar på företaget. Internationaliseringsfaktorerna kan delas in i tre faser - förberedelse, möjlig utveckling av strategi och implementering. Baserat på dessa resultat har en modell om internationaliseringsprocessen för born global tech startups utvecklats.

Managing innovations is a well studied success factor for companies and organizations. This research focuses on the recently established Lean Startup Methodology (LSM) and the obstacles of implementing it in early- and later-stage business-to-business (B2B) Software as as Service (SaaS) startups. The scarcity of academic research around this framework, in contrast to its popularity, motivated the researchers’ aim to provide a better understanding on how it could be adapted to better fit the needs of these companies.Following an interpretivist paradigm, this qualitative research uses a literature review and semi-structured interviews for its purposes. Interviews were conducted with six individuals at four different early- and late-stage startups. The focus was on understanding the realities of working with innovation management and the different approaches at early and later stage startups. Startups face an abundance of ideas regarding what to do next, a hypothesis confirmed with this study. It is the researchers’ belief that the LSM does not provide sufficient tools for organizations to make an idea selection decision without committing too many resources initially. Lastly, the importance of product ownership for an effective innovation management process was validated.In conclusion, we present the need for an updated Lean Startup Methodology with a dedicated selection step to validate an idea early in the process. This contributes to the theory of innovation management and its practical implementation. The identified gap in academic research around frameworks tailored towards these types of organizations provides a good starting point for future research.

Низкий уровень инновационного развития РФ и малое количество венчурных сделок обуславливает необходимость в комплексной оценке стартапа. Целью магистерской диссертации является разработка методики экономической оценки стартапов в сфере образовательных технологий. Анализ основывался на изучении научно-периодической литературы, изучении существующих методик оценки стартапа и степень их использования на венчурном рынке. В качестве источников информации использовались база публикаций Российского индекса научного цитирования, представленная на ресурсе Elibrary, данные корпоративной статистики по тематике исследования, внутренние документы исследуемого стартапа. В ходе написания магистерской диссертации была разработана и апробирована методика экономической оценки стартапа в сфере образовательных технологий. Использование разработанного инструментария нацелено на проведение комплексной оценки внутренних и внешних возможностей стартапа с целью принятия решения об инвестировании. Апробация разработанной методики позволила рассчитать ключевые экономические метрики стартапа, комплексно определив внешний и внутренний потенциал бизнеса с учетом особенностей сферы образовательных технологий. / The low level of innovative development in the Russian Federation and the small number of venture transactions necessitates a comprehensive assessment of startups. The purpose of the master's thesis is to develop a methodology for the economic evaluation of startups in the field of educational technologies. The analysis was based on the study of scientific periodical literature, the study of existing methods for evaluating a startup and the degree of their use in the venture capital market. As the source of information were used the base of publications of the Russian Science Citation Index, presented on the Elibrary; corporate statistics data on the research topic; internal documents of the investigated startup. During the writing of the master's thesis there was developed and tested method of economic evaluation of a startup in the field of educational technologies. The use of the developed toolkit is aimed at carrying out a comprehensive assessment of the internal and external capabilities of a startup in order to make an investment decision. The approbation of the developed method allowed to calculate the key economic metrics of the startup, comprehensively determining the external and internal potential of the business, taking into account the features of the sphere of educational technologies.

Titel: Digitala marknadsföringsstrategier med sociala medier för nystartade företag inom streetwear-klädbranschen.   Författare: Kenan Omeragic   Handledare: Christine Tidåsen   Nyckelord: Startupföretag, sociala medier, digital marknadsföring, strategi, konsumenter.   Problemformulering: Vilka marknadsföringsstrategier använder nystartade företag inom klädbranschen för att få attraktion till sitt klädmärke?   Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att förstå och beskriva hur klädmärken skapar och utför marknadsföringsstrategier.   Avgränsning: Denna studie begränsades till streetwear-märken i Sverige.   Metod: En kvalitativ studie med abduktiv forskning har genomförts för denna studie. Det teoretiska ramverket har utvecklats genom att granska tidigare forskningsstudier och böcker. Empirin samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med totalt sju deltagare som representerade olika streetwear-företag. Slutsats: Sammanfattningsvis belyser resultaten den transformerande kraften hos sociala medieplattformar när det gäller att nå och engagera målgrupper, öka varumärkesmedvetenheten och öka försäljningen. Effektiv implementering av sociala mediestrategier kan ge startupföretag en konkurrensfördel, vilket gör att de kan etablera sin närvaro, bygga varumärkeslojalitet och få kontakt med sin målgrupp. Ett heltäckande tillvägagångssätt som kombinerar influenser-samarbeten, engagerande innehållsskapande, riktad annonsering och datadriven analys är avgörande för framgångsrik marknadsföring. Nystartade företag måste förbli smidiga och anpassningsbara inför utvecklande plattformar och konsumentpreferenser. Genom att utnyttja sociala medier-analyser och spårningsverktyg kan företag få värdefulla insikter, förfina sina strategier och uppnå högre konverteringsfrekvens. Att anamma revolutionen av sociala medier och utnyttja möjligheter kan driva nystartade företag inom streetwear-klädesindustrin till nya höjder av framgång. / Title: Digital marketing strategies with social media for startup companies in the streetwear clothing-industry. Author: Kenan Omeragic   Supervisor: Christine Tidåsen   Keywords: Startup companies, social media, digital marketing, strategy, consumers.   Problem formulation: What marketing strategies do startup companies use in the clothing industry to gain attraction to their brand?   Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand and describe how clothing brands create and perform marketing strategies.   Delimitation: This study was limited to streetwear brands in Sweden.   Method: A qualitative study with an abductive research has been carried out for this study. The theoretical framework was developed by reviewing previous research studies and books. The empirical data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with a total of seven participants representing various streetwear companies.   Conclusion: In conclusion, the findings highlighted the transformative power of social media platforms in reaching and engaging target audiences, enhancing brand awareness, and driving sales. Effective implementation of social media strategies can provide startups with a competitive edge, allowing them to establish their presence, build brand loyalty, and connect with their target customers. A comprehensive approach combining influencer collaborations, engaging content creation, targeted advertising, and data-driven analysis is essential for successful marketing. Startups must remain agile and adaptable in the face of evolving platforms and consumer preferences. By leveraging social media analytics and tracking tools, companies can gain valuable insights, refine their strategies, and achieve higher conversion rates. Embracing the social media revolution and capitalizing on opportunities can propel startup companies in the streetwear clothing industry to new heights of success.

<p><br></p> <p>In my dissertation research I document information price discovery through investments in the alternate asset class of Venture Capital. The two chapters of this dissertation studies the effect of these investments in two different contexts. The first chapter analyses improvements in valuations of venture capital funds through syndication by VC funds. The second chapter documents improvements in stock prices, and valuations, of publicly traded firms through investments by institutional investors in VC funds and in public equity.</p> <p><br></p> <p>In the first chapter I examine the effect of syndication among venture capital (VC) funds on the funds' incentives to manipulate their performance measures. I show that the presence of new syndicate partners reduces misreporting by VC funds. About half of the reduction in manipulation is during the follow-on fundraising period. To identify that syndicate partners reduce performance misreporting I use: (i) a triple-difference approach around fundraising and (ii) availability-of-syndicate-partners as an instrument for the number of new syndicate partners. The implications of my findings are that LPs should better monitor VC funds with fewer new syndicate partners and regulators should consider the presence of peer-monitoring among VC funds before imposing disclosure requirements.</p> <p>  </p> <p>  Chapter two includes John J. McConnell, Timothy E. Trombley, and M. Deniz Yavuz as coauthors. In this chapter we report evidence consistent with institutional investors using industry-level information that they obtain from their investments in venture capital (VC) funds to earn excess returns in publicly-traded equities.  We use court rulings regarding the Freedom of Information Act as an exogenous shock affecting the information flow between VC firms and institutional investors to show that the excess returns are explained by information received via this channel.  Thus, institutional investors serve as conduits of information, making publicly-traded stock prices more efficient.  In the process, institutional investors earn higher returns from their VC investments than implied by the cash flows thereby received. </p>

Background: Previous research highlights that marketing is a success factor for startups to thrive. New companies face specific challenges due to their novelty, size, and limited resources. It is necessary to understand and distinguish startups from other companies. Given that startups differ from other companies, it has become evident that traditional marketing needs to be complemented by entrepreneurial marketing for these businesses. There is a lack of quality studies on marketing strategies for startups. There is a need for qualitative studies that highlight the marketing challenges startups endure. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the marketing process for startup companies,including the marketing theories and strategies used in practice, and to identify any similiarities and differences between the industries of the companies. Research questions: What does the marketing process look like for startups? How do marketing strategies differ across various industries? Method: The study is a case study and employs a qualitative method based on three semistructured interviews with three different startup companies. The research approach is abductive, using previous research as support for the analysis of the empirical data. The empirical findings develop the underlying theory through new insights from practical contexts. Conclusions: The conclusions show that all three startup companies use entrepreneurial marketing, characterized by limited resources, the absence of a specific marketing team, and an experimental approach. Digital marketing has been used to varying degrees, with different results depending on the product and industry. All companies focus on identifying their target segments and using various methods to reach them, as well as differentiating themselves from competitors through product development. Industry-specific differences impact their expansion opportunities, where complex products require specific customer segments and high competition drives continuous product development. / Bakgrund: I tidigare forskning lyfts det upp att marknadsföring är en framgångsfaktor för att startups ska lyckas. Nya företag möter specifika utmaningar på grund av deras nymodighet, storlek och begränsade resurser. Det är nödvändigt att förstå och urskilja startups från övriga företag. I samband med att startups skiljer sig från övriga företag, har det framkommit att traditionell marknadsföring behöver kompletteras av den entreprenöriella marknadsföringen fördessa. Det råder brist på kvalitetsstudier om marknadsföringsstrategier för startups. Det finns ett behov för kvalitativa studier som lyfter upp marknadsföringsutmaningar som startups utstår. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att utforska marknadsföringsprocessen för startup-företag, med marknadsföringsteorier och strategier som används i praktiken samt synliggöra eventuella likheter och skillnader mellan företagens branscher. Frågeställningar: Hur ser marknadsföringsprocessen ut för startups och hur skiljer sig marknadsföringsstrategierna inom olika branscher? Metod: Studien är en fallstudie och har en kvalitativ metod som är uppbyggd på tre semistrukturerade intervjuer med tre olika startupföretag. Forskningsansatsen är abduktiv där tidigare forskning används som stöd till analys av empirin. Empirin utvecklar den bakomliggande teorin genom nya insikter från praktiska sammanhang. Slutsatser: Slutsatserna visar att alla tre startupföretagen använder entreprenöriellmarknadsföring, kännetecknad av begränsade resurser, avsaknad av specifikt marknadsteamoch ett experimentellt tillvägagångssätt. Digital marknadsföring har använts i varierande grad, med olika resultat beroende på produkt och bransch. Alla företag fokuserar på att identifiera sina målsegment och använda olika metoder för att nå dessa, samt att differentiera sig frånkonkurrenter genom produktutveckling. Branschspecifika skillnader påverkar deras expansionsmöjligheter, där komplexa produkter kräver specifika kundsegment och högkonkurrens driver kontinuerlig produktutveckling.

Abstract The rapid development of digital technology and software in recent years has created great variety of totally new business opportunities. Software startups are commonly considered to be the fastest in exploiting the new opportunities and the most innovative in creating new products and services. At the same time, software startups are often small, immature enterprises with limited resources and inexperienced teams. The initial team plays a key role in the early stages of a software startup. This research focuses on the initial team from the perspective of human capital – the knowledge, experiences, skills, and other cognitive abilities. It studies the initial team empirically, utilizing the multi-case study and triangulation methods applying the human capital, resource-based view, capability, and the opportunity discovery and creation theories. The empirical data were gathered from thirteen software startups in Italy, Norway and Finland, and from a student experiment. From the analysis of this data, a generic structure of a software startup’s initial team was identified, consisting of three different roles, with each having a specific human capital profile. This team structure sought a balance between the team’s human capital and problems and challenges to be solved. The level of the initial human capital of the team and the means to strengthen it varied, and affected the progress of the work in the studied startups. Though the components of the team’s human capital were not rare and inimitable in terms of the resource-based view, building a balanced startup team created a unique and task-specific setup, which is a key capability of a software startup. The balanced startup team structure is proposed to be the generic human capital model of a software startup’s initial team. / Tiivistelmä Digitaalitekniikan ja ohjelmistojen nopea kehitys viime vuosina on synnyttänyt suuren joukon kokonaan uusia liiketoimintamahdollisuuksia. Ohjelmistostartup-yrityksiä pidetään yleisesti nopeimpina hyödyntämään uusia mahdollisuuksia ja erityisen innovatiivisina luomaan uusia tuotteita ja palveluita. Kuitenkin samalla, ohjelmistostartup-yritykset ovat usein pieniä, kehityksensä alussa olevia yrityksiä, joilla on pienet resurssit ja kokematon henkilökunta. Varhaisen vaiheen ohjelmistostartup-yrityksissä alkutiimin merkitys on keskeinen. Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan alkutiimiä inhimillisen pääoman, osaamisen, kokemuksen ja taitojen, näkökulmasta. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan alkutiimiä kokeellisesti, käyttäen monitapaustutkimuksen ja triangulaation menetelmiä ja soveltaen inhimillisen pääoman, resurssipohjaisen näkemyksen, kyvykkyyden ja liiketoimintamahdollisuuksien hyödyntämisen teorioita. Kokeellinen tutkimusaineisto on kerätty kolmestatoista yrityksestä Italiasta, Norjasta ja Suomesta ja yhdestä opiskelijoilla tehdystä kokeellisesta tutkimuksesta. Tutkimuksessa löydettiin alkutiimin yleinen malli. Mallissa on kolme roolia, kullakin oma inhimillisen pääoman profiili. Mallissa on tiimin inhimillisen pääoman ja ratkaistavien ongelmien tasapaino. Tiimien inhimillisen pääoman määrä ja sen kehitystavat vaihtelivat, ja vaikuttivat tutkittavien yritysten edistymiseen. Vaikka alkutiimien inhimillisen pääoman komponentit eivät olleet ainutkertaisia resurssipohjaisen näkemyksen kannalta, tasapainossa olevan alkutiimin rakentaminen synnytti ainutkertaisen, tehtävänmukaisen tiimirakenteen, jota voidaan pitää yrityksen keskeisenä kyvykkyytenä. Havaittu tiimirakenne esitetään yrityksen alkutiimin inhimillisen pääoman yleiseksi malliksi.