This dissertation offers insight into the organizational lives of small and new not-for-profits. The first essay used three different estimation strategies to model the role of revenue type in the growth in young and small not-for-profits. We find that increases in the percentage of a not-for-profit’s revenue portfolio going to dues, indirect support, or non-mission income will suppress growth and that there is no “optimal” model across subsectors. The second essay uses over twenty years of panel data to predict which factors indicate the impending recovery of a financially vulnerable small and young nonprofit. Support for hypotheses based in the literature is mixed, but the key insight is that nonprofits need to save if they want to get healthy: bringing in revenues is not enough. Finally, the third essay uses a qualitative approach on young and new mental health not-for-profits in the state of New York. Using comparative case studies, this study analyzes the internal and external factors surrounding the demise of small and young mental health nonprofits. This study finds support for several of the potential causes of nonprofit demise in a newly proposed typology.

En av de mest värdefulla immateriella tillgångarna i ett företag är varumärket. Det är kunders uppfattade bild av ett företags produkter och branding är strategin för att skapa och upprätthålla denna bild. Branding är en värdefull strategi och bidrar bland annat till tillväxt, lönsamhet, kundlojalitet och underlättar för företag att stå emot konkurrens på ett effektivt sätt. Branding kan även bidra till att öka värdet av varumärket, det så kallade varumärkesvärdet. Varumärkes -identitet, -image, -kännedom och -positionering är beståndsdelar vilka tillsammans utgör varumärkesvärdet. Inom dessa beståndsdelar finns utmärkande strategier som syftar till öka detta värde.  Forskning kring branding har främst fokuserat på större företag och små och medelstora företag (SMF), men forskning som berör branding i startups är begränsat. Startups kännetecknas som innovativa, yngre än fem år och med ambition att växa. Eftersom startups anses vara nystartade står de inför flera utmaningar såsom att etablera legitimitet inför finansiärer, kunder med flera. En benämning för detta är liability of newness vilket kan medföra finansieringssvårigheter.  Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats är att få förståelse för hur startups arbetar med branding, deras finansieringsmöjligheter och hur arbetet med branding påverkar dessa. Kandidatuppsatsen bygger på en kvalitativ metod där sju personliga intervjuer genomfördes med startups grundare eller VD.  Resultatet visar att startups i uppstartsfasen främst använder privata medel men säger sig inte uppleva svårigheter att få extern finansiering, Samtliga startups anser att arbetet med branding kan vara en förklaring till att de inte upplevt problem med detta, vilket kan indikera att branding är en bidragande faktor till ökade finansieringsmöjligheter. Resultatet visar även att startups har kännedom om varumärkesidentitetens betydelse, de lägger vikt vid skapandet av visuella element som utvecklas av personer med kunskap inom området De vanligaste marknadsföringsstrategier som nyttjas är sociala medier, rykte, nätverkande, mässor och samarbete.

Helt digitala bolag antas många gånger inte möta samma typer av barriärer som de som producerar fysiska produkter eller är delvis digitala. Det finns mycket forskning inom internationalisering och barriärer, men sällan med avseende på born digitals, digitala företag med hög digitaliseringsgrad som internationaliserar sig tidigt. Studiens syfte är att undersöka vilka barriärer, i form av liability of foreignness och liability of newness, som born digitals möter vid internationalisering. I en fallstudie har intervjuer med VD och anställda vid marknadsföringsbyrån Nordic Business House utförts. Företaget agerar brygga mellan Sverige och Kina. Bland resultaten har barriärer noterats i form av kulturella skillnader, regleringar kring media och pengar, avsaknad av legitimitet och svårigheter med att anställa medarbetare med relevant kompetens. Slutsatsen är att samtliga barriärer även kan appliceras på born globals, men de påverkar i olika grad. För att finna born digital-specifika barriärer behöver andra born digitals-företag och barriärer vidare undersökas.

Small businesses are an important part of innovation, competitiveness and economic development. Support systems such as business incubators have emerged with the purpose of helping these startups develop. The startups which are in focus in this thesis operate in different industries, in technology-based industries where commercialization and growth is in focus, to creative industries which focus on developing individual talent and creativity. The characteristics and core of the businesses differ, giving them different business logics by which the startups operate. The business logic leads the startups to face different challenges, which the thesis considers to regard liabilities of smallness, liabilities of newness and liabilities of uniqueness as well as organizing.  These variations give the startups differences in how they operate and hence, also a need for different types of support given by business incubators. Business incubator support is in the thesis categorized into three components of Networks, Infrastructure and Business Services, as suggested in a triad model of Carvalho & Galina (2015). As varying business logics makes a difference on what type of value startups produce, it is important to study the relationship between these logics and the support provided by an incubator. It is important in order to understand how incubators can adapt their support more effectively to help entrepreneurs overcome their challenges.  The thesis purpose is to broaden the understanding of how business logics and challenges of startups adhere to the industry they are in, and how the support given by business incubators can help the businesses to overcome challenges associated with these business logics. The research design was qualitative, and data was collected by performing six semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs within creative and technology-based industries, enrolled at business incubators with these specializations.  The study results in a proposed model, giving extension to the original triad model by Carvalho & Galina (2015). In the proposed model, new dimensions of the support system as well as the nature of the startups’ business logics, and challenges are addressed. The proposed model and the study’s results may act as a guiding framework for future research in the field, aiming to gain a better understanding of the reality of startups with different business logics.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:26:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcio Tambelini de Amorim.pdf: 1184883 bytes, checksum: e0523b89bbc58f499cecbafc016e6486 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-01-29 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / The influence of age of the organizations in their survivor rates is a subject of debate in the studies of administration from different perspectives, especially in the framework of Organizational Ecology. Based on data of foundation and failure, some authors have found different opinions on such influence. To some of them, the newness organizations are those who suffer more because they have few resources, low legitimacy or high influence of the market and, therefore, fail more. Other authors observed that there is an initial period of survival and failure rates increase after this period, which is because the entrepreneur put a higher energy in the early development or still an extra financial resource. Others argue that the organizations who suffer more are the older ones, especially in turbulent environments, because they cannot respond to market changes. From these different perspectives, this dissertation intent to analyze the effect of age in the population failure rates, at the specific case of the Brazilian Companies of Credit to the Micro Entrepreneur. It refers to a new population of organizations founded at the late 1990s, under the terms of Brazilian Central Bank s Resolution 2.726. The Model Weilbull Distribution of Probabilities was used to evaluate the methodological availability in association with a descriptive statistics. What can be perceived from the presented data is that the liability of newness is not applicable to this population, because there is a significant number of companies that has survived during the first five years since their foundation. Nevertheless, from this period on, the failure rates has increased significantly after an initial moment of living. Because it is a new population, a long term evaluation is needed to validate that statement. Furthermore, it is necessary to evaluate as well the influence of external factors that can affect the life of these organizations, especially when these factors affect their own customers base. / A influência da idade das organizações nas taxas de sobrevivência é tema de debate sob perspectivas diferentes nos estudos de administração, sobretudo no âmbito da Ecologia Organizacional. A partir de dados de taxas de fundação e fracasso, os autores de ecologia organizacional têm encontrado diferentes conclusões sobre a influência da idade na sobrevivência das empresas. Para alguns, as organizações novatas são as que sofrem mais, pois possuem poucos recursos, baixa legitimidade ou alta influência do mercado e, sendo assim, fracassam mais. Outros autores observaram que existe um período inicial de sobrevida e que as taxas de fracasso aumentam após este período, isso porque o empresário possui um ânimo maior no início do empreendimento ou ainda um recurso financeiro em caixa. Outros ainda argumentam que as organizações que mais sofrem são as idosas, principalmente em ambientes turbulentos, pois não conseguem responder às mudanças no mercado. Com base nestas diferentes perspectivas, este trabalho se propôs a analisar o efeito da idade sobre as taxas de fracasso populacional, no caso específico das Sociedades de Crédito ao Micro Empreendedor no Brasil. Trata-se de uma população de empresas jovem, nascida no final da década de 1990, de acordo com Resolução 2.726 do BACEN. A avaliação dos dados se apoiou no modelo de Probabilidades Weibull e numa análise estatística descritiva. O que se percebeu com os dados apresentados, é que a síndrome das novatas não se aplica para esta população, pois nota-se que há um número significativo de empresas sobreviventes nos cinco primeiros anos de vida. Todavia a partir deste período as taxas de fracasso aumentam consideravelmente. Por tratar-se de uma população jovem, é preciso uma avaliação de maior prazo para validar tal afirmação. Além disso, é necessário avaliar também a influência de fatores externos que podem afetar a vida destas organizações, principalmente fatores que afetam a própria base de clientes.

This dissertation focuses on the formation, growth and discontinuance of business populations and firms in Sweden during the 20th century. It addresses some key issues in the domain of economic and social sciences, and in particular entrepreneurship and small business research: if and when firms grow, stagnate and decline, as well as how long firms survive and when they are likely to disband. Previous research has primarily analyzed these questions from a short time frame. Further, an individual or firm-oriented focus is commonly assumed. In that, alternative or complementary explanations to the growth and survival of firms may be disregarded. In contrast to much previous research, this dissertation assumes a micro-to-macro, longitudinal and demographic population approach. The period of investigation is over one hundred years. In addressing the growth and survival of firms, it takes into account the impact of firm-specific structural factors (such as firm age and size), generation (cohort) effects, as well as the influence of macroeconomic, exogenous factors. Further, the relationship between managerial/ownership succession and firm performance is also addressed. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal databases are employed in the dissertation. Its main empirical material consists of unique longitudinal data on new business firms, traced at the firm level from their birth to their termination. More specifically, seven birth cohorts – generations – of approximately 2,200 firms founded in 1899, 1909, 1912, 1921, 1930, 1942 and 1950 are included. The main findings show that ownership/management succession in firms had a quite weak correlation with firm performance and survival. At least at an aggregate level, and with some exceptions, it is debatable if the loss and replacement of owner-managers in small and in larger firms have any observable effects on firm performance. Furthermore, macroeconomic phenomena influence the conditions of individual firms as well as populations/aggregates of businesses. Both the growth and termination of firms and firm populations are found to be related to real economic (environmental) conditions; e.g. favorable macroeconomic conditions implied that firms grew in size. At the same time, under certain circumstances, the influence of structural variables (firm age and size) – as suggested in much previous research – is found to be of importance. As concerns firm growth, as well as firm termination, the economic environment and structural factors interact. These findings challenges individual or firm-level research that mainly focus on personal traits and behaviors in explaining firm success and failure. Other previous assumptions are also challenged when taking a longer time perspective into consideration. For decades, organization and business research have acknowledged a liability of newness and of size for business firms. While this might be true under some conditions, this liability of newness is falsified in the study: the termination behavior of some firm generations did not correspond with these assumptions. Thus, the perspectives and methodology applied in the dissertation complement earlier approaches in entrepreneurship and small business research.