The entrepreneurial team plays a crucial part in the new venture’s growth and success. This notion is present among many investors as they often choose to bet on the “jockey” (i.e. the team) instead of on the “horse” (i.e. the idea). Previous research has pointed to how diverse teams are better equipped to handle the complex practices a new venture is faced with, compared to homogeneous teams. The entrepreneurial environment has a prevalent gender inequality that hinders many women from entering and contributing to the industry. The purpose of this research was therefore to investigate what hinders and supports the formation and upholding of gender diverse teams. The study was written on commission for a Swedish incubator which led to an approach exploring how an incubator can influence and contribute to establishing these teams. Based on a literature review, the study chose an explorative and qualitative approach to answer the research questions as it was found that this area was relatively unexplored and contained little research on how to form and uphold gender diverse teams, especially in the Swedish incubator context. Data was collected through conducting semi-structured interviews with three different types of samples. These were the commissioner (i.e. the incubator team), incubatees (i.e. new venture teams of different compositions), and a few external actors within the Swedish incubator environment.  The findings pointed to that there are several more obstacles towards forming and upholding gender diverse teams than factors supporting it. More obstacles were found in terms of forming these teams and they related to entrepreneurs experiencing a lack of knowledge on how to find the right members with complementary skills. Contextual factors also affect the possibility to adopt an appropriate strategy to find team members. An inherent fear of bringing in someone new was also present among entrepreneurs. There is an absence of female role models which increases the difficulty and gap between men and women as the step becomes even larger for women to enter and succeed in the entrepreneurial environment. In terms of upholding gender diverse teams, conflict due to experienced personal differences and more challenging communication is common and can negatively affect the venture if not managed properly. Gender roles and stereotypes also have a negative impact. On the other hand, some supportive measures were also identified. In regards to team formation, resource seeking was a better option than interpersonal relationships when it came to forming a gender diverse team. Additionally, the increased demand for diversity among several actors like state agencies, incubators, and investors further pushes new ventures to form gender diverse teams. Among the incubatees, a shared outlook of wanting greater diversity and recognizing what it contributes with, shared motives, values, and expectations further supported the upholding of gender diverse teams. Other supportive measures were creating ownership directives and shareholder agreements as well as having complementary competencies, good communication, cohesion, and cognition. Further supportive measures an incubator can adopt related to strategy, networks, and placing initial demands on new ventures.

No description available.

Yes / Despite the growing research on the influence of entrepreneurs’ improvisational behavior on organizational outcomes, there is limited understanding of the specific firm-level and institutional conditions under which entrepreneurs’ improvisational behavior can effectively drive the success of new ventures. This paper contributes to filling this gap by investigating the moderating effects of financial resource capability and institutional support on the relationship between entrepreneurs’ improvisational behavior and new venture performance. The study’s theoretical model is validated by employing confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression on primary data obtained from 395 new ventures in Ghana. The results reveal a significant positive moderating effect of financial resource capability on the relationship between entrepreneurs’ improvisational and new venture performance. In addition, the findings show that the effectiveness of improvisation behavior in driving a firm’s success depends on the level of institutional support. Overall, the findings provide a more nuanced explanation of the link between entrepreneurs’ improvisational and firm performance. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Yes / Much of the existing scholarly works portray institutional voids (IVs) in emerging economies as impeding forces against the development of new ventures. However, little attention has been paid to how such voids generate positive outcomes in emerging market new ventures. Drawing on the institutional theory, we propose IVs as crucial enablers of new venture internationalization. In addition, we investigate both how and when IVs enhance the degree to which new ventures internationalize by examining international learning effort (ILE) as a mediator and two domestic market environmental factors (i.e., environmental dynamism and competitive intensity) as important contingencies. We test our moderated mediation model using primary data gathered from 211 new ventures from Ghana. We found that ILE mediates the relationship between IVs and new venture internationalization and that both environmental dynamism and competitive intensity moderate the indirect relationship between home-country IVs and new venture internationalization. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this study.

This cumulative dissertation includes three papers and one teaching case study. Together, they focus on topics highlighting the distinctiveness of family firms and new ventures. While the first paper analyzes the academic debate over the familiness concept in family firm research, the second paper focuses on explaining the unique relational dynamics between family and non-family managers in top management teams. The third paper aims to derive design designs for family firm specific corporate accelerators. The teaching case study shows how a growing new venture may strike a balance between coping with increasing organizational complexity and maintaining its distinct entrepreneurial spirit.

<p>Being entrepreneurial is pathly being creative. This Master thesis presents a business plan of BEFCO Trading Ltd geared towards solving a problem in the Cameroonian Economy. The English speaking Cameroonians of South West and North West provinces of Cameroon are presently underserved with car sales offerings as there is presently no registered Company in this section of the Country.</p><p>An attempt is presently being made through this business plan thanks to the peaceful and favourable circumstances sorrounding the entrepreneurs and the opportunity gap of a niche market. The business plan shows a win to win situation in which the founding entrepreneurs become self employed by solving a problem in the market through novel business combinations.</p>

Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to explore how students at Jönköping University can establish a new business and to what extent Science Park Jönköping is involved throughout the business creation process. Background Numerous researches have been done on new venture creation and business incubation. However, these two areas of research are rarely combined. When it comes to venture creation, most theories focus either solely on the start-up process or on the entrepreneur and the environment. The novelty of this thesis lies in combining those two different fields of research and at the same time focusing on the entrepreneur, the environment and the start-up process. The authors aim at investigating the start-up process in connection with the business incubator Science Park Jönköping. This paper is opposing new venture creation process theory with empirical findings and further examining the influence of the business incubator Science Park Jönköping. Method The authors of this paper followed a qualitative approach which was implemented in the form of personal interviews. The participants of this study are entrepreneurs who created their venture in cooperation with Science Park Jönköping as well as one representative from Science Park Jönköping. Conclusion Contrary to previous research, the participants of this study do not perceive the business creation process and its stages as linear. Moreover, influential factors like the attributes of the entrepreneur and the environment have to be taken into account when speaking about the start-up of a company. Science Park Jönköping offers services at all stages of the process whereas the most intense contact between the business incubator and the entrepreneur takes place in the very beginning.

<p><strong>Purpose</strong></p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to explore how students at Jönköping University can establish a new business and to what extent Science Park Jönköping is involved throughout the business creation process.</p><p><strong>Background</strong></p><p>Numerous researches have been done on new venture creation and business incubation. However, these two areas of research are rarely combined. When it comes to venture creation, most theories focus either solely on the start-up process or on the entrepreneur and the environment. The novelty of this thesis lies in combining those two different fields of research and at the same time focusing on the entrepreneur, the environment and the start-up process. The authors aim at investigating the start-up process in connection with the business incubator Science Park Jönköping. This paper is opposing new venture creation process theory with empirical findings and further examining the influence of the business incubator Science Park Jönköping.</p><p><strong>Method </strong></p><p>The authors of this paper followed a qualitative approach which was implemented in the form of personal interviews. The participants of this study are entrepreneurs who created their venture in cooperation with Science Park Jönköping as well as one representative from Science Park Jönköping.</p><p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p><p>Contrary to previous research, the participants of this study do not perceive the business creation process and its stages as linear. Moreover, influential factors like the attributes of the entrepreneur and the environment have to be taken into account when speaking about the start-up of a company. Science Park Jönköping offers services at all stages of the process whereas the most intense contact between the business incubator and the entrepreneur takes place in the very beginning.</p>

Being entrepreneurial is pathly being creative. This Master thesis presents a business plan of BEFCO Trading Ltd geared towards solving a problem in the Cameroonian Economy. The English speaking Cameroonians of South West and North West provinces of Cameroon are presently underserved with car sales offerings as there is presently no registered Company in this section of the Country. An attempt is presently being made through this business plan thanks to the peaceful and favourable circumstances sorrounding the entrepreneurs and the opportunity gap of a niche market. The business plan shows a win to win situation in which the founding entrepreneurs become self employed by solving a problem in the market through novel business combinations.

一個新興事業創建的初期，除了對外有營運上的挑戰，在內部還要面對資源分配、人員聘用以及財務上周轉等的基本營運問題，由於其缺少同產業上可仿效或是追隨的目標對象，使得創建時期潛藏的不確定因子往往比具有某種程度規模的組織來的更多。本研究以本研究者和其團隊在2006年年底所創立之公司為研究對象，從綠色光電產業市場中的初級資料和次級資料，以質性研究方法，探討下面三面向之問題 (機會、團隊與資源)：L公司在綠色光電的產業中之未來營運機會為何？在L公司發展過程中，團隊的核心能力為何？L公司如何在外界的環境中善用現有資源？如何找到他們？ 結合的方式為何？ 本研究是藉由夏恩博士於2005年所著「科技創業聖經」，原名為「尋找肥沃田地 – 為新事業辨視絕佳的機會」(Finding Fertile Ground – Identifying Extraordinary Opportunities for New Ventures) 書中的十個章節與L公司發展過程做一檢視，在機會的面向：選擇正確的產業、找出有價值的機會、管理科技演變、鎖定市場的真正需求、及了解顧客採用行為；團隊的面向: 管理智慧財產權與選擇正確的組織結構；資源的面向：利用既有公司的弱點、將報酬導向創新與管理風險和不確定性，以這十個面向為經，並利用Jeffry A.Timmons和 Stephen Spinelli在2003年所著的New Venture Creation – Entrepreneurship for 21st Century創業三構面 (機會、團隊與資源)為緯，將研究與實務做一比較，找出L公司下一步的方向與策略。 本研究發現，L公司在經由上述的檢討與行動修正後，能找到適當的利基點，正確掌握公司的核心能力，並隨著動態環境的改變適時作出調整，降低營運的風險。 / A new intention venture who builds up in the early stage faces the challengues not only the outsides operation, but how to solve the resources allocation, employee recruitment and finance issues…etc. Because this kind of new intention ventures are lack of the benchmark in the same industry, which make much more uncertain factors than in large scale companies. This research adopts researcher herself company, L Company, which is founded in the end of 2006 as the case study. We want to explore the following 3 dimention questions (Opportunities, Team and Resources) in green lighting industry with initial data and second level data, and use inductive research method. The three questions are: 1. What’s the future opportunity for L Company in the green lighting industry? 2. What’s the core competency from L company’s team in its developing process? 3. How to utilize the current resources in outsides environment for L Company? And how to find them and what are the methods to leverage them? This research approach applies Scott A. Shane’s theory framework – Finding Fertile Ground - Identifying Extraordinary Opportunities for New Ventures to review L company ‘s operation, and adopt Jeffry A.Timmons and Stephen Spinelli’s theory - New Venture Creation – Entrepreneurship for 21st Century to make the comparison of research and physical operation, and find out the next step for L company’s direction and strategy. Within this study, we find L Company can find its own niche market, control well her competition capibility through above items’ review and action adjustment and can reduce its operation risk with change in dynamic environment.