Abstract Entrepreneurship research is a dynamic field in development. It has long ago moved past analyzing the differences between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs to trying to understand the activity that an entrepreneur does. Current entrepreneurship research has identified business opportunities and their development as the main focus of entrepreneurship research field. However the creation of new business opportunities is largely not understood and theory which builds on entrepreneurship is still in its initial phases. This study aims to understand the creation of new ventures through a holistic approach, not focusing only on the entrepreneur but also on the industry and society where the venture creation happens. Therefore this study focuses on new venture creation in a software business context. This context was chosen because the economy is moving from a production based economy to a knowledge based economy and software plays a vital role in this change. The research question set forth in this study is: How are new ventures created in the software industry? This study identifies culture, society and entrepreneur as components and actualisation, socialisation and emergence as the processes that affect new venture creation. These components and processes are derived from existing literature of entrepreneurship. Based on these components and processes a research framework is created which is used as the study approaches venture creation through process and case study logics. As a result of this study a model of venture creation in software business was created. The model shows how the dynamic formation of new ventures happens. The model of venture creation identifies components, processes and generative mechanisms of which the latter create the real dynamism in the model. The study showed how entrepreneurs and the creation of new business were tightly integrated into the environment in which the entrepreneurs resided and the people with whom they interacted. The study also showed that venture creation and the development of an entrepreneurial identity do not happen overnight. Rather, they take time to develop, and happen in an evolutionary way. / Tiivistelmä Yrittäjyystutkimus on muuttuva ja kehittyvä tutkimusala. Siinä kiinnostuksen kohde on ajan saatossa muuttunut kohti yrittäjän toiminnan ja muutoksen ymmärtämistä sen sijaan, että analysoitaisiin yrittäjien ja ei-yrittäjien eroja. Yrittäjyystutkimus on tunnistanut tämän hetken tutkimuskohteeksi liiketoimintamahdollisuudet ja niiden kehittymisen. Näiden liiketoimintamahdollisuuksien luomista ei vielä täysin ymmärretä ja yrittäjyyden teorian rakentaminen on alkuvaiheissa. Tässä tutkimuksessa uusien liiketoimintojen luomista pyritään ymmärtämään kokonaisvaltaisen näkemyksen kautta, huomioiden yrittäjän lisäksi teollisuudenalan ja yhteiskunnan jossa liiketoiminnan luominen tapahtuu. Sen vuoksi tutkimuksessa keskitytään uuden liiketoiminnan luomiseen ohjelmistoteollisuudessa. Tämä konteksti valittiin, koska talous on muuttumassa tuotantoperustaisesta taloudesta kohti tietotaloutta ja ohjelmistoilla on merkittävä rooli tässä muutoksessa. Tutkimuskysymyksenä tutkimuksessa on: Miten uusia liiketoimintoja luodaan ohjelmistoteollisuudessa? Tutkimuksessa kulttuuri, yhteiskunta ja yrittäjä tunnistetaan liiketoiminnan luomiseen vaikuttaviksi komponenteiksi ja toteutuminen, sosialisaatio ja syntyminen liiketoiminnan luomiseen vaikuttaviksi prosesseiksi. Nämä komponentit ja prosessit johdettiin aikaisemmasta tutkimuksesta. Näiden komponenttien ja prosessien pohjalta luotiin tutkimuskehikko, jonka avulla tutkimusaineistoa lähestytään prosessi- ja tapaustutkimuksen keinoin. Tutkimuksen tuloksena luodaan ohjelmistoteollisuuteen uuden liiketoiminnan luomisen malli. Malli näyttää miten dynaaminen uuden liiketoiminnan luominen tapahtuu. Mallissa tunnistetaan komponentit, prosessit ja generoivat mekanismit joista viimeksimainitut luovat malliin todellisen dynamiikan. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin miten yrittäjät ja uuden liiketoiminnan luominen ovat tiukasti sidoksissa yrittäjän asuinympäristöön sekä sosiaalisiin suhteisiin. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin että uuden liiketoiminnan luominen ja yrittäjämäisen identiteetin kehittyminen vaativat aikaa kehittyäkseen.

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.

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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.