Sustainability has become a major concern for society, adding pressure on companies to become more sustainability-driven, while at the same time attending to the questions of economic growth and financial performance. Although the existing literature has provided frameworks that highlight the need for balancing environmental, social, and economic impact, there is still limited knowledge about how company representatives perceive and deal with the implicit trade-offs. In this study, we approach this issue by exploring how owners and managers of start-up companies, which operate under constant resource and capital constraints, perceive and deal with the potential trade-offs between sustainability, growth, and profitability. A qualitative research design with semi-structured interviews is used to explore how in their decision-making, owners, and managers of start-ups talk about and attempt to resolve these trade-offs. The primary findings from the study are that: (1) start-up representatives have limited knowledge about sustainability concepts, (2) they do not perceive a trade-off between sustainability and growth, but (3) they do recognize and contend with the trade-off between sustainability and profitability.

Nowadays, we have seen a tremendous improvement in technology, as stated by Almega.Se, (2021), the era of digitalization has helped many companies increase productivity, reduce costs, and expand to new markets. There has been a massive increase in start-ups, especially in the tech industry. This study will examine how Swedish tech start-ups grow their businesses and identify some of the biggest and most important challenges they face while growing. This thesis uses Greiner's (1998) “Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow” to explore organizations' strategies and challenges while expanding and growing their business. This study also uses other scientific articles related to Greiner’s model to support and update the model. The results of this study found the most common challenges that start-ups in the tech industry face but also suggested some strategies to overcome these challenges.  The authors of this study found that startups could use Greiner's (1998) model to get inspired and informed about challenges and strategies to grow, even though some changes have occurred as the tech industry has evolved dramatically. Challenges such as finding a skillful team that can contribute to the growing firm are not noted by Greiner's (1998) model or strategies related to heavy marketing. On the other hand, challenges such as delivering a complete product, and conflicts between upper and low levels of management are noticeable nowadays among start-ups.  Keywords: Startups, strategy, challenges, Growth, Tech industry, Greiner 1998 Model, II

This thesis summarizes some of the challenges and risks faced by new civil engineering or surveying business owners, as well as, engineering managers in Mississippi. Additionally, this paper will cover how these business owners take on those business challenges to become and remain successful. The data covered represents answers from the owners asked via phone conversations. The number of twenty employees or less was the criteria for a firm to be considered small. It was decided that approximately 20% of the firms listed, or a total of 20, would statistically represent the current state of affairs of small to medium sized firms in Mississippi. The answers given from the firms are presented anonymously for this report.

The present thesis examines the relationship between innovation and gender diversity in the workforce, through the lens of new firms in the Stockholm Tech start-up ecosystem. Taking a point of departure in a knowledge-based understanding of innovation and firm dynamics, the study explores the relationship between gender and innovation at the firm level. First, the theoretical framework is built on relevant literature and empirical research in a multidisciplinary fashion. Then, a qualitative inquiry is designed with the aim of contributing to the growing research corpus in the intersection of gender diversity and firm capacity to innovate. Employing a qualitative interviewing method, data was collected among founders and founding team members of entry-level tech start-ups in Stockholm. The objective was to document how founders and entrepreneurs, in general, approach gender diversity when building their start-up teams. The analysis reveals that gender diversity, albeit acknowledged as an input to innovative performance, is not prioritized over other human capital aspects, such as talent. This is in line with the bulk of literature that studies the diversity in knowledge base and firm performance, hence highlighting the cognitive aspects of innovation process. The thesis findings are of considerable benefit both for broadening the extant approach to innovation process and for understanding gender diversity dynamics in the workforce.

Background and purpose - Digitisation is connecting various business actors to create interconnected ecosystems through digital platforms. Meanwhile entrepreneurial ecosystems are offering various benefits for start-ups e.g. through support organisations that offer services for them. Currently, these start-up support organisations face the challenge of leveraging digital services to create value for their member start-ups. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the digital services offered in start-up support organisations create value for start-ups. Approach - From a theoretical perspective, the sociology of value and service dominant logic concepts such as value co-creation and service ecosystems are considered. Qualitative methods were used to conduct a pre-study and an in-depth case study with a start-up hub in Stockholm's entrepreneurial ecosystem. Data was collected using 18 semi-structured interviews with start-ups and other actors in the ecosystem and participant observations of 17 events. Findings - Needs and challenges for start-ups were identified and mapped against the digital services used by the start-ups. These services facilitate interaction between various actors in the start-up hub. Seven interconnected value types for the start-ups were identified emerging from the use of digital and non-digital services in the start-up hub. Moreover, many of the digital services are not provided by the start-up hub alone but in collaboration with other actors, connecting the start-up hub to other actors in the start-up ecosystem. Research limitations and implications - The findings contribute to the understanding of how start-up support organisations leverage digital services to support their member start-ups. The connection of digital service usage to the creation of various value types provides a theoretical concept to research about service ecosystem. As the study has been conducted with a limited number of respondents and events in Stockholm, further research in other ecosystems and using different methods is suggested to ensure generalisability of the findings of this study. Practical implications - A number of practical suggestions for start-up support organisations can be derived from the findings, including that start-up support organisations can benefit from establishing and moderating a digital community, involving several actors from the ecosystem and continuously adapting digital services to the changing environment and needs of start-ups. Originality - To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first study to investigate digital services in entrepreneurial ecosystems from the perspective of value in service ecosystems. / Bakgrund och syfte - Digitalisering förbinder olika affärsaktörer för att skapa sammankopplade ekosystem genom digitala plattformar. Samtidigt erbjuder start-up ekosystem olika fördelar för start-ups, till exempel genom stödorganisationer som erbjuder tjänster för start-ups. För tillfället möter dessa start-up stödorganisationer utmaningen att utnyttja digitala tjänster för att skapa värde för sina medlems start-ups. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur de digitala tjänster som erbjuds av stödorganisationerna skapar värde för start-ups. Tillvägagångssätt - Från ett teoretiskt perspektiv beaktas sociologin av värde och service dominerande logik begrepp som värde medskapande och serviceekosystem. Kvalitativa metoder användes för att genomföra en förstudie och en fördjupad fallstudie med ett start-up hub i Stockholms entreprenörsekosystem. Data samlades in med 18 halvstrukturerade intervjuer med start-ups och andra aktörer i ekosystemet och deltagarobservationer av 17 evenemang. Fynd - Behov och utmaningar för start-ups identifierades och mappades mot de digitala tjänster som start-ups använde. Dessa tjänster underlättar interaktion mellan olika aktörer i start-up hubben. Sju sammankopplade värdetyper för start-ups identifierades som en följd av användningen av digitala och icke-digitala tjänster i start-up hubben. Dessutom är många av de digitala tjänsterna inte tillhandahållen av start-uperna ensam men i samarbete med andra aktörer, som kopplar ihop start-up hubben till andra aktörer i start-up ekosystemet. Forskningsbegränsningar och konsekvenser - Fynden bidrar till att förstå hur start-up stödorganisationer utnyttjar digitala tjänster för att stöda sina medlemmar. Anslutningen av digital serviceanvändning till skapandet av olika värdetyper ger ett teoretiskt koncept för att undersöka serviceekosystemet. Eftersom studien har genomförts med ett begränsat antal respondenter och evenemang i Stockholm, föreslås ytterligare forskning i andra ekosystem och användande av olika metoder för att säkerställa generaliserbarhet av resultaten i denna studie. Praktiska konsekvenser - Ett antal praktiska förslag till start-up stödorganisationer kan härledas från resultaten, bland annat att de start-up stödorganisationerna kan dra nytta av att etablera och moderera ett digitalt samhälle, involvera flera aktörer från ekosystemet och kontinuerligt anpassa digitala tjänster till förändringen av miljön och behovet av start-ups. Originalitet – Till bästa kunskapen av författarna, är detta den första studien för att undersöka digitala tjänster i entreprenörsekosystem från perspektivet av värdet i service ekosystemen.

Recommender systems apply machine learning methods to solve the task of providing appropriate suggestions to users in both static and dynamic environments. An example of this is a movie service like Netflix that recommends movies to its users. Although many algorithms have been proposed, making predictions for users with few ratings remains a challenge in recommender systems. In this study the performance of the algorithm k-NN, both user- and item-based, was empirically evaluated. This was done using the MovieLens 1M and 100K datasets in scenarios where the users have between 1 and 9 ratings, simulating cold-start scenarios of various degree. The results were then compared with the accuracy of the algorithm in a simulated normal case, to see how the cold-start affected the two algorithms, and which one of them that handled it best. In summary, this report shows that user-based k-NN performs better in relation to item-based k-NN for new users having few rated items. Overall the accuracy improved as the number of ratings increased for the new users for both user- and item-based k-NN.

This study aims at understanding the impact of social media (SM) at the different early stages of a startup. The early stages are identified as the venture idea generation stage, defined as how an idea is born. Then followed by the venture opportunity development & exploitationstage, which consists of defining an incubation and evaluation phase. To answer this question, believing in a relativism and constructionist philosophical standpoint, the researchers conducted a qualitative study with an inductive analysis. Therefore, conducting nine interviews on entrepreneurs that have started their own businesses. It has been concluded that SM has an increasing influence over the activities of the early stages. While little to no SM was involvedin the venture idea generation, it had shown a stronger influence at the incubation and evaluation phase. In addition to those findings, the study identified enablers and hinders to SM usage. Lastly, contribution has been made to the entrepreneurship literature, by identifying a new phase to the venture opportunity development & exploitation stage, i.e., trustworthiness.

The world is facing a significant depletion of resources. By 2030, our demand will require more than double the resources we are consuming at the moment.  Sustainability is a way of safeguarding that our choices will not negatively impact future generation’s lives due to inadequate resource management. The main problem is that the authorities and the business world do not regard sustainability as a strategic-first business function, rather a collection of disparate solutions. The most crucial question in the discussion about sustainability is how designers, architects, engineers, creators of things, empower the new generations to live in a world of abundance (McDonough & Braungart 2008). It is up to every one of us to build a world that we want to inhabit. Although studies on sustainable innovation practices in large organizations have been located (Bro-Browers, 2010), there is limited academic literature on sustainability in start-ups.  The present thesis aims to show how leadership plays a central role in implementing the sustainability agenda and what traits and styles the CEOs of sustainable start-ups have to possess to drive organizations to success. In this case, success has been defined as the rate of investment attracted by the organization, participation in incubator and accelerator programs, prizes, and all the activities that advance the sustainability agenda.  In order to achieve the research purpose of this study, I conducted a critical literature review of the major leadership theories in the field, coupled with a qualitative research study involving semi-structured interviews administered to ten CEOs of start-ups that develop sustainable services or products. The results were conclusive. CEOs of successful sustainable start-ups displayed the following characteristics: visionary, empowering, tech-savvy, open, acting as coaches and mentors for their organizations, enablers of change, and problem-solvers par excellence. Compared to regular start-ups, the CEOs of sustainable start-ups want to positively impact the world by establishing systems that support the eradication of destructive practices. The business world could use this study’s results as a guide for start-ups and companies that activate in the field of sustainable innovation. Furthermore, it enriches the existing speciality literature since there is little written on leadership in sustainable start-ups.

Cross-sectional and geographical data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics were combined with school-district level data from the Census Bureau’s F-33 Survey of Local Government. Use of this unique dataset, allows for the examination of the longterm effects of preschool participation while controlling for the quality of schooling encountered post-program. Former Head Start participants report better health status than individuals with no preschool experience or experience in preschools other than Head Start. Individuals who attended these other preschools outperformed the Head Start group when it came to high school graduation and overall educational attainment. No differences were detected in regard to the groups’ employment status and income. School quality did not appear to be a strong determinant of future success. Neither did it appear to explain the fadeout effect found in many other studies. Long-term effects did not vary much by Head Start region indicating that program quality is of similar quality across the nation. Some differences in benefits were found between rural and urban programs. Respondents who attended Head Start in urban and suburban areas report better health status than their rural peers. Individuals from rural areas were more likely to graduate from high school and have higher incomes than people from urban areas. Intergenerational benefits were also examined. Children whose mothers attended Head Start as a child are more likely to be eligible for the program than children whose mothers had no preschool experience. Among the eligible population, children of Head Start mothers are statistically more likely to actually attend the program than children whose mother did not attend Head Start.

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