This study investigates the role of social media on the outreach and customer engagement within start-ups and small scaled companies and presents a guideline on the selection and usage of social media platforms for such companies.Within the last decade rapid development of social media has revolutionized the way of communication and interaction. The effects of such phenomenon has not only altered the conversation between individuals but also between companies and their stakeholders. Now that being online has become a necessity in order to be reached and to reach, people are spending more and more time online than ever. This rapid change in daily life has had a significant impact on customer behavior. The receivers of conventional media have switched into active participants within the two-way communication world of social media. In order to reach out to such an audience companies have started to modify their marketing and PR activities. To leverage this constantly growing and evolving world of social media, companies need to have a structured social media plan to locate, approach and interact with their audience. This can be done via careful selection and management of social platforms. It is important to note that because of the distinct characteristics of start-ups and small scaled companies a specific approach is required on social media. This paper analyzes the social media usage of start-up company Claimony. Together with qualitative interviews and benchmarking, the study aims to find key points within efficient selection and usage of social media.The findings show that there are several decisive factors for the selection and the usage of social media. Even though each and every one of these has a distinct significance, the barriers and limitations of start-ups and small scaled companies do not allow them to take all into consideration.Thus starting with most popular platforms of social media were found to be the most beneficial, convenient and feasible way to enter into social media. Furthermore, with the triangulation of the analysis of the case company's social media usage, the results from benchmarking and the qualitative interviews, suggested way of usage on social media is presented at the end.In the summary, based on the results of this research and relevant literature, a guideline on the selection and usage of social media platforms for start-ups and small scaled companies is provided.

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.

Brushlesss dc (BLDC) motors and their drives are penetrating the market of home appliances, HVAC industry, and automotive applications in recent years because of their high efficiency, silent operation, compact form, reliability, and low maintenance. Traditionally, BLDC motors are commutated in six-step pattern with commutation controlled by position sensors. To reduce cost and complexity of the drive system, sensorless drive is preferred. The existing sensorless control scheme with the conventional back EMF sensing based on motor neutral voltage for BLDC has certain drawbacks, which limit its applications. In this thesis, a novel back EMF sensing scheme, direct back EMF detection, for sensorless BLDC drives is presented. For this scheme, the motor neutral voltage is not needed to measure the back EMFs. The true back EMF of the floating motor winding can be detected during off time of PWM because the terminal voltage of the motor is directly proportional to the phase back EMF during this interval. Also, the back EMF voltage is referenced to ground without any common mode noise. Therefore, this back EMF sensing method is immune to switching noise and common mode voltage. As a result, there are no attenuation and filtering necessary for the back EMFs sensing. This unique back EMF sensing method has superior performance to existing methods which rely on neutral voltage information, providing much wider motor speed range at low cost. Based on the fundamental concept of the direct Back EMF detection, improved circuitry for low speed /low voltage and high voltage applications are also proposed in the thesis, which will further expand the applications of the sensorless BLDC motor drives. Starting the motor is critical and sometime difficult for a BLDC sensorless system. A practical start-up tuning procedure for the sensorless system with the help of a dc tachometer is described in the thesis. This procedure has the maximum acceleration performance during the start-up and can be used for all different type applications. An advanced mixed-signal microcontroller is developed so that the EMF sensing scheme is embedded in this low cost 8-bit microcontroller. This device is truly SOC (system-on-chip) product, with high-throughput Micro core, precision-analog circuit, in-system programmable memory and motor control peripherals integrated on a single die. A microcontroller-based sensorless BLDC drive system has been developed as well, which is suitable for various applications, including hard disk drive, fans, pumps, blowers, and home appliances, etc. / Master of Science

A start-up faces many challenges during different phases of its journey to become a successful sustainable business. A successful scaling of the business is critical to the potential of the start-up and its ability to generate revenue and grow. Leadership has a very important impact on a start-up, navigating the business through different phases and their challenges. Even though it is recognized that leadership is impacted by many factors such as team members and internal and external factors around the organization and evolves with the time to handle those challenges, little is known about the impact of leadership on startups during the scaling phase, particularly when dealing with challenges such as human and financial capital shortage. This research is designed to explore leadership effect on startup’s scaling up.The study was conducted through interviewing successful founders and leaders how have navigated the new venture through scaling up phase, the thematic analysis shows that diverse influences of leadership qualities and traits on startup scaling aspects challenges human and financial capital. There is a dynamic interplay between leadership characteristics and organizational contexts in the successful scaling of startups. Leadership qualities such as educational background, and prior leadership experience are scrutinized for their influence on strategic decision-making and team management during critical growth phases. The study highlights how leadership styles evolve from transactional to transformational to meet the increasing complexity of scaling enterprises. Additionally, team composition and their attributes and organizational changes, including hiring practices and structural adjustments, are pivotal in accommodating the evolving demands of the business, reflecting a thorough integration of leader attributes and environmental factors in scaling success.The study of leadership characteristics, team members, and organizational context in startup scaling provides several promising avenues for future research such as study in leadership evolution within specific industries or comparative studies across industries, global and cultural variations affecting leadership, role of gender and diversity in leadership, the effectiveness of different leadership styles and many more.

Notre travail de recherche porte sur la création de valeurs au sein des start-up innovantes. La littérature en Sciences de Gestion propose deux grandes catégories de valeurs : la valeur actionnariale, qui revient aux actionnaires, économique, et la valeur dite partenariale, qui revient aux parties prenantes, intangible donc (Charreaux, 1998). Si la majorité des travaux de recherche sur le sujet concerne depuis des années la valeur actionnariale, nous nous sommes focalisés sur la deuxième catégorie qui constitue pour les parties prenantes en quelque sorte une rémunération d’échange selon Charreaux (1998). Cette thèse est née du constat d’un manque dans la littérature concernant la qualification précise des valeurs créées par l’innovation, avec différents enjeux. L’enjeu sociétal de création de valeurs d’éthique des affaires (Igalens et Joras, 2002) étant de donner un éclairage sur les comportements humains formant un ensemble de sentiments de valeurs afin d’enrichir les principes RSE énoncés en 2000 par l’OCDE. L’enjeu managérial étant la définition d’un nouveau modèle de management par les valeurs visant à accroître la performance globale (Germain et Trébucq, 2004). Enfin, l’enjeu purement lié à la recherche en Sciences de Gestion est de formaliser enfin une grille de système de valeurs propre au management, puisqu’à ce jour aucun système de valeurs n’a encore fait consensus auprès des chercheurs (Bréchon, 2003). Sous un positionnement épistémologique interprétativiste, notre thèse répondra donc à la problématique générale : par quel modèle de management stratégique une Start-Up innovante peut-elle induire une valorisation de ses parties prenantes ? Notre première partie développe une revue de littérature qui se compose de trois chapitres : caractérisation d’une Start-Up, management stratégique et innovation, quelle création de valeurs ? Cette première partie se concluant par une proposition de soixante valeurs vulgarisées et trois questions de recherche : quelles sont les valeurs potentiellement créées au sein des parties prenantes d’une Start-Up ? pour quelle typologie de parties prenantes une Start-Up innovante peut-elle créer des valeurs ? quel modèle de management stratégique peut permettre à une Start-Up innovante de créer des valeurs auprès de ses partenaires ? Notre deuxième partie est une étude de cas terrain qui se confronte à notre revue de littérature en trois chapitres de nouveau : démarche de recherche, étude de cas, et analyse des résultats. Nous répondrons ainsi à nos trois questions de recherche et à notre problématique, et ferons quatre propositions. Nous concluons en effet notre travail en proposant un système universel des valeurs du management, deux nouveaux concepts démontrés (« Ip Financeur » et « Valorizing »), et un modèle de management par les valeurs pour les Start-Up innovantes. Nous proposons enfin nos apports théoriques, managériaux, et méthodologiques tout en exposant conjointement les limites de notre travail. / Our research focuses on values creation in innovative Start-Up. The literature in Management Science offers two broad categories of values: shareholder value, which returns to shareholders, economic, and partnership value, which amounts to stakeholders, thus intangible (Charreaux 1998). While the majority of research program on the subject for years relates shareholder value, we focused on the second category, which is for stakeholders somehow like an exchange earning for Charreaux (1998). This thesis is born from the observation of a lack in the literature concerning the precise qualification of values created by innovation, with different stakes. The social challenge of creating ethical business values (Igalens and Joras, 2002) is to shed light human behavior forming a set of feelings values, in order to enrich the CSR principles set out in 2000 by the OECD. The managerial challenge is to define a new management model by the values to increase the overall performance (Germain and Trébucq, 2004). Finally, the challenge purely related to research in Management Science is for good to formalize a framework of a values system dedicated to the management, since to date no system of values has yet done a consensus among researchers (Bréchon, 2003). Under an interpretativist epistemological position, our thesis will therefore address the general request: by what type of strategic management model an innovative Start-Up can induce a valorization of its stakeholders? Our first part develops a literature review that consists of three sections: characterization of a Start-Up, strategic management and innovation, what type of values creation? This first part ending with a proposal of sixty values popularized and three research questions: what are the values potentially created within the stakeholders of a Start-Up? for what type of stakeholder an innovative Start-Up can create values? what strategic management model can allow an innovative Start-Up creating values for its partners? The second part is a field case study that confronts our literature review in three sections again: research approach, case study, and results analysis. We thus answer to our three research questions and to our general request, and will do four proposals. We conclude indeed our work by proposing an universal system of management values, two new concepts demonstrated ("Ip Financeur" and "Valorizing"), and a values management model for innovative Start-Up. Finally, we propose our theoretical, managerial, and methodological contributions while exposing the limits of our work.

Ce travail de thèse a pour objectif la mise en place d’un processus d’intelligence économique au sein d’une start-up proposant une technologie émergente. Dans ce cas d’étude, nous avons mis en évidence une double émergence : l’environnement nouveau et l’entreprise en construction.Dans un premier temps, nous mobilisons un cadre analytique original pour le processus d’intelligence économique : les TIS – Technological Innovation Systems. Cette grille de lecture propose une analyse dynamique du système d’innovation de l’entreprise à travers la structure et les interactions auxquelles les acteurs du système prennent part. Dans un deuxième temps, nous abordons l’intérêt de considérer les éléments intrinsèques de la start-up pour la mise en place d’un processus d’intelligence économique. Notre compréhension des éléments spécifiques de la start-up, comme sa structure adhocratique, a permis dans un troisième temps, l’implémentation d’outils cohérents avec la prégnance de la dimension humaine et les ressources que l’entreprise peut mobiliser. Nous avons organisé la création de connaissances à partir du cycle de l’information, proposé une première évaluation du processus d’intelligence économique en place et déduit les prolongements envisagés. Dans un quatrième temps, nous nous sommes focalisés sur l’utilisation du brevet pour la compréhension de notre domaine technologique.Réalisée dans une démarche de recherche-action (menée dans le cadre d’une convention CIFRE), cette thèse expose l’expérimentation de notre méthode d’intelligence économique au sein de Poietis, start-up française de bioimpression. / This thesis aims to implement a competitive intelligence process within a start-up that develops an emerging technology. A double emergence has been identified: the environment of the company and the company itself.First, we call upon an original analytical framework for competitive intelligence: Technological Innovation Systems (TIS). This framework allows for a dynamic analysis of the innovation system of the company through the structure and the interactions between the agents within the system. Second, we address the benefit of taking into the account the intrinsic characteristics of the company for the implementation of a competitive intelligence process. Our understanding of specific elements of the start-up, its adhocratic structure for instance, has allowed in a third step to implement tools in line with the importance of the human dimension and the resources that the company can mobilize.We organized the creation of knowledge from the information cycle, suggest a first evaluation of the competitive intelligence process and deduced the considered extensions.Finally, we focused on the use of patent for the understanding of a technological domain.Carried out in an action research approach (conducted as part of a CIFRE contract), this thesis shows the test of our method of technology intelligence within Poietis, a French bioprinting start-up.

This paper examines if Swedish government funded venture capital has managed to achieve the general goals set out by the government. The basis of the paper is a report published by The Swedish National Audit Office in 2014 and the paper is analysing the picture given in the report. This has been done through four different studies to see in what phases that capital is given, if they act in a complementary way through time, in what region the capital is given and by studying if there is a financial difference in different portfolio companies. This has been done by comparing private and governmental venture capital firms. The result indicates that the government funded venture capital invest less in early stages compared to the private firms. There is no statistical difference when talking about the financial development of the portfolio companies. The government funded venture capital seems to be acting in more region compared to the private and has less investments in the big city areas. The government funded venture capital might act in a complementary way or they might be crowding out the private venture capital-firms. / Uppsatsen undersöker om statligt finansierat venture capital har uppfyllt de generella riktlinjer som satts upp av regeringen. Grunden till uppsatsen ligger i Riksrevisionens rapport från 2014 och analyserar den bild som läggs fram och försöker genom undersökningar och teori diskutera om kritiken är relevant. Detta har gjorts genom fyra olika undersökningar i syfte att se till vilka faser kapitalet skjuts till, om de agerar marknadskompletterande över tiden, vilka regioner kapitalet går till samt hur portföljbolagen presterar rent ekonomiskt över tiden. Detta görs genom en jämförelse mellan de privata och statliga venture capital-aktörerna. Det som resultatet indikerar är att de statliga aktörerna inte investerar i tidigare faser än de privata. Det går inte att statistiskt se en skillnad mellan de privata och statliga aktörerna gällande utvecklingen på de portföljbolag som de äger eller har ägt. De statliga aktörerna verkar gå in i färre storstadsregioner än de privata samt att de väljer att investera i fler regioner generellt. De statliga aktörerna verkar agerar marknadskompletterande över tid, det skulle dock kunna vara så att de tränger ut de privata aktörerna.

The goals of my thesis are to present the researched company an analysis of a German market in a speed-reading industry, to discuss the correctness of company's hypotheses about the German market compared to the German reality, and to suggest a marketing strategy for the company's market entry supporting the selected market entry mode. In the first part, the theoretical section is introduced in which motives for foreign entry, followed by models of an environment analysis, of entry modes and of a customer analysis are described. These models are further used in the second part in which specifically speed-reading market in Germany and a German customer are analyzed. Based on the analyses, the market entry mode of the company is suggested, followed by the evaluation of the previously defined hypotheses regarding a German customer and a product, and, lastly, the next steps which the company should execute are proposed.