[pt] O propósito da pesquisa descrita foi investigar o recente fenômeno da criação de aceleradoras de startups digitais por empresas brasileiras de grande porte, uma tendência no mercado brasileiro e global. Apesar de existir bastante literatura acerca do tema de inovação corporativa, poucos autores estudaram o envolvimento entre corporações e startups através da implementação de aceleradoras corporativas, já que este é um modelo bastante recente, tanto no Brasil quanto no exterior. Por isso, este estudo busca entender que motivações estão por trás do investimento neste modelo, quais os benefícios percebidos por empresas que já o desenvolveram e quais os ajustes necessários no modelo de aceleração corporativa. Para tal, os únicos dois casos existentes de aceleradoras de startups lançadas por corporações brasileiras de grande porte foram analisados. Foram conduzidas entrevistas em profundidade com os gestores responsáveis pelas atividades de inovação e pela criação das aceleradoras corporativas dentro de cada organização, de forma a identificar diretamente da fonte os principais problemas existentes na realização de atividades de inovação anteriores e as motivações que levaram as empresas à escolha deste novo modelo de envolvimento com iniciativas digitais nascentes. O estudo identificou que as corporações possuem dificuldade em inovar devido à falta de alinhamento de expectativas internas, principalmente de retorno financeiro, e ao engessamento da estrutura corporativa, que reduz a velocidade de atividades ligadas à inovação. Existem, por outro lado, fortes motivações para alterar o modelo de atuação e a forma de se pensar a inovação por meio da implementação de aceleradoras corporativas, como a necessidade de acompanhar melhor as tendências do mercado, a crescente importância da presença no ambiente digital para melhorar as relações com os clientes, a influência do envolvimento anterior da liderança das organizações com empreendedorismo e a existência de modelos já comprovados fora do Brasil. Apesar de as aceleradoras corporativas ainda estarem em estágio inicial e não apresentarem resultados significativos, é possível identificar claramente os benefícios esperados pelas organizações. Alguns já estão mais presentes, como a melhora da imagem institucional das organizações devido ao investimento em inovação. Por outro lado, os principais benefícios esperados, como a transformação cultural da empresa e o retorno financeiro dos investimentos realizados, ainda não são uma realidade. Percebe-se, dessa forma, que as aceleradoras corporativas ainda não contaminam de forma suficientemente forte as organizações, principalmente por não possuírem o nível de exposição adequado aos profissionais que não estão diretamente envolvidos na sua operação. As aceleradoras corporativas surgem como uma nova opção de envolvimento com startups, de forma a unir a velocidade de execução e a flexibilidade de empresas tecnológicas de pequeno porte com a capacidade de escala, a experiência e o financiamento de grandes corporações. Estas estruturas possibilitam que elas desenvolvam uma operação de inovação independente da sua influência, libertando o desenvolvimento de novas ideias e projetos do engessamento dos processos e regras corporativos. Dessa forma, é possível agregar valor à organização tanto com o desenvolvimento de novos negócios quanto com a geração de complementadores para produtos e serviços já existentes, melhorando o posicionamento estratégico da empresa no ambiente competitivo. / [en] The purpose of this study is to investigate the recent phenomenon of creation of digital accelerators by large Brazilian corporations, a trend in the Brazilian and global market. Although there is much literature available on the subject of corporate innovation, few authors have studied the involvement of corporations and startups through the implementation of corporate accelerators, since this is a fairly recent model, both in Brazil and abroad. Therefore, this study seeks to understand what motivations are behind the investment in this model, which benefits are expected by companies that have developed it and what adjustments are needed in the corporate acceleration model. To this end, the only two existing cases of accelerator of startups launched by large Brazilian corporations were analyzed. Depth interviews were conducted with the managers responsible for innovation activities and for the creation of the corporate accelerator within each organization, in order to identify directly from the source the main problems in the implementation of past innovation activities and the motivations that led the companies to choose this new model of engagement with new digital ventures. The study identified that corporations have difficulty to innovate due to lack of alignment of internal expectations, especially of financial return, and the inflexibility of the corporate structure, which reduces the speed of activities related to innovation. There are, moreover, strong motivations to change the operating model and the way of thinking innovation through the implementation of corporate accelerators such as the need to better monitor the market trends, the growing importance of presence in the digital environment in order to improve relations with customers, the influence of previous involvement with entrepreneurship by the leadership of organizations, and the existence of proven models outside Brazil. Although corporate accelerators are still at an early stage and do not present significant results, it is possible to clearly identify the benefits expected by the organizations. Some already exist, such as the improvement of the institutional image of the organizations due to investment in innovation. On the other hand, the main benefits expected, as the cultural transformation of the company and the financial return on investment, are still not a reality. It is clear, therefore, that corporate accelerator has not contaminate strongly enough these organizations, mainly because they lack the appropriate exposure level for professionals who are not directly involved in its operation. Corporate accelerators emerge as a new option of involvement with startups, putting together the speed of execution and flexibility of small technology companies with the ability to scale, experience and deep pockets of large corporations. These structures enable them to develop an independent innovation operation that is not impacted by its influence, freeing the development of new ideas and projects from immobilization processes and business rules. Thus, it is possible to add value to the organization both with the development of new business and the generation of complementers to existing products and services, improving the strategic positioning of the company in the competitive environment.

In recent years, startups have become frontrunners of innovation. Large corporations today are trying to keep up with startups but are falling behind due to long bureaucratic processes. In order to keep up with the startups, corporations collaborate with startups through accelerator programs and acquisitions. The purpose of this study is to understand the decision making process corporations go through when they decide to interact with startups to reach their innovation goals. The study has used a qualitative research approach in the form of a multiple case study to look into the decision making process of larger corporations. Three corporations of various sizes have been interviewed with a total of 5 respondents. The gathered empirical data was analyzed through inter organizational relationships, open innovation and a conceptual framework.  The empirical data in this research displayed that companies use a mixture of strategies, including internal R&D, acquiring startups and corporate-startup collaborations, to reach their innovation goals. These alternatives are evaluated based on factors such as financial gain, feasibility within the organization, and input from different stakeholders, including experts within the relevant fields. Companies are aware of the risks involved, but are willing to take in order to remain competitive, avoid losses and stay innovative. They furthermore tend to choose multiple alternatives to spread their chances for gaining innovative ideas, in order to avert loss and diminish sensitivity. Ultimately, the companies use startup collaborations to minimize losses when acquiring startups, to stay ahead of their competitors, and to help them remain innovative as they grow.

Startups need various resources to survive and scale, while large corporations have vast resources but search for innovations and take startups as a valuable source (Wymer and Regan, 2005). Corporate accelerators are an emerging trendy phenomenon that large organizations are adopting to collaborate with startups. Corporate accelerators take startups either from a specific industry or from all industries (Cohen and Hochberg, 2014), and achieve economic benefit either by financial returns or innovation integration (Deloitte, 2019). The types of partnerships between startups and large corporations can be classified into exploitation, exploration, or the hybrid. The exploitative partnership focus on utilizing existing capabilities from both parties, the explorative partnership aims at building new competitive advantages for involved companies, and the hybrid focus on both sides (Koza and Lewin, 2000). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore strategies for startups to select suitable corporate accelerators and partner with large organizations. This research used the explorative method and gathered knowledge from the literature review on startups, strategic partnership and corporate accelerator and thoughts from startups via semistructured qualitative interviews. The author compared the startups’ experience and outcome in different corporate accelerators. The findings show that early-stage startups need a framework to guide their process in building partnerships with large corporations. Also, corporate accelerators were found to be a good tool that brings startups with network, corporate resources, and future customers. Moreover, the key success factors in startup-corporation partnerships are trust, clear objectives, and partner compatibility. A partnership framework was developed to facilitate startups to build partnerships with large corporations through corporate accelerators. / Startups behöver olika resurser för att överleva och växa, medan stora företag har stora resurser men söker efter innovationer och ser startups som en värdefull källa (Wymer och Regan, 2005). Företagsacceleratorer är ett trendigt fenomen som stora organisationer använder för att samarbeta med startups. Företagens acceleratorer tar startups antingen från en specifik bransch eller från alla branscher (Cohen och Hochberg, 2014) och uppnår ekonomisk fördel antingen genom finansiell avkastning eller innovationsintegration (Deloitte, 2019). De typer av partnerskap mellan nystartade företag och stora företag kan klassificeras i exploatering, utforskning eller en hybrid. Det exploaterande partnerskapet fokuserar på att utnyttja befintliga kapaciteter från båda parter, det efterforskande partnerskapet syfte är att bygga nya konkurrensfördelar för involverade företag och hybridens fokus ligger på båda sidorna (Koza och Lewin, 2000). Därför är syftet med denna studie att utforska strategier för nystartade företag för att välja lämpliga företagsacceleratorer och samarbeta med stora organisationer. Utforskande metoden och samlade in kunskap från litteraturöversikt om startups, strategiska partnerskap och företagens acceleratorer och tankar från startups via semistrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer. Författaren jämförde startups upplevelser och resultat i olika företagsacceleratorer. Resultaten visar att startups i tidigt skede behöver ett ramverk för att styra deras process för att skapa samarbeten med stora företag. Även företagens acceleratorer visade sig vara ett bra verktyg som ger startups nätverk, företagsresurser och framtida kunder. Vidare så är de viktigaste framgångsfaktorerna i partnerskap mellan startups förtroende, tydliga mål och parternas kompatibilitet. Ett ramverk för partnerskap utvecklades för att underlätta för startups att skapa samarbeten med stora företag genom företagsacceleratorer.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / John Keller / Innovative communities create cities rich in culture and opportunities to attract like minded residents and business owners to advance their city and their community. This study looks at the entrepreneurial startup community, Kansas City Startup Village (KCSV) and seeks to understand how social networks benefit entrepreneurs and how KCSV helps establish these networks. Through a review of similar startup communities and literature surrounding the topic, essential components within startup communities and characteristics of entrepreneurs were identified. To better understand the role of these elements within KCSV, ten entrepreneurs and members of support organizations of KCSV were interviewed regarding the social networks of the Village. The interviewing process utilized a grounded theory approach, with a text coding and analysis of the transcribed interviews to identify the role of entrepreneurs and social networks within KCSV. Findings were consistent with many of the topics discussed in the literature review and within the Comparative Communities section. Kansas City shares many common elements of the startup communities of Saint Louis, Missouri, and Boulder, Colorado; most notably the networking and social capital-building practices that keep entrepreneurs connected. The entrepreneurs possess traits that gave them an entrepreneurial advantage including formal education, past business experience, risk taking, and broad, forward thinking goals. Strong and weak ties were used in different scenarios and at different stages within their company’s lifecycle to assist with opportunity identification, resource acquisition and gaining legitimacy. KCSV was most influential in establishing the peer networks of entrepreneurs, which assist primarily with opportunity identification and resource acquisition.

Företag som arbetar med innovativa idéer och patent har traditionellt sett varit rädda att andra företag ska få ta del i vad de gör, med risk att deras teknologi och kunskap stjäls av konkurrenter. Denna syn, att företags innovationsprocess ska vara stängd för utomstående, har börjat ifrågasättas allt mer under de senaste åren. Allt fler företag går mot en mer öppen syn på innovationsprocessen och använder sig av vad som kallas öppen innovation. Genom en fallstudie på en startup i Sverige, ämnar denna studie undersöka hur öppen innovation hos en startup ser ut i praktiken, vilka risker och möjligheter det medför samt hur det skiljer sig gentemot forskning på mer etablerade små och medelstora företag. Det studerade företaget använder sig av flera dimensioner inom öppen innovation där sökandet av kunskap, återkoppling med kunder och köp av tjänster står för huvuddelen av öppenheten. Resultatet går i linje med tidigare forskning på mindre mer etablerade företag.

In this paper, I examine the role of CEO age in predicting the success of startup firms, as measured by social media exposure. I use a novel measure of early-stage growth defined by increased levels of social media and online traction. I hypothesize that the age of the company’s CEO will be negatively correlated with their social media scores while controlling for the company’s total funding amounts and employee counts. My data consists of 250 United States-based startup companies that were founded between 2011 and 2015. Furthermore, they are all relatively successful in that they are still operating and have received between $100 thousand and $10 million of funding. I find that the social media score of a company is negatively impacted by the age of their CEO.

No description available.

Esta pesquisa investigou como os modelos de negócios (MDNs) das empresas de e-commerce, atuantes no Brasil, foram modificados com a ação dos empreendedores nas fases de: concepção; início de operação e confirmação dos respectivos MDNs pelo mercado. Investigou, também, as razões que justicaram tais mudanças e suas contribuições para os desempenhos das empresas estudadas. Foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa, baseada no método de múltiplos casos, realizada junto à quinze empresas de e-commerce que adotam o modelo painel de controle e que atuam no mercado brasileiro. As entrevistas foram pessoais e orientadas por um roteiro de pesquisa. A apresentação dos dados dos casos e as análises qualitativas, extraídas dos depoimentos dos empresários, foram realizadas com base em uma Matriz de Análise Cruzada. A pesquisa revelou que os MDNs das empresas que haviam sido idealizados pelo empreendedor, na fase de concepção, sofreram mudanças dos tipos: estratégicas, mercadológicas, financeiras, tecnológicas e operacionais, as quais modificaram um ou mais dos submódulos do modelo, no sentido de introduzir ajustes na proposta/oferta de valor, no acervo de recursos, na base de fornecedores, nas redes de parceiros, nas formas de captura de valor (receitas), nas definições de segmentos de mercado e nos sistemas de gerenciamento e controle das operações. As razões destas mudanças, segundo os empreendedores, foram as necessidades de conquistar mercado para conseguir realizar vendas, atrair e ampliar a clientela. As mudanças realizadas pelos empreendedores, segundo eles, contribuíram positivamente, para gerar melhorias nos resultados de desempenho, ou seja, aumento da quantidade de clientes-usuários, clientes-fornecedores e crescimento do faturamento, conforme os índices utilizados.Os achados desta pesquisa foram: 1º) Nenhum dos MDNs idealizados pelos empreendedores estudados foi definitivo. 2º) O processo de construção do MDN só pode ser concluído depois que a empresa é submetida às condições de mercado, o que indica os ajustes e mudanças que serão necessárias neles. 3º) A confirmação do MDN, ou seja, quando ela gera resultados econômicos e atende às exigência de seus stakeholders, sempre é uma confirmação em caráter provisório. As limitações principais das conclusões são: a impossibilidade de generalização das conclusões para o universo de empresas de e-commerce atuantes no Brasil e utilizar informações de uma única fonte, que foram os depoimentos dos empreendedores ou dirigentes das empresas estudadas.A originalidade dos achados desta pesquisa contribuem para a teoria da construção de MDN em condições de mercado presente, revelando a ação do empreendedor na condução de diferentes fases do processo para a confirmação do modelo pelo mercado. Mostra as razões das mudanças incorporadas e suas contribuições para o desempenho da empresa. Para os empreendedores, os resultados da pesquisa servem como orientações para condução do processo, alertando para a necessidade de identificar as mudanças oriundas das necessidades dos clientes, da concorrência e de outros stakeholders. Em síntese, a pesquisa revelou que a construção dos MDNs, nos casos estudados, é um processo contínuo e sempre inacabado. / This research investigated how the business models (MDN) of e-commerce companies, active in Brazil, have been modified by the action of entrepreneurs in stages: conception; startup and confirmation of their MDN by the market. Also investigated the reasons justified such changes and their contributions to the performance of the companies studied. A qualitative research was made, based on the method of multiple cases performed by the fifteen companies of e-commerce that adopt the model panel of control and operating in the Brazilian market. The interviews were personal and guided by roadmap for research. The presentation of case data and qualitative analyzes extracted from the testimonies of businessmen, were made based on a Matrix Analysis Crusade. The research revealed that the MDNs of the companies that had been conceived by the entrepreneur, at the conception stage, passed for changes the types: strategic, marketing, financial, technological and operational, which changed one or more of the sub-modules of the model, in order to introduce adjustments in the proposal / offer value, the collection of resources, on the basis of suppliers, networks of partners, ways to capture value (revenue), the definitions of market segments and the management and control of operations systems. The reasons for these changes, according to entrepreneurs, were the needs to boost market to accomplish sales, attract and expand clientele. Changes made by entrepreneurs, according to them, contributed positively to generate improvements in performance results, in other words, increasing the amount of customers-users, customers-suppliers and revenue growth, as the indexes utilizados. Os findings of this research were: 1) None of the MDN conceived by entrepreneurs studied was final. 2) The process of building the MDN may be concluded only after the company is subject to market conditions, which indicates the adjustments and changes that will be required of them. 3) Confirmation of MDN, in other words, when it generates economic outcomes and meets the requirements of its stakeholders, it is always a confirmation provisionally. The main limitations of the conclusions are: the inability to generalize the findings to the universe of active e-commerce companies in Brazil and use information from a single source, that the statements were entrepreneurs or managers of companies studied. A originality of the findings of this research contributes to theory building MDN present market conditions, revealing the action of the entrepreneur to conduct different phases of the process to confirm the model by the market. Shows the ratios of incorporated changes and their contributions to the company\'s performance. For entrepreneurs, the survey results serve as guidelines for conducting the process, stressing the need to identify the changes originating from the needs of customers, competition and other stakeholders. In summary, the survey revealed that the construction of the MDN, in the cases studied, is an ongoing process and never finished.

Sweden has the goal to become net climate neutral by 2045. Due to its considerable environmental impact, the real estate and construction sector plays a crucial role in achieving this target. Given the time constraints and progress required, disruptive innovations to increase sustainability are needed. Startups are considered a promising source of such innovations because they are often less locked in by previous paths and existing structures. This study explores the conditions for the commercialization and implementation of sustainability innovations from startups in the Swedish real estate and construction sector. More specifically, it explores (1) the need for sustainability innovation perceived by actors around a startup and (2) the perceptions of the conditions for commercialization and implementation for such innovation. In-depth interviews were conducted with a startup as well as different groups of public and private organizations around it. Main findings are an increasing awareness of sustainability among all actors, albeit to a varying degree and based on different drivers. Main entry barriers for startups into the sector are the imbalanced distribution of risk and reward among actors in construction projects, skewing the responsibility for pushing sustainability innovation towards real estate firms and individuals and assigning sustainability champions a crucial role in connecting innovations and actors. Furthermore, the innovation system is not fit for the sector and the business case for sustainability is not sufficiently established yet. More long-term and system thinking is required in project set-up and policy making.

In the internet era,many small-and-medium enterprises begin to engage in e-commerce field.There have been many legends of internet in many contries for the last decade. Traditional enterprises set up their websites and step in the e-commerce continuously. They try to create new entrepreneurial stories. In the past, only large corporations have the capability to perform global business and operate twenty-four hours a day. Because of the sufficient manpower and financial resources, they are proactive in the marketing and customer service. However the internet technology and e-commerce have transformed the traditional business model. Nowadays, small or median enterprises.also can reach global customers and perform the transactions through the internet for twenty-four hours a day. This thesis is about the small and median enterprises to start the e-commerce by joining the H company that is an ISP vendor in Taiwan. This is a multiple cases research containing six internet companies. The research method is the grounded theory. After the interviews and associated data collection, we analyzed the data according to the three steps of grounded theory; they are open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. The internet venture can be described as three stages: starting a business idea, the start-up process, and the internet venture performance. For those internet startups with satisfactory performance, the research summarizes the following characteristics. The entrepreneurs well understand the web skills for internet transaction. Therefore, they pay much attention to the e-business procedures so that they are able to well maintain their websites,and make the best use of the websites to promote their merchandises and to conduct long-term customer¡¦s relationship.On the other hand,for those internet ventures with worse performances, the entrepreneurs usually know little about the e-commerce. They hardly participate their e-shops and have no time to manage their websites. Because they also have low expectation of the e-commerce, they don¡¦t learn the management tactics of inernet venture. For one extreme case, the entrepreneur has never done anything on his website. In this research, it is found that the internet venture performance is positively correlated with the expectation level. The type of merchandise is not the most critical factor to succeed an internet venture. Whenever the entrepreneurs have the higher understanding of the internet technology and the more participation to conduct the e-commerce activities, the performances are always better. Usually, for those startups with proactive entrepreneurs, they have higher possibilities to gain satisfactory financial performance.