Walden University College of Management and Technology This is to certify that the doctoral dissertation by Anthony Okafor has been found to be complete and satisfactory in all respects, and that any and all revisions required by the review committee have been made. Review Committee Dr. Mohammad Sharifzadeh, Committee Chairperson, Management Faculty Dr. Javier Fadul, Committee Member, Management Faculty Dr. Craig Barton, University Reviewer, Management Faculty Chief Academic Officer Eric Riedel, Ph.D. Walden University 2018 Valuing high-tech startups using traditional valuation models has continued to pose valuation challenges to entrepreneurs, investors as well as financial analysts. The complications in valuing startups are heightened by the variations in valuation methodologies and the absence of operational data. Identifying the appropriate methodology for valuing startups is crucial to establishing value and a prerequisite for accessing funding through mergers or acquisitions. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of valuation methods on the likelihood of mergers and acquisitions of high-tech startup organizations in the Nigerian capital market. The theoretical underpinning of this study is rooted in valuation theory and mergers and acquisitions theories. The extent to which valuation methods impact the likelihood of securing funds through mergers and acquisitions was the overarching research question. Random sampling was used to obtain records of valuation methods and mergers and acquisitions that occurred between 2006 and 2016 from companies in the high-tech sector. A binary logistic regression model was used to test the impact of valuation methods on the likelihood of mergers and acquisitions of high-tech startups. The impact of valuation methods on the likelihood of mergers and acquisitions was found to be not statistically significant. The participants indicated a preference for specific valuation methods during negotiations for mergers and acquisitions. The findings have implications for positive social change via a reduction in the unemployment rate by encouraging startups with their innovation and entrepreneurship. This should help to facilitate the emergence of sound valuation methods for valuing high-tech startups in the Nigerian capital market.

The importance of entrepreneurship for economic growth and development is a well-known factor in the world. In which high technology startup firms are playing an important role in introducing innovative and advanced technologies. However, due to inherent difficulties in nature, they face major challenges such as acquiring sufficient investments. Especially for high-tech startups founded and located in non-main cities facing the issue compared to main cities. As a result, the firms tend to move out from the non-main city or region to main cities or abroad seeking investments.  Such trends directly affect negatively in the regional economic development goals and plans. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to address such tendencies by focusing on the Luleå city in Northern Sweden, investigating the ways of attracting local and global investors through social networks, for high technology startup firms in non-main cities, and identify the possibility of use digitalization to support to overcome the geographical distances to retain them within the region.  This empirical study is exploratory in nature and used qualitative methodology with an inductive research approach. In order to collect the data, the research performed expert interviews by interviewing top management in high-tech startups, incubators, and science parks in two cities (i.e. Luleå and Stockholm) from two regions in Sweden. To perform in-depth semi-structured interviews, an interview guide was used and analyzed the gathered data using the pattern matching method.  As the findings of this study, selected social networks for this study; multilevel and multiplex networks are modified, and presented in the context of high-tech startup ecosystems to attract and expand the investor networks out of geographical boundaries. The use of such networks is based on the amount of investment required, purpose, and aim of the high-tech startup firm. A six steps model has been introduced to Incubators to assist their high-tech startups through investor attractions. Further, the study has identified, to a certain level digital tools are useful to minimize geographical distances but physical meetings are to move forward and continue with strong relationships as physical meetings are non-replaceable with any other modes.  Suggestions and recommendations were provided mainly to high-tech startups, incubators, and science parks in Luleå as well as some recommendations for the Luleå kommun or Norrbotten region. These recommendations were provided focusing on Luleå but could also be used by the same high-tech startup business ecosystem players in other non-main cities in the world where necessary to expand their networks to assist high-tech startup companies to achieve regional development. Finally, managerial implications and theoretical implications have been presented at the end of the study.

Of late, technology entrepreneurship has been receiving growing importance as a means of contribution to national economic growth, both from Empirical Researchers and Policy Makers. According to NASSCOM, India has emerged as the third largest base for high-tech start-ups in the world. Although there is a surge in start-up creation rates in India, very little is known about the vital factors that are required for these star-ups to survive, sustain and grow into large enterprises. This study reviews the entrepreneurial, firm-specific and external environment specific aspects that influence the key lifecycle stages of high-tech star -ups and identifies the key factors that influence each of the milestones. There are very few studies in this domain that have examined the unique features and influential factors of different lifecycle stages of start-ups in the context of emerging economies like India. This limited exploration on the structure, process and strategies adapted by high-tech start-ups has resulted in insufficient understanding about the high-tech start-up lifecycle. This study therefore, attempts to fill these gaps. Accordingly, the objectives of this study are to determine the factors that influence the creation, survival and growth of the high-tech start-ups operating out of India. Further, an examination of what factors influence and impact the entire lifecycle of high-tech start-ups is also carried out – to obtain an integrated perspective on the lifecycle of high-tech start-ups. Primary data gathered from 275 high-tech start-ups, operating at different stages of the lifecycle formed the basis of the present study. To obtain additional insights on the factors influencing the milestones of the high-tech start-up lifecycle, the available data are analyzed against three segments – based on the target market segment that these start-ups focused on (B2B or B2C), based on the region of operations of the start-ups and based on whether the founding team had transnational work or start-up exposure or not. Our findings indicate that age and technical education of the entrepreneurs (from entrepreneur-specific perspective), the R&D and financial capitalization capabilities of the start-ups (from firm-specific perspective) and the external ecosystem parameters such as a robust SDP growth rate, presence and occurrence of VC funded deals in the region of start-ups operations have an influence on the high-tech start-up lifecycle in India. The findings of the study formed the basis to derive implications for entrepreneurs, other ecosystem stakeholders and policy makers.