<p>Abstract</p><p>Entrepreneurship has become an important issue in the modern society where the business landscape consists of many small and medium sized firms. These firms have all been started by an entrepreneur who has identified and business idea and developed that idea into a new venture. We therefore see the idea identification and idea development process as a central part of the creation of a new firm.</p><p>A concept that has become popular in the discussion about entrepreneurship is the cluster concept and dynamic business settings. These concepts are based on the fact that in some geographical regions more firms are started than in other geographical locations. These firms are often started in the same field or industry which has lead to theories that the environment supports and stimulates entrepreneurship. The studies about clusters have often been conducted with an organizational perspective and studied formal contacts within clusters. Therefore we in this study want to study how cluster environments support entrepreneurs in their idea identification and idea development process with the perspective of the individual entrepreneur.</p><p>The study is based on a theoretical framework built around the cluster theories develop by Michael Porter who is considered to be the father to this concept. In addition to this we also present theories about the importance of untraded interdependencies, the triple helix, spin-offs and entrepreneurs as organizational products.</p><p>The empirical material for this study has been collected through interviews with five entrepreneurs in Sweden’s famous ICT cluster Kista Science City just outside Stockholm. These interviews are later presented as five individual cases which describe the idea identification and development process. The results from these interview shows that the cluster environment can support the entrepreneurs in several ways. The support we have found in this study could be linked to the existence of untraded interdependencies that provided the entrepreneurs with access to information, knowledge and experts through networks. These factors were useful both in the idea identification and the idea development process.</p>

Abstract Entrepreneurship has become an important issue in the modern society where the business landscape consists of many small and medium sized firms. These firms have all been started by an entrepreneur who has identified and business idea and developed that idea into a new venture. We therefore see the idea identification and idea development process as a central part of the creation of a new firm. A concept that has become popular in the discussion about entrepreneurship is the cluster concept and dynamic business settings. These concepts are based on the fact that in some geographical regions more firms are started than in other geographical locations. These firms are often started in the same field or industry which has lead to theories that the environment supports and stimulates entrepreneurship. The studies about clusters have often been conducted with an organizational perspective and studied formal contacts within clusters. Therefore we in this study want to study how cluster environments support entrepreneurs in their idea identification and idea development process with the perspective of the individual entrepreneur. The study is based on a theoretical framework built around the cluster theories develop by Michael Porter who is considered to be the father to this concept. In addition to this we also present theories about the importance of untraded interdependencies, the triple helix, spin-offs and entrepreneurs as organizational products. The empirical material for this study has been collected through interviews with five entrepreneurs in Sweden’s famous ICT cluster Kista Science City just outside Stockholm. These interviews are later presented as five individual cases which describe the idea identification and development process. The results from these interview shows that the cluster environment can support the entrepreneurs in several ways. The support we have found in this study could be linked to the existence of untraded interdependencies that provided the entrepreneurs with access to information, knowledge and experts through networks. These factors were useful both in the idea identification and the idea development process.

Denna fallstudie handlar om hur pedagoger, förskolechefer och huvudmännen ser på kompetensutvecklingen och till viss del verksamhetsutvecklingen i förskolan. Det har under de senaste tio åren införts ett systematiskt kvalitetsarbete i skola och förskola och hur det används i dagens förskola för att få syn på vilka områden som behöver verksamhets- och kompetensutvecklingen berörs i denna uppsats. Studiens syfte är att undersöka kompetensutveckling i förskolan gällande pedagogernas och förskolechefernas kompetensutvecklingsmöjligheter utifrån tre olika perspektiv. Studien genomförds genom att pedagoger och förskolechefer intervjuades med hjälp av datorstödda intervjuer samt att några huvudmän intervjuades. Data analyserades med deduktiv innehållsanalys. Det som framkom mest centralt var att det finns ett arbete med att verksamhets- och kompetensutveckla förskolan men att åsikterna kring hur väl detta arbete sker skiljer sig mellan de olika yrkeskategorierna. Däremot framkommer att det systematiska arbetet med insamling av analysmaterial och fokus på kompetensutveckling i förskolorna och för förskolecheferna fungerar från huvudmännens sida. Dock visade det sig att kontakten med både förskolechefer och pedagoger var väldigt sporadisk. Resultatet har diskuterats i relation till tidigare forskning om pedagogers åsikter kring framförallt kompetensutveckling i förskolan vilket har framlett till viss kritik mot huvudmännens bristande kontakt med verksamheterna i respektive område. / This master theses is about how pre-school teachers, pre-school managers and directors of Education, in a case study, sees on idea development and developing people's skills in preschool. There has been throughout the last decade a new systematic quality work in school and preschool and how this is used in today's preschool to see which areas that needs learning and idea development and developing people's skills is presented in this following master theses. The aim of this study is to examine the development of skills in pre-school teachers and pre-school managers opportunities for skills development on the basis of three different perspectives. This study was carried out through computer-assisted interviews whit pre-school teachers and pre-school managers and some directors of Education were interviewed. It was found, most centrally, there was work done to develop people skills and idea development in pre-school but the opinion on how well this work is done differs between the various professional categories. However, it transpires that the systematic work whit collection of materials and a focus on the development skills in the pre-school and for pre-school managers works from the director of Educations side. However, it was shown that contact with both pre-school managers and pre-school teachers were very sporadic. The outcome has been set in relation to research on pre-school teachers opinions on primarily the work with people development skills in pre-school which has elaborated to some criticism of the lack of contact whit the activities in the respective area.

Idag råder det en osäkerhet kring idéutveckling och brister i litteraturen rörande kunskap kring idéer i början av utvecklingsprojekt har identifierats. Tidigare forskning inom området fokuserar mestadels på idéer under fasen innan projektinitiering, det vill säga Fuzzy Front End. Detta examensarbete fokuserar därför på hanteringen av idéer i början av utvecklingsprojekt.Målet var att kartlägga det nuvarande sättet att arbeta med idéer, samt de idéutvecklingsmetoder som används i början av produkt- och kunskapsutvecklingsprojekt på Sandvik Coromant. Arbetet syftade till att bringa klarhet i och bygga kunskap kring tidig idéhantering då brister upptäckts, men även att förbättra hanteringen av idéer i början av projekt och på så sätt fostra innovation. Fem stycken större projekt som använt sig av faciliterade idégenereringsworkshops i början av projektet deltog i studien. Intervjuer samt en valideringsworkshop genomfördes med målet att undersöka utvecklingen av idéer tidigt i projekt. Skillnader mellan avfärdade idéer och vidarerutvecklad idéer i utvecklingsprojekt undersöktes, liksom tron på avfärdade idéer och deras utveckling.Resultaten visade att mognaden av avvisade idéer och vidareutvecklade idéer sker vid olika tidpunkter under projektets gång samt inom olika kärnelement. Vidare indikerade resultaten att idéer som syftar till att lösa delproblem under projektets gång inte mognar i samma utsträckning inom alla kärnelement, vilket teorin hävdar att en produktidé gör. Inga skillnader kunde identifieras gällande dokumentation samt spridning av idéer mellan avvisade idéer och idéer som gått vidare. Inte heller upptäcktes det några skillnader gällande tron på avvisade idéer eller idéer som gått vidare i början av projekten / Today, there is an uncertainty regarding idea development, and a lack of knowledge in the existing literature regarding early idea maturation in development projects has been found. While previous research within the area of innovation mainly investigating ideas within the Fuzzy Front End, this master thesis focus on the management of ideas in the early phases of development projects.This master thesis strives to map the current way of working with ideas and methods used to develop ideas in the beginning of product and knowledge development projects at Sandvik Coromant. The aim is to shed light upon the gap regarding early idea development, with the long-term objective to improve the management of ideas in the beginning of projects to foster innovation. Five larger projects, that have used facilitated idea generation workshops, were selected to be part of the study. Interviews and a validation workshop were conducted in order to examine the development of ideas early in the projects. The differences between rejected ideas and further developed ideas, the belief in, and the fate of rejected ideas in development projects were investigated.The findings showed that the maturation of rejected and further developed ideas occurs at different times of the projects, as well as in different core elements. Further, the result indicates that ideas aiming to solve sub-problem in development projects do not mature to the same extent in all core elements comparing to earlier research on maturation of product ideas. There were no differences found between rejected and further developed ideas regarding documentation and the spreading of ideas. Neither did the belief in an idea in the beginning of the projects differ between the rejected and the further developed ideas.

De produkter och tjänster som syns ute på marknaden är oftast resultatet av en lång berättelse i entreprenörskapets rum. I entreprenörskapsrummet sker ett samspel mellan människor vilket gör att varje inblandad person har en egen förståelse för vad som har hänt i denna utvecklingsprocess. Den här studien ämnar undersöka och öka förståelsenför de händelser som har utspelat sig innan ett erbjudande har blivit redo för marknaden, detta genom att de involverade personerna får återge sin egen berättelse. Studien undersöker ett nystartat fallföretag som håller på att utveckla sin affärsidé. I uppsatsen presenteras studien och dess utförande i form av en berättelse där Sherlock Holmes och dr Watson har huvudrollerna. Vi utgår från ett konstruktionistiskt synsätt och ett abduktivt angreppssätt har tillämpats. Vi ser att människor identifierar möjligheter utifrån deras unika bakgrund som även formar deras motiv. Motiven ger oss en inblick ivarför och hur samspelet mellan idé och människor sker. / The products and services available on the market are often the result of a long story in the entrepreneurship discourse. When practicing entrepreneurship people interact with each other, thus every person involved has its own understanding of what has occurredduring the development process. The aim of this study is to examine and deepen our understanding of the events before an offer is ready for the market; this by letting the involved persons tell their own story. The study examines a case of a startup company which is currently developing its business idea. In the thesis the study and its execution is presented in the form of a story starring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Constructionism and an abductive method are applied. Finally we can see that people identify opportunities based on their unique background which also forms their motive. The motives give us an insight in why and how the interaction between idea and people is played out.