Why should technology-based startups in the energy sector collaborate? How do they collaborate today? What is the incumbents’ perspective on collaboration with startups? Today these are issues of high interest for the energy sector in Sweden and for other startups in similar industries. This thesis considers the changing dynamics within the Energy sector in Sweden, the potential of innovation through startups, the market potential and barriers that these actors within the industry are facing. It also considers how collaborations and networks serve to seize opportunities and to overcome challenges and barriers faced by the industry today. Opportunity areas identified were: the trends within the industry concerning decentralized generation, the founders’ dedication for their startups, startup’s ability to act fast and flexibly, their technology contribution, and incumbents differentiating themselves through startups in a highly competitive market. Entry barriers identified were a traditional and slow market, dominative national champions, financial, regulatory, lead times, lack of experience, high risk, lack of system context and credibility. Finally strategic networks and collaboration prove to be an essential part for startups to overcome their liabilities and barriers to entry.

In recent years there has been an increased focus on preservation of our environment and natural resources. As a result, in a notably natural resource consuming world, sustainable development has evolved in societies for the conservation of the environment. Even though the term sustainability has become more frequently discussed, the subject remains complex. The aim of the study is to explore how high-profile business incubators in Sweden and the startups they support relate to sustainability, and to understand the conditions for pushing more progressive sustainability agendas, in a country that boasts about its sustainability ambitions. Fourteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews were held with both incubator business developers, startup founders, an expert within the innovation system and a professional investor. This qualitative study analyses different perceptions regarding sustainability and the incubators and startups role within the innovation system in a country that boasts about its sustainability ambitions. The results indicate that there is a demand for stricter institutional pressures, with increased support for entrepreneurs. It also turns out that incubators have room for improvement when it comes to motivational inspiration and behavioural changes for their tenants. However, they show to be receptive and attentive towards a systematic approach in order to enhance sustainability work. It is also shown that entrepreneurs', compared to the incubators, appears to have taken a greater distance from understanding the sustainability topic. As many as 56 percent of the entrepreneurs claimed that a forced method could be beneficial but might require more time than it is worth. The remaining 44 percent saw it as purely advantageous. Future studies are encouraged to conduct an investigation including a greater number of participants as an attempt to generalise these findings, and also try to identify if gender has a significant role regarding the matter.

Starting a business requires careful preparation to succeed. The failure of a business is often potentially detrimental to an efficient market economy. An understanding of how to start a business and why some companies succeed is crucial to the stability and health of the economy. The purpose of the study is to examine the entrepreneurs' experiences of how to start their own company and what makes a company successful. The study is based on a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews as design. Targeted selection was chosen in the study with a total of five respondents participating in the survey in Västerås. Data were analyzed by a manifest content analysis. The results show five important categories that have a significant effect on how to start a successful business. The categories were "Motivation", "Business idea", "Quality", "Knowledge" and "Business plan". According to entrepreneurs' experience, these five categories play a significant role in succeeding and overcoming challenges that may arise along the way. The conclusions are to facilitate the process of how to start your own business, it is important to consider the five categories to succeed and increase the chance of success.

This study explores the profound impact of Generation Z (Gen Z) on the international branding strategies employed by small fashion brand startups. As digital natives born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s, Gen Z represents a dynamic force that challenges traditional marketing approaches. By delving into their distinct characteristics and preferences, this research aims to shed light on the ways in which Gen Z's unique mindset and behaviours shape the branding landscape. Drawing upon a qualitative research approach, this study employs in-depth one-on-one semi-structured interviews with small fashion brand owners. Thematic analysis is utilized to uncover patterns and themes, offering valuable insights into the strategies employed by small fashion brands to engage this influential consumer segment. Findings reveal insights and showcase that Gen Z's inclination towards authenticity, social responsibility, and individuality necessitates tailored branding strategies. Small fashion brand startups are compelled to harness the power of social media and immersive experiences to captivate Gen Z's attention. By comprehending the impact of Gen Z on international branding strategies, small fashion brand startups can adapt and thrive in an increasingly competitive market. The implications of this research concern the fashion industry, offering valuable insights for marketers and entrepreneurs seeking to engage with Gen Z within the fashion sector.

Managing innovations is a well studied success factor for companies and organizations. This research focuses on the recently established Lean Startup Methodology (LSM) and the obstacles of implementing it in early- and later-stage business-to-business (B2B) Software as as Service (SaaS) startups. The scarcity of academic research around this framework, in contrast to its popularity, motivated the researchers’ aim to provide a better understanding on how it could be adapted to better fit the needs of these companies.Following an interpretivist paradigm, this qualitative research uses a literature review and semi-structured interviews for its purposes. Interviews were conducted with six individuals at four different early- and late-stage startups. The focus was on understanding the realities of working with innovation management and the different approaches at early and later stage startups. Startups face an abundance of ideas regarding what to do next, a hypothesis confirmed with this study. It is the researchers’ belief that the LSM does not provide sufficient tools for organizations to make an idea selection decision without committing too many resources initially. Lastly, the importance of product ownership for an effective innovation management process was validated.In conclusion, we present the need for an updated Lean Startup Methodology with a dedicated selection step to validate an idea early in the process. This contributes to the theory of innovation management and its practical implementation. The identified gap in academic research around frameworks tailored towards these types of organizations provides a good starting point for future research.

This research study concerns entrepreneurial startups that converted into internationalization by implementing an export business strategy. MASApparel and Dilma Tea companies in Sri Lanka, two leading companies, were selected to illustrate the export strategy for business expansion in foreign markets. The research focuses on how both companies achieved their foreign markets and their continuous successful presence in the industry even now by doing. The study begins with a comprehensive discussion of the theory of competitive advantage, business strategy, and entrepreneurial internationalization. The terms examine both conventional and contemporary views of business strategies implemented to gain a competitive advantage to expand in the international market. A review of the basic concepts of entrepreneurship and internationalization proceeds with a detailed review of the literature on the competitive advantage of the business strategy. Various local and global influences are identified in the export strategy for the internationalization process. The selected two case's findings are presented, and the evidence is based on considering implementing an export business strategy for business internationalization.

The rapid advances in technology and increase of tech investments across all the industries have promoted the emergence of several startups. Unfortunately, not all startups succeed despite of having good initial ideas. One reason to the poor business performance could be a lack of managerial control. Researchers and industry experts believe that performance management could support tech entrepreneurs to monitor and control the drivers that promote growth and their success. However, there is a lack of studies that could support these thoughts about its suitability for tech startups. Therefore, this study gathers empirical findings from Swedish tech startups as well as industry experts to discuss this issue. The findings show that a performance measurement system such as the Balanced Scorecard is a suitable practice for tech entrepreneurs. It also brings some insights about how the performance measurements evolve as the firms mature.

The purpose of the thesis was to identify the tech startups main organizational resources and capabilities received from the Stockholm cluster. Correspondently, how those encourage to sustained competitive advantage internationally. The aim was to ensure a deeper understanding with a qualitative research method with a multiple case study and an abductive approach. The empirical findings were based on seven case companies that were committing within the tech sector and were internationalized. Further, the literature review takes off with the definition of the segment, namely the tech startups followed by industrial cluster, the network - and social network theory, the Resource-based view with concertation on the different firms’ resources, the VRIO framework, and capabilities, and thereby internationalization including international competitiveness. The conceptual framework has illustrated the correlation between investigated variables, mentioned above. Moreover, the empirical findings chapter was constituted of primary data presented by the seven companies. The analysis was established on the basis of the three voices, which are theoretical, empirical and authors to examine contrast and correlation with each other. The analysis part was followed by a conclusion chapter that presented the main findings/conclusions, thus answered the research question. In addition, the chapter provided with implications, , limitation and recommendations for future research.   The findings displayed that the main organizational resources and capabilities obtained from Stockholm consist of human and financial capital, alliances and relationships, innovation/technology and reputation. However, they are only three of them that bring sustained competitive advantage, which are the human capital, alliance and relationships, and reputation capability.

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-06-09T14:38:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Cristian Mairesse Cavalheiro.pdf: 5461160 bytes, checksum: 38661afe5eb009442e824bd5ce9d3ae8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-09T14:38:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cristian Mairesse Cavalheiro.pdf: 5461160 bytes, checksum: 38661afe5eb009442e824bd5ce9d3ae8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-31 / Nenhuma / O trabalho apresenta uma avaliação crítica dos fatores determinantes para o sucesso de startups de TI no Brasil. As startups tem adquirido crescente interesse no mundo todo por empreendedores ávidos em seguir os caminhos do sucesso de players de tecnologia que como iniciantes, começaram numa garagem apenas com uma ideia e muita dedicação. Da expressão em inglês “começar do zero”, startups são as empresas que partem de uma ideia diferente com potencial de fazer dinheiro em pouco tempo e baixo investimento, ou seja, inovação com alto potencial de rentabilidade e escalabilidade, mas alto risco. Embora as startups de tecnologia de expressivo valor de mercado possuam relevância na economia, ainda são obscuros os fatores que levam ao seu sucesso, com poucas pesquisas acadêmicas explorando o tema. Como objetivos específicos a pesquisa identifica as referências de base culturais, econômicas e sociais que influenciam os fatores de sucesso e fracasso comparativos entre alguns dos principais clusters de inovação dos Estados Unidos e do Brasil, e identifica os fatores comparativos do empreendedorismo nas startups de TI entre alguns destes principais clusters de inovação. Analisa ainda as principais limitações enfrentadas por empreendedores no Brasil que resultam nas principais barreiras para o crescimento das startups de TI brasileiras e indica estratégias que possam oferecer suporte aos investidores em relação à viabilidade de startups, aumentando suas chances de criar uma empresa de elevado potencial no Brasil. Foi realizada uma pesquisa na literatura para identificar os elementos a serem pesquisados. A pesquisa apresenta um estudo de campo exploratório de natureza quantitativa que abordou 217 empreendedores do Brasil e qualitativa com 37 pessoas do ecossistema de startups, sendo nove dos Estados Unidos e 28 do Brasil. Nos Estados Unidos o pesquisador visitou o Vale do Silício e região de Boston. No Brasil foram visitados cinco clusters de inovação, em Recife, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre e São Paulo. As evidências foram agrupadas em dimensões de análise e os resultados levaram às seguintes considerações: foi possível identificar uma lacuna na educação empreendedora e no papel da universidade quanto a uma maior integração com o segmento empresarial; no governo observa-se a necessidade de desburocratização do setor público e privado na melhoria dos serviços básicos de infraestrutura; um dos fatores mais relevantes da pesquisa foi a identificação da determinação do principal fundador na busca da realização do sonho grande e na criação do time de talentos, sendo que inicialmente seu objetivo não é especificamente o de tornar-se rico; outro fator é a dificuldade do brasileiro em utilizar capital para o risco, visto que o custo Brasil e os fatores culturais geram um elevado grau de incerteza do retorno. Por fim, apesar de o Brasil ser “too little, too late”, existe um desejo generalizado de gerar startups de elevado potencial, ou seja, com valor de mercado superior a U$ 1 bilhão. / This dissertation presents a critical assessment of the determining factors for the success of IT startups in Brazil. The world of startups has gained increasing worldwide interest for eager entrepreneurs in following the ways of the success of major players in technology that once beginners, began in a garage only with an idea and a lot of dedication. From the expression in English "start from the scratch", startups are companies that start from a different idea with potential to make money in a short time and low investment, that is, innovation with a high potential for profitability and scalability, but high risk. Although the technology startups with great market value have relevance in the economy, the factors that lead to their success are still unclear with few academic researches exploring the theme. As specific objectives the research identifies the economic, social and cultural basis references that influence the comparative factors of success and failure among some major innovation clusters in the United States and in Brazil, identifies the comparative factors of entrepreneurship in IT startups among some major innovation clusters in the United States and in Brazil, analyzes the main constraints faced by entrepreneurs in Brazil that result in major barriers to the growth of Brazilian IT startups and indicates strategies that can offer support to the investors regarding the viability of startups , increasing their chances of creating a great potential company in Brazil. A survey was conducted in the literature to identify the elements to be searched. The research presents a quantitative exploratory study field that approached 217 entrepreneurs from Brazil and a qualitative one with 37 people from the startup ecosystem, 9 of them from the United States and 28 from Brazil. In the United States the researcher visited the Silicon Valley and Boston area and in Brazil five innovation clusters were visited in Recife, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre and São Paulo. Data was grouped into analysis dimensions and the results have led to the following considerations: it was possible to identify a gap in the entrepreneurial education and in the role of the university in a greater integration with the corporate sector; in the government on the need of reducing bureaucracy of the public and private sector in improving basic infrastructure services; one of the most relevant factors of the research was the identification of the principal founder determination in pursuing the realization of the great dream and in the creation of the talent team, considering that his initial goal was not specifically to become rich; a difficulty of the Brazilian to use the capital for risk, as the cost in Brazil and cultural factors generate a high uncertainty degree about the return. Finally, although everything in Brazil is "too little, too late", there is widespread hope of generating highly successful startups in Brazil, that is, with a market value of more than $ 1 billion.

Submitted by Setor de Tratamento da Informa??o - BC/PUCRS (tede2@pucrs.br) on 2015-11-17T17:40:05Z No. of bitstreams: 1 476187 - Texto Completo.pdf: 1096879 bytes, checksum: 3b86a10d7d3a3b62b703355219e321f4 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-11-17T17:40:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 476187 - Texto Completo.pdf: 1096879 bytes, checksum: 3b86a10d7d3a3b62b703355219e321f4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-28 / The main agents of technological change are the new businesses of high-tech sectors, they stimulate socio-economic development through innovative products and processes. In order to challenge existing technological paradigms, the technology-based firms (TBFs) set new market competition standards, regulating the behavior of the existing players. Due to uncertainty and information asymmetry of their activities, TBFs found in financial restriction a limiter to its development. For TBFs, the venture capital industry has been seen as a relevant financial intermediary, providing capital to companies that would otherwise have difficulty obtaining resources. The investment by venture capital companies is risky, because it has low liquidity and is highly dependent on a small group of entrepreneurs / managers. The selection of which company to invest, is a complex process with significant financial repercussions. Therefore, this is a strategic selection, involving a structured decision-making process. Given this context, a research based on the study method of multiple cases was developed, in which three cases were analyzed through nine semi-structured interviews.The results indicate that there is a structured process of decision-making by the venture capital firms with five key steps: business origin, information search, analysis, negotiation and monitoring. The venture capital firms perform both active and passive prospecting, the network recommendations and the entrepreneurial itself, are important sources of information. At the stage of analysis Venture Capitalist invest more time, four main aspects are evaluated: Marketing, Finance, Business and People. Among the main criteria considered to invest, it stands out companies based on innovative product or service and the profile and experience of the entrepreneur and his team. The valuation of TBCFs is performed using the methodology of discounted cash flow. The investment agreement between the two parties is negotiable, however, due to the minority role played by venture capital firms, they have protection clauses that are irreducible. After performing the investment, monitoring is made with active participation of the Venture Capitalist in the invested company in order to ensure the development of it and better divestment. / Os principais agentes de mudan?as tecnol?gicas s?o as novas empresas de setores de alta tecnologia, pois estimulam o desenvolvimento socioecon?mico atrav?s de produtos e processos inovadores. Ao desafiarem os paradigmas tecnol?gicos existentes, as Empresas de Base Tecnol?gica (EBTs) estabelecem novos padr?es de concorr?ncia de mercado, disciplinando o comportamento dos atores existentes. Devido ? incerteza e assimetria informacional de suas atividades, as EBTs encontram na indisponibilidade de recursos financeiros um limitador para seu desenvolvimento. Para as EBTs, a ind?stria de Venture Capital tem se mostrado como um relevante intermedi?rio financeiro, disponibilizando capital a empresas que de outra maneira teriam dificuldade em obter recursos. O investimento realizado pelas empresas de Venture Capital ? arriscado, pois apresenta baixa liquidez e ? altamente dependente de um pequeno grupo de empreendedores/gestores. A escolha, de qual empresa investir, ? um processo complexo com relevante repercuss?o financeira. Por isso, esta ? uma sele??o estrat?gica, envolvendo um processo estruturado de tomada de decis?o. Dado este contexto, foi desenvolvida uma pesquisa baseada no m?todo de estudo de casos m?ltiplos, em que tr?s casos foram analisados atrav?s de nove entrevistas semiestruturadas. Os resultados indicam que existe um processo estruturado de tomada de decis?o por parte das empresas de Venture Capital com cinco principais etapas: origem do neg?cio, busca de informa??es, an?lise, negocia??o e monitoramento.As empresas de Venture Capital realizam tanto prospec??o ativa, quanto passiva, sendo as recomenda??es da rede de relacionamento e o pr?prio empreendedor importante fontes de informa??o. A etapa de an?lise ? a que o Venture Capitalist investe mais tempo, sendo quatro principais aspectos avaliados: Mercado, Finan?as, Neg?cio e Pessoas. Dentre os principais crit?rios considerados para investir, destaca-se empresas baseadas em produto ou servi?o inovador, al?m do perfil e experi?ncia do empreendedor e sua equipe. O valuation (determina??o do pre?o justo) das EBTs ? realizado utilizando-se a metodologia do Fluxo de Caixa Descontado. O contrato de investimento entre as duas partes ? negoci?vel, no entanto, devido ao papel minorit?rio assumido pelas empresas de Venture Capital, elas possuem cl?usulas de prote??o que s?o irredut?veis. Ap?s realizado o investimento ? feito um monitoramento com participa??o ativa do Venture Capitalist na empresa investida, a fim de garantir o desenvolvimento dela e um melhor desinvestimento.