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Atenciosamente, Catarina Ribeiro Bibliotecária - Ramal: 5993 on 2017-05-15T15:03:32Z (GMT) / Submitted by Marcia Silva (marcia@latec.uff.br) on 2017-05-30T18:53:24Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Luiz Gustavo Xavier Borges 2.pdf: 1685715 bytes, checksum: 35e90b47dc59ff5ce8253b1616194118 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Biblioteca da Escola de Engenharia (bee@ndc.uff.br) on 2017-07-04T12:17:32Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Luiz Gustavo Xavier Borges 2.pdf: 1685715 bytes, checksum: 35e90b47dc59ff5ce8253b1616194118 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-04T12:17:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Luiz Gustavo Xavier Borges 2.pdf: 1685715 bytes, checksum: 35e90b47dc59ff5ce8253b1616194118 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-05-06 / Há um recente reconhecimento sobre startups, empresas desenhadas para criarem novos produtos sob condições de extrema incerteza e com inovação no centro de suas operações. São organizadas para crescimento acelerado, atraindo investimentos de níveis variados e tipos diferentes de investidores, que buscam retornos mais elevados, proporcionais ao capital investido e ao risco de sucesso dessas empresas. Esta dissertação tem como objetivo geral analisar os impactos gerados por um investimento realizado por um investidor anjo em uma startup brasileira do setor de educação via indicadores de competitividade. O método utilizado foi pesquisa-ação, que visa produzir conhecimento e resolver um problema prático, através de uma abordagem de pesquisa qualitativa com os sócios da equipe e com o investidor anjo, realizada no período de maio a setembro de 2015. Como resultado, observa-se a definição de indicadores de competitividade, confrontando a percepção dos resultados pela equipe com a expectativa do investidor. Os indicadores “Competência da Equipe”, “Introdução de Novos Produtos”, “Quantidade de Produtos Oferecidos”, “Qualidade dos Produtos e Serviços Oferecidos” e “Receita Bruta” foram os mais relevantes. O investimento anjo ofereceu condições de crescimento nestes indicadores e a empresa estruturou suas atividades baseadas nos pontos apresentados neste trabalho, aprimorando sua operação e se estruturando para a captação de um novo investimento. A contribuição acadêmica se constitui no levantamento, aplicação e validação dos indicadores e na proposta de aplicação a startups de diversas áreas de atuação / There is a recent knowledge about startups firms, companies designed to create new products under extreme uncertainty conditions pushing innovation as the heart of its operations. The accelerated growth is the main objective, attracting investment from different levels and types of investors. The high returns of the investments are proportional to the risk imputed for the invested capital. The main objective of this work is to analyze the impacts generated by a Brazilian angel investment in a startup education sector by competitiveness indicators. The methodology used was a qualitative research applied to the startup members and the investor with objective to quantify the improvement in the results after the investment. As a result, there is the definition of competitiveness indicators, comparing the results perception by the team and the investor expectation. The indicators "Team Racing", "New Product Introduction", "Number of Products Offered", "Quality of Products and Services Offered" and "Gross Revenue" were the most relevant. The angel investment offered growth conditions in these parameters and the company structured its activities based on the points presented in this work, improving its operation and being structured to attract new investment. The academic contribution constitutes the survey, implementation and indicators validation and startups proposed application in various areas

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.

Platform-centric startups that generate value by facilitating interactions between two or more interdependent groups digitally transform and disrupt the business environment, leading to significant changes in how people purchase, sell, communicate, and even live. Some of these, such as Uber and Airbnb, have become among the most beloved and successful brands, though they had serious challenges in building up their brands at the early stages due to lack of resources. The purpose of this dissertation is to develop a framework of branding in platform-centric startups by identifying the pillars of brand‐building and linking the relevant factors. This study employs qualitative method to propose a four-level framework including passion, innovation, co-creation, and moralization for brand-building in startups. The novelty of this framework reveals that the locus of brand-building is gradually expanding from the founders to the company, then to the customers, and finally to a larger societal constituency. The framework can assist founders and stakeholders in monitoring the growth of a new venture in the real business world while guiding branding scholars to investigate the discipline of startup branding.

Resulting from the technological revolution over the last few decades, many software startup ecosystems have emerged around the globe. Boosted by the Internet, the omnipresence of mobile devices, and the abundance of cloud-based services, software companies with scalable business models, known as startups, became all the hype. With tech entrepreneurs as their main agents, some of these ecosystems have existed for over 50 years, while others are newly born. This difference in evolution and maturity makes comparing tech hubs a challenge. Moreover, if they are to evolve towards fruitful and sustainable environments, nascent ecosystems need a clear vision of how to develop their community. This thesis presents a multiple-case study research in three different ecosystems, and it was divided in three phases. During the first phase, we analyzed the Israeli entrepreneurship ecosystem and, using grounded theory, created a conceptual generalized framework to map ecosystems. We also developed a methodology and a systematic interview protocol to be used to analyze any ecosystem. The second phase was performed in São Paulo, with the objective of refining and validating both the methodology and the conceptual framework. The second phase resulted in the discovery of how important it is to analyze ecosystem dynamics and evolution process, leading us to create a maturity model for software startup ecosystems. The maturity model was based on the conceptual model we created, mapping the most important factors that define an ecosystem. To validate and refine the Maturity Model created in the second phase, we ran a third case-study iteration in New York City. Based on the feedback from over a dozen experts, we generated the final model and a practical guide to determine an ecosystems maturity level. With this model, it is possible not only to compare different ecosystems, but also to identify gaps and propose customized practical actions that can yield meaningful improvements and lead ecosystems to the next level of development. / Resultado da revolução tecnológica das últimas décadas, vários ecossistemas de startups de software surgiram ao redor do globo. Acelerados pela Internet, pela onipresença dos dispositivos móveis e pela abundância de serviços de nuvem, empresas de software com modelos de negócio escalável, conhecidas como startups, se tornaram o assunto da moda. Com empreendedores de tecnologia como seus principais agentes, alguns desses ecossistemas já existem há mais de 50 anos, enquanto outros são apenas recém-nascidos. Essa diferença no grau de evolução e maturidade torna a comparação de aglomerados de tecnologia um desafio. Mais ainda, se alguns ecossistemas querem evoluir para um estágio próspero e sustentável, ecossitemas nascentes precisam de uma visão clara de como desenvolver suas comunidades. Esta tese apresenta nossa pesquisa baseada em um estudo de caso múltiplo em três diferentes ecossistemas, e foi dividade em três fases. Durante a primeira fase, nós analisamos o ecossistema empreendedor de Israel e, utilizando teoria fundamentada em dados, criamos um arcabouço conceitual que provê uma versão generalizada para mapear ecossistemas. Desenvolvemos, também, uma metodologia e um protocolo sistemático para entrevistas a serem usadas na análise de ecossistemas específicos. A segunda fase da pesquisa foi realizada em São Paulo, com o objetivo de refinar e validar a metodologia e o arcabouço conceitual. Esta fase resultou na descoberta de como é importante analisar a dinâmica e o processo de evolução dos ecossistemas, nos levando a criar um modelo de maturidade para ecossistemas de startups de software. O modelo de maturidade foi baseado no modelo conceitual que criamos, mapeando os fatores mais importantes que definem as características de um ecossistema. Para validar e refinar o modelo de maturidade criado na segunda fase, realizamos um terceiro estudo de caso em Nova Iorque que contou com o feedback de mais de uma dezena de especialistas. Geramos um modelo de maturidade final, um guia prático para determinar o nível de maturidade de cada ecossistema. Com esse modelo, é possível não somente comparar diferentes ecossistemas, como também identificar lacunas e propor ações práticas e personalizadas que podem resultar em melhorias significativas e levar ecossistemas ao próximo nível de desenvolvimento.

Há um crescente interesse das grandes empresas em se aproximarem das startups como forma de desenvolver inovação aberta. Entre as 500 maiores empresas do ranking Forbes Global 500, 262 já têm iniciativas de engajamento com startups de alguma maneira: seja investindo, seja acelerando, incubando, realizando eventos ou buscando outros tipos de relacionamento. Nessa relação, a grande corporação pode se beneficiar da estrutura leve, da propensão a tomar riscos, da velocidade de operação e de tomada de decisão das startups, enquanto as startups podem se aproveitar do acesso à grande base de consumidores, do capital, da credibilidade e da estrutura voltada à eficiência da grande corporação, gerando ganhos mútuos. Para que uma grande empresa tenha sucesso nesse relacionamento, ela precisa saber quais são os seus objetivos, os seus resultados esperados, escolher a melhor forma de engajamento e criar uma operação equilibrada e integrada ao ecossistema empreendedor. Ter clareza de como cumprir essas etapas não é uma tarefa fácil. No mercado brasileiro, o desafio é ainda maior. O tema é recente e não há uma fonte de dados que consolide e analise as principais iniciativas de relacionamento entre startups e grandes empresas e as melhores práticas no país. Por meio de pesquisas exploratórias com dados secundários, este estudo identificou, mapeou e categorizou 137 programas de engajamento entre grandes corporações e startups no país. As informações encontradas foram confrontadas com o levantamento teórico e enriquecidas com informações coletadas em entrevistas com executivos responsáveis por algumas das principais iniciativas existentes no Brasil. Desta forma foi possível construir uma visão do mercado brasileiro e entender o nível de maturidade nessa área. Foi possível também identificar os objetivos das corporações, os modelos de relacionamento praticados, o perfil de interesse em startups, as formas como selecionam esse tipo de negócios, como operam os programas, os riscos envolvidos e as formas de mensuração de resultados. / There is increasing interest from the big companies to be closer to the startups as a way of fostering the open innovation. Among the 500 major companies of the Forbes Global 500 ranking, 262 are already running startup engagement programs in any way: investing, accelerating, incubating, running events or any other kind of relationship. In this relationship, the big company can benefit from the innovation focus, the willingness to take risks, the speed of operation and decision taking of the startups, meanwhile the startups can benefit from the access to the big consumer base, the capital, the credibility and the efficiency of the big corporations. To be successful in this journey the big company have to be clear about what are their objectives, the expected results and chose the best model of engagement to create a program that has to be balanced and integrated with the startup ecosystem. Being clear about how to achieve that can be challenging. The topic is recent and there is little literature about that. In Brazil, the challenge is even greater. There is no data source with consolidated data and information about the main startup engagement programs and its best practices. Trough exploratory research with open data this paper have sourced and categorized 137 startup and big companies engagement programs in the country. The gathered data was analyzed taking in consideration the related bibliography and enriched with information collected from interviews with executives responsible for some of the main initiatives in Brazil. This way it was possible to build a consolidated view of the market and its level of maturity. It was also possible to identify the main objectives of the big companies, the engagement models adopted, the startup target profile, the way they select the startups and run the programs, the risks and how they measure the results

Resulting from the technological revolution over the last few decades, many software startup ecosystems have emerged around the globe. Boosted by the Internet, the omnipresence of mobile devices, and the abundance of cloud-based services, software companies with scalable business models, known as startups, became all the hype. With tech entrepreneurs as their main agents, some of these ecosystems have existed for over 50 years, while others are newly born. This difference in evolution and maturity makes comparing tech hubs a challenge. Moreover, if they are to evolve towards fruitful and sustainable environments, nascent ecosystems need a clear vision of how to develop their community. This thesis presents a multiple-case study research in three different ecosystems, and it was divided in three phases. During the first phase, we analyzed the Israeli entrepreneurship ecosystem and, using grounded theory, created a conceptual generalized framework to map ecosystems. We also developed a methodology and a systematic interview protocol to be used to analyze any ecosystem. The second phase was performed in São Paulo, with the objective of refining and validating both the methodology and the conceptual framework. The second phase resulted in the discovery of how important it is to analyze ecosystem dynamics and evolution process, leading us to create a maturity model for software startup ecosystems. The maturity model was based on the conceptual model we created, mapping the most important factors that define an ecosystem. To validate and refine the Maturity Model created in the second phase, we ran a third case-study iteration in New York City. Based on the feedback from over a dozen experts, we generated the final model and a practical guide to determine an ecosystems maturity level. With this model, it is possible not only to compare different ecosystems, but also to identify gaps and propose customized practical actions that can yield meaningful improvements and lead ecosystems to the next level of development. / Resultado da revolução tecnológica das últimas décadas, vários ecossistemas de startups de software surgiram ao redor do globo. Acelerados pela Internet, pela onipresença dos dispositivos móveis e pela abundância de serviços de nuvem, empresas de software com modelos de negócio escalável, conhecidas como startups, se tornaram o assunto da moda. Com empreendedores de tecnologia como seus principais agentes, alguns desses ecossistemas já existem há mais de 50 anos, enquanto outros são apenas recém-nascidos. Essa diferença no grau de evolução e maturidade torna a comparação de aglomerados de tecnologia um desafio. Mais ainda, se alguns ecossistemas querem evoluir para um estágio próspero e sustentável, ecossitemas nascentes precisam de uma visão clara de como desenvolver suas comunidades. Esta tese apresenta nossa pesquisa baseada em um estudo de caso múltiplo em três diferentes ecossistemas, e foi dividade em três fases. Durante a primeira fase, nós analisamos o ecossistema empreendedor de Israel e, utilizando teoria fundamentada em dados, criamos um arcabouço conceitual que provê uma versão generalizada para mapear ecossistemas. Desenvolvemos, também, uma metodologia e um protocolo sistemático para entrevistas a serem usadas na análise de ecossistemas específicos. A segunda fase da pesquisa foi realizada em São Paulo, com o objetivo de refinar e validar a metodologia e o arcabouço conceitual. Esta fase resultou na descoberta de como é importante analisar a dinâmica e o processo de evolução dos ecossistemas, nos levando a criar um modelo de maturidade para ecossistemas de startups de software. O modelo de maturidade foi baseado no modelo conceitual que criamos, mapeando os fatores mais importantes que definem as características de um ecossistema. Para validar e refinar o modelo de maturidade criado na segunda fase, realizamos um terceiro estudo de caso em Nova Iorque que contou com o feedback de mais de uma dezena de especialistas. Geramos um modelo de maturidade final, um guia prático para determinar o nível de maturidade de cada ecossistema. Com esse modelo, é possível não somente comparar diferentes ecossistemas, como também identificar lacunas e propor ações práticas e personalizadas que podem resultar em melhorias significativas e levar ecossistemas ao próximo nível de desenvolvimento.

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.

Ingeniero Civil Industrial / El objetivo de este trabajo es el desarrollo de una herramienta cuantitativa de apoyo al proceso de toma de decisiones en la industria de capital de riesgo chilena, a través de la identificación de factores determinantes de desempeño de emprendimientos tecnológicos en etapas tempranas de desarrollo. Se presenta el modelo startup como vehículo para la introducción de innovación en las economías, elemento clave para aumentar su productividad, aspecto en el cual Chile presenta resultados deficientes en relación a países de desarrollo similar (OCDE). Se muestran las ventajas de este modelo sobre el modelo corporativo de innovación y su potencial para corregir el déficit de innovación existente en el país. Posteriormente, se describe la evolución de este tipo de compañías y el rol del capital de riesgo en cada etapa de desarrollo. Se analiza el funcionamiento de la industria del capital de riesgo en Chile y la relación privado - estatal, identificándose dos aspectos a corregir para optimizar la asignación de recursos. El primero de ellos es la desalineación de incentivos entre los actores relevantes, producto de una distribución de riesgo inadecuada. El segundo es la escaza sistematización en los procesos de toma de decisiones y la inexistente oferta de herramientas de apoyo cuantitativas de validación de decisiones críticas, adaptadas a la realidad local. A partir de una muestra conformada por 89 startups chilenas de etapas tempranas y mediante análisis econométricos, se analizaron los factores determinantes de la obtención de financiamiento privado y estatal. Posteriormente se efectuó un análisis análogo con el objetivo de determinar las variables determinantes de desempeño efectivo. Se observó similitud en los criterios de selección de ambos sectores, los que además concuerdan, en general, con la bibliografía analizada. Las mayores diferencias se apreciaron en la selección de industrias, con alta concentración de la inversión privada en la industria del software, mientras que la inversión pública muestra mayor diversificación. El problema de desalineación de incentivos se expresa en la muestra analizada, observándose una correlación negativa entre el monto de subsidio recibido y desempeño efectivo. Por último, se muestra una aplicación de los resultados de este análisis a través de un modelo predictivo de desempeño, de tipo Monte Carlo-Balanced Scorecard y un ejemplo de aplicación en predicción de ventas, con aplicaciones alternativas en la elaboración de rankings para la selección de proyectos y la valorización de estos.

Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the factors that influence the brand building in startup companies. Method: This study implements a qualitative approach and consists of twelve startup companies located in Sweden. Results and Conclusion: The findings suggest that the design of a brand (name and visual aspects), the use of social media, event participation and establishing partnerships is important parts of brand building. In addition, startups frequently make use of employees’ and entrepreneurs’ individual personality for branding purposes. Not only do all participants view branding as an important part of their business but a few respondents even feel it is crucial for the survival of their business. Suggestions for further research: The participants of this study reside in separate industries. This, combined with the sample size is not evidence enough to draw conclusion upon similarities and differences between startups branding practices in terms of industry. Thus, this could be interesting undertaking in the future due to the limited research on this topic. Contribution of the study: This study adds to the existing body of knowledge by uncovering factors such as brand design and social media, to name a few, that is used by startups to build their brand. As a result of this study insights has been given on the importance of branding and the strategies used to increase the brand equity of startups.

Brazil's persistent economic volatility highlights the need for Latin American countries to transition from exporting commodities to producing innovative goods and services. Higher- income Brazilian regions like the Southeast have been more successful at this shift than the Northeast, which remains toward the bottom of the World Bank's upper-middle-income range. The goal of my research is to examine how northeastern Brazil can become a more innovative regional economy. One route is to increase high-potential entrepreneurship in cities like Fortaleza, the node linking Brazil to global Internet traffic and the capital of a state that built a 3,000 km fiber optic network to spur innovation. I studied the cases of four high-potential startups to understand the factors that affect their growth and internationalization in the Northeast. To collect my data, I interviewed the founders of each venture as well as consultants and officials who support new firms. In addition to expected barriers like bureaucracy and low foreign language proficiency, I found that the region's oligarchic society impeded the growth of its startups and Brazil's long history of protectionism hindered their internationalization.