Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how food start-ups (FS) can make their primary food packaging (PFP) more eco-friendly by identifying and evaluating the performance of suited packaging alternative. The purpose was fulfilled by answering the three research questions:  RQ1) How to assess the eco-friendliness of PFP? RQ2) Which are areas of improvement in environmental performance? RQ3) What are the differences in performance across similar PFP’s?  Methods: To answer the research questions both the literature review and empirical data was required. The literature study was conducted to gather relevant theories about primary food packaging in food start-ups. To get the required empirical data, a single case study was conducted at a case company that suited the subject. The case study consisted of multiple interviews and document study. This enabled for an analysis in the form of pattern matching in order to answer the research questions and achieve the purpose.  Findings: The Study found that to assess the PFP that have direct impact on the environment the functional features and the environmental framework play a central role in the eco- friendliness of PFPs which analyzed the requirements for the PFP and a multi criteria decision making approach for the environmental assessment for the Green-PE. The stakeholder expectations were found by analyzing the criterion for the PFP. In addition, a comparison for an eco-friendlier alternative was analyzed with the current Green-PE to justify the performance for the PFP in FS.  Implications: The study results present practical implications with assessing the current Green-PE and evaluating the gaps for improvement areas, while also comparing similar PFP which is an eco-friendlier option for food packaging start-ups. As there has been no general theoretical implications, the findings of the thesis can be used as a basis for deeper insights into the subject through more extensive research.  Delimitations & Scope: The focus was to identify and evaluate the current PFP environmental impact and not the other aspects of the life cycle assessment since the scope was limited. Also, a single case study was used rather than multiple case studies to analyze the eco-friendliness for PEPs.

Venture capital is associated with some of the most rapidly growing and influential technological companies. The strengths of the venture capital model have been effectively articulated by academics and policymakers. At the same time, venture capital financing became increasingly influential in the deep technology startup ecosystem, and there was a need to investigate the industry's growth impact of financing. Hence, this thesis focuses on the research area that is initiated by Industrifonden, an early-stage venture capital fund in Sweden. This study has chosen to investigate and answer the growth impact analysis in two key areas: timing (is timing of financing an independent factor for the growth of deep tech startups?) and sector based financing (Is Venture capital financing sector based?). The data comes from a cohort of startups (143 startups from 2010 to 2019) that are representative of deep-tech and non-deep-tech firms in Sweden, according to the Retriever Business Database in association with KTH Library. As the performance can be explained through the growth of the firms, the result shows that timing of funding has a statistically significant impact on the growth of the firm. The findings indicate a higher positive correlation between timing and startups’ growth, but sector based financing is statistically insignificant for deep tech startup growth. / Riskkapital är förknippat med några av de snabbast växande och inflytelserika tekniska företagen. Styrkorna i riskkapitalmodellen har effektivt formulerats av akademiker och beslutsfattare. Samtidigt blev riskkapitalfinansiering alltmer inflytelserik i det djupa teknikstart, och det fanns ett behov av att undersöka branschens tillväxtspåverkan av finansiering. Därför fokuserar denna avhandling på det forskningsområde som initierats av Industrifonden, en svensk riskkapitalfond. Denna studie har valt att undersöka och svara på analysen av tillväxtspåverkan inom två nyckelområden: timing (är tidpunkten för finansiering en oberoende faktor för tillväxten av djupa teknikstart?) Och branschfinansiering (är riskkapitalfinansiering branschbaserad?). Uppgifterna kommer från en grupp nystartade företag (143 startups från 2010 till 2019) som är representativa för djup teknologiska och icke-djup tekniska företag i Sverige, enligt affärsdatabasen Retriever i samarbete med KTH biblioteket. Eftersom resultatet kan förklaras genom företagens tillväxt visar resultatet att tidpunkten för finansiering har en statistiskt signifikant inverkan på företagets tillväxt. Resultaten indikerar en högre positiv korrelation mellan timing och startups tillväxt, men branschfinansiering är statistiskt obetydlig för djup teknisktillväxt.

The paper shows how crowdfunding campaigns aimed at African startups depend on the factors of their success and the actions of sponsors. Crowdfunding has emerged as an important financial solution to solve the problems that arise when using conventional financing methods in Africa, such as, for example, high-interest loans. Based on the study of regional, temporal and technological factors, this study suggests practical ways to improve crowdfunding mechanisms using machine learning models such as logistic regression, random forest, support vector machines, XGBoost. / В работе показано, как краудфандинговые кампании, ориентированные на африканские стартапы, зависят от факторов их успеха и действий спонсоров. Краудфандинг появился как важное финансовое решение, позволяющее решать проблемы, возникающие при использовании обычных способов финансирования в Африке, таких как, например, займы под высокие проценты. На основе изучения региональных, временных и технологических факторов это исследование предлагает практические способы улучшения краудфандинговых механизмов с применением моделей машинного обучения, таких как логистическая регрессия, случайный лес, методы опорных векторов, XGBoost.

Il presente lavoro di tesi ha l’obiettivo di approfondire la conoscenza dei diversi aspetti del marketing del food & beverage, in considerazione dei molteplici cambiamenti occorsi e derivanti non solo dalla tecnologia ma anche dalle preferenze dei consumatori. A tal proposito, la ricerca adotta una triplice prospettiva, prendendo in considerazione l’analisi degli attori fondamentali esperti delle dinamiche del settore: gli insegnanti di educazione alimentare nelle scuole italiene; i professionisti di marketing, trade marketing e vendite nei loro processi di integrazione; le startup digitali coinvolte nello sviluppo di progetti che innovano i canali e le modalità distributivi. Pertanto, ogni capitolo di questo lavoro si focalizza in modo indipendente su ognuno degli attori proposti, presentando evidenze empiriche e spunti di ricerca futuri. L’obiettivo dell’intero studio è dunque di analizzare l’evoluzione del settore food & beverage a livello empirico e di fornire degli avanzamenti dal punto di vista teorico. / This research project deepens the knowledge around many aspects of the marketing of the food and beverage industry to address the new challenges deriving from both incremental and disruptive changes and more unpredictable consumers’ preferences. The research adopts different perspectives of three fundamental actors: consumers, established firms, and new ventures. The first study examines teachers’ perceptions and feelings around nutrition education, to what extent these professional figures can affect students’ behavior and how they perceive the relationship with families. The second study focuses on the integration of marketing, trade marketing, and sales functions within established firms. The third paper analyzes digital startups, and it contributes to the entrepreneurial literature on startups development and survival and the development of dynamic capabilities. The aim of the study is twofold, both empirical and theoretical. At a more empirical level, the goal is to provide an in-depth understanding of the evolution of marketing in the changing and complex environment of the food and beverage system, regarding competition, channels and institutions and consumers. At a theoretical level, it tries to provide some explanatory propositions for each analyzed setting.

Water has been classified as an increasingly stress resource, according to the last World Water Development Report. Concerns about clean drinking water and water sanitation are also focal points of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moreover, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), as well as start-ups, are interested in water management innovation and reaching countries with difficult access. This project is motivated by a desire to identify and classify the challenges of reaching water-stressed regions or people living at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) that are facing water scarcity as well as the aim to recognize approaches of how partnerships - strategic alliances, joint ventures, co-opetition, and buyer-supplier relationship - address some of those challenges. The importance of partnerships, their specific motives, and the assets and activities interchanged in each experience, have been examined through different interviews. By focusing attention on the relation between challenges, partnerships, and business model levels, this paper suggests that partnerships are essential to reach emerging markets, but not all of them are valuable at the earlier stages of a start-up. In addition, according to the challenges that are expected to address, a particular type of partnership should be established, which implies different adaptations in the business model. Therefore, the contribution of this study is to provide orientation to small companies on how to use partnerships based on the challenges to overcome reaching regions with water scarcity. / Vatten har klassificerats som en resurs som allt mer drabbas av vattenstress enligt senaste rapporten från World Water Development. Bekymmer om rent dricksvatten och vattenrening hamnar i fokus i de Globala målen för hållbar utveckling (SDG). Dessutom fokuserar små till medelstora företag och startups är intresserade av innovation inom vatten management och att nå länder där tillgång till vatten är svår. Detta projekt motiveras av en vilja att identifiera och klassificera utmaningarna av att nå vattenstressade regioner och människorna som lever i botten av pyramiden (BOP) som drabbas av vattenbrist och att hitta de metoder som med samarbetspartners, strategiska samarbeten, samriskföretag och leverantörssamarbeten kan hjälpa med dessa utmaningar. Betydelsen av samarbeten, deras specifika mål och tillgångar och aktiviteter som spridits i form av utbyte för varje händelse har examinerats genom olika intervjuer. Genom att fokusera på sammanhanget mellan utmaningarna, samarbeten och olika nivåer av affärsmodeller föreslår denna studie att samarbeten är grundläggande för att kunna nå utvecklingsområden, men inte alla är viktiga i de tidigare skeden i en startup. Dessutom enligt de utmaningar som uppkommer, en speciell typ av samarbete ska etableras som innebär olika anpassningar av affärsmodellen. Därför bidrar denna studie till att ge små företag riktlinjer på hur man använder sammarbetspartnerskap baserat på utmaningarna för att nå de regioner som har vattenbrist.