Thesis advisor: Donald Cox / Does being a non-stop flight away from Silicon Valley help entrepreneurs access venture capital? With its abundance of researchers and investors, Silicon Valley leads the world in entrepreneurship. In Silicon Valley, venture capital investors (VCs) and startups benefit from proximity, forming strong relationships and meeting frequently in person. VCs often choose to focus their operations locally, bringing down the costs of monitoring investments. Not all entrepreneurs can locate themselves in this global hub and without a direct connection to Silicon Valley some may find it difficult to tap into the extensive resources clustered in the region. I show that startups operating in cities with non-stop connections to Silicon Valley benefit immensely from direct flights. I find that this connection matters more for cities outside the U.S. A new daily flight from Silicon Valley to an international city leads to $23 million of additional VC raised by startups in the region. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Economics.

Our economy is going global. Open borders and the internet have created endless possibilities for companies to source products and services internationally. This phenomenon, outsourcing, is widely studied among large companies, usually referring to them offshoring parts of their operations to increase business and cost efficiency. However, thanks to platforms like Fiverr and UpWork, outsourcing has become accessible to anyone and plays a significant role also in startups. Using semi- structured interviews to draw on the experiences of nine entrepreneurs, we find that startups use outsourcing with different motivations than larger companies. Rather than cost reductions, compensating for skills that startups lack internally is the main reason for entrepreneurs to outsource. Increasing flexibility to react to the dynamic environment startups navigate in and the possibility to grow and scale quickly are also frequently mentioned drivers for outsourcing. Opposing the potential of outsourcing, most entrepreneurs see little to no risk associated with the process. Aside from the potential lack of quality of the deliverables, startups primarily fear the loss of intellectual property that could harm their competitive advantage. As this thesis shows that outsourcing within startups is fundamentally different from the traditional outsourcing of established firms, it recognizes entrepreneurial outsourcing as an individual field of research and defines it as “the concept of flexibly adjusting a startup’s access tocompetence, resources, and capacity according to rapid internal or external changes by sourcing products or services from external providers”.

This research studies project success in the context of decision-makers in young, entrepreneurial companies, namely startups. More precisely the companies are European companies that are independent, active and under 10 years of age, and furthermore identified as startups through a framework created from literature derived from Organizational Life Cycle theory and other pluralistic literature about startups. The main concentration is in the concepts related to project success: Project Success Criteria and Critical Success Factors, based on two research questions: 1. “What success criteria are perceived to be most relevant in the project management of startup firms?” 2. “What critical success factors are perceived to be most relevant in project management of startup firms and why?” Previous studies on project management have been mostly conducted in the context of large organizations and typically in a quantitative form. Studies in project management of startups have been scarce, and in project success, nonexistent. Researchers have called upon project literature that concentrates on particular organizational context. In this study, existing theories are studied to find the most suitable framework for success criteria. This study is conducted as a case study, wherein interviews were conducted with startup founders, partners and CEOs, located in Finland, Sweden and Germany. The data collection in the interviews consisted of both semi-structured questions and rating of importance regarding the elements of aforementioned theoretical frameworks of Project Success Criteria and Critical Success Factors, creating a rich set of data, forming holistic cases of the view of project success. The resulting indicate that the most relevant success criteria for startup decision-makers are connected to customer relations, which dictates also the importance of short-term and long-term goals. The economic goals as well the preparation for future were more polarizing. The concentration on customer criteria is not divergent from previous research, but the importance of team criteria is a noticeable difference and a common theme across cases. It is also noticeable in the statements of interviewees that in the startup context the uncertainty regarding products, customers, and economical factors create certain tensions in project success assessment. In Critical Success Factors, there were also clear themes that mirror the aforementioned results. It furthermore became apparent that startups do not have clearly established tools or methods for their project management, which may distinguish them from larger, more established organizations.

Two different subjects that have been well researched over the last couple of decades are branding and startups. The intersection of these two subjects has however not been covered nearly as much. Some researchers go as far as claiming it to be an oxymoron. Built on this has this thesis been conducted in order to narrow this gap in research and shed light on the importance of branding efforts among startups. The objective of this study has been: To provide a deeper understanding of brand identity and brand image among startups  To fulfill this objective, two sub-objectives were established: To examine if there exists a gap between brand identity and brand image among startups To identify which key factors that influence brand identity and brand image among startups The study has been of an explorative and descriptive character with a deductive approach. For research strategy was embedded multi-cases chosen. Data collection has been collected by conducting semi-structured, qualitative interviews. This data has later been analyzed with the analyzation methods within-analysis and cross-case analysis. The finding of the study is that there exists a mismatch between the view of the management and the view of the customers. It can therefore be concluded that there is a gap between the brand identity and the brand image among the three startups investigated in this study. Communication and relationship have furthermore been found to be key aspects that affect the magnitude of the gap.  The practical implication to be taken from this study is the importance of branding in the early stages of a company. It can furthermore be important for practitioners, mainly managements of startups to be aware of the key aspects communication and relationship, and to work with branding even in the early years of a company. The theoretical contribution has been to investigate in an area where limited research has been made but more is needed. The need of research for entrepreneurs to rely on are desired.

Thesis purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate which circumstances technology entrepreneurs believe facilitate innovation, in the context of developing countries, and in Ghana in particular. Additionally, to explore the institutional and environmental factors that enable or prevent innovative activity from taking place in the technology startup ecosystem. Methodology: Multiple case qualitative research study of the Ghanaian technology entrepreneurship ecosystem. Data collection by conducting semi-structured interviews with 20 technology entrepreneurs in Accra, Ghana. The data collection and analysis process is inspired by the phenomenography approach. Theoretical framework: Theoretical concepts found in the literature on entrepreneurship and innovation. The institutional pillars of the entrepreneurship ecosystem, developed by GEDI (Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute), are discussed and applied in the analysis of the interview results. Conclusions: This paper identifies a number of areas where the majority of the entrepreneurs reported having similar experiences and challenges. Many of the challenges are related to institutional factors such as regulation and bureaucratic processes. Despite this, the technology entrepreneurship system in Ghana is growing, and the country offers a lot of opportunities for entrepreneurs. Ultimately, to facilitate innovation further, the institutional environment requires change in a number of areas, in order to better support technology entrepreneurs, and to create an enabling environment in which they can act on and take advantage of the opportunities that exist.

Submitted by Automa??o e Estat?stica (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2017-03-14T21:06:42Z No. of bitstreams: 1 LuisManuelEstevesDaRochaVieira_DISSERT.pdf: 2340656 bytes, checksum: cb0e64296449b107ad0fc678c9a57a10 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-03-15T21:12:48Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 LuisManuelEstevesDaRochaVieira_DISSERT.pdf: 2340656 bytes, checksum: cb0e64296449b107ad0fc678c9a57a10 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-15T21:12:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LuisManuelEstevesDaRochaVieira_DISSERT.pdf: 2340656 bytes, checksum: cb0e64296449b107ad0fc678c9a57a10 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-07-28 / Startups da ?rea de tecnologia est?o inseridas em ambientes altamente din?micos, marcados pela incerteza, onde as tradicionais predi??es do futuro para a tomada de decis?o se tornam demasiadamente complexas, dif?ceis e distantes da realidade. Sendo assim, acredita-se que esse empreendedor estaria mais propenso a adotar uma l?gica decis?ria predominantemente effectual, contrariando o paradigma atual ao enfrentar a incerteza por meio da constru??o de um ambiente e conjunto de relacionamentos que ir?o, como efeito, desencadear cen?rios futuros pr?ximos aos aspirados inicialmente. Este estudo tem ent?o como objetivo verificar como empreendedores de startups de tecnologia incubadas empregam a l?gica effectual nas tomadas de decis?o e qual a influ?ncia da incuba??o nesse processo. Para tanto, foi realizada uma pesquisa de casos m?ltiplos, descritiva, onde foram analisados qualitativamente o conte?do dos discursos obtidos em entrevistas semiestruturadas junto a oito startups incubadas na Inova Metr?pole em Natal/RN. Como resultado foi poss?vel identificar como principais caracter?sticas dos empreendedores ?tica e Honestidade; Resili?ncia, Perseveran?a e Persist?ncia; Motiva??o, Paix?o, Vontade e Entusiasmo; Transpar?ncia; Flexibilidade e Adaptabilidade, onde os principais motivos para empreendedor foram poder transformar o meio ajudando pessoas, e a emo??o e dinamicidade da vida empreendedora. Destacou-se tamb?m a tend?ncia ? coopera??o e parceria no desenvolvimento de produtos, servi?os e evolu??o do modelo de neg?cio das startups, direcionando-os em fun??o da demanda. Al?m disso, verificou-se que a incubadora ? uma grande aliada estrat?gica, potencializando recursos (meios) para que as incubadas atinjam novos patamares. / Technology Startups are embedded in highly dynamic environments, marked by uncertainty where traditional predictions of the future are too complex for decision-making them far from reality. Thus, it is believed that the entrepreneur would be more likely to adopt a predominantly effectual logic, against the current paradigm to face the uncertainty by building an environment and set of relationships that will, in effect, trigger future objectives close to the ones originally aspirated. This study has the objective of verifying how incubated technology startups entrepreneurs use effectual logic in decision making and the influence of incubation in this process. Therefore, a multiple case descriptive study was carried out, and the content in the speeches of the eight startups incubated at Inova Metropole in Natal / RN produced through semi-structured interviews was qualitatively analyzed. As a result it was possible to identify the main characteristics of entrepreneurs: Ethics and Honesty; Resilience, Perseverance and Persistence; Motivation, Passion, Will and Enthusiasm; Transparency; Flexibility and Adaptability. The main reasons for entrepreneurs starting their companies were being able to transform society and helping people, and also the excitement and dynamism of the entrepreneurial life. It was also noticed the tendency to cooperation and partnership in the development of products, services and evolution of the business model startups, by analyzing demand. Furthermore, it was found that an incubator is strategically allied, increasing resources (means) that make possible for the incubated to reach new heights.

Startups are small organizations with replicable models of bold and business, in the process of launching or low operating time, with high potential for scalability and focus turned to the activities of research and development of innovative ideas. The Chestnut Valley Startups is a movement started in 2012 in favor of strengthening the innovation ecosystem in the state of Sergipe. The overall objective of the study was to map and analyze research activities, development and innovation and requests for registration of trademarks and software programs for Startups Sergipe. In terms of methodology, the work is descriptive, qualitative and as a method was chosen the multiple case study (Yin, 2015). The study was divided into three phases. In the first phase with analysis of records in files, open interviews with participants Cashew Valley Group and the direct observation of meetings. In the second phase, structured interviews with 20 companies participating in the Chestnut Valley and participant observation group. In the third phase were conducted in depth interviews with ten entrepreneurs Startups cited by Chestnut Valley movement given 10 criteria proposed by the research. The investigated group consists of companies participating in the movement 'Chestnut Valley' started in 2012, whose mission is to be a digital environment, centralizing the Startups movement which every day becomes stronger in the state of Sergipe. It was observed in the analysis that entrepreneurs do research, but still find it difficult to develop innovative products in general do not realize the importance of registration of computer or patent registration programs, or have concern for the trademark registration and due to the problems management and by their own shortcomings in the innovation ecosystem in Sergipe have failed to gain scalability. / Startups são organizações de pequeno porte, com modelos de negócios arrojados e replicáveis, em processo de lançamento ou com pouco tempo de funcionamento, com alto potencial de escalabilidade e foco voltado para as atividades de pesquisa e desenvolvimento de ideias inovadoras. O Caju Valley é um movimento de Startups iniciado em 2012 em prol do fortalecimento do ecossistema de inovação do Estado de Sergipe. O objetivo geral do trabalho foi mapear e analisar as atividades de Pesquisa, Desenvolvimento e Inovação e as solicitações de registros de marcas e programas de software das Startups Sergipanas. Em termos metodológicos, o trabalho é descritivo, qualitativo e como método foi escolhido o estudo de casos múltiplos (YIN, 2015). A pesquisa foi dividida em três fases. Na primeira fase com análise dos registros em arquivos, entrevistas abertas com os participantes do grupo Caju Valley e a observação direta das reuniões. Na segunda fase, com entrevista estruturada com 20 empresas participantes do Caju Valley e observação participante do grupo. Na terceira fase foram realizadas entrevistas em Profundidade com dez empreendedores de Startups citadas pelo movimento Caju Valley atendendo a 10 critérios propostos pela pesquisa. O grupo investigado é composto por empresas participantes do movimento ‘Caju Valley’ iniciado em 2012, que tem como missão ser um ambiente digital, centralizador do movimento de Startups que a cada dia ganha mais força no Estado de Sergipe. Observou-se na análise, que os empreendedores fazem pesquisa, mas ainda têm dificuldade de desenvolver produtos inovadores, em geral não percebem a importância do registro de programas de computador ou registro de patentes, nem possuem preocupação com o registro de marca e devido aos problemas de gestão e pelas próprias deficiências do ecossistema de inovação em Sergipe ainda não conseguiram ganhar escalabilidade.

Ökad globalisering påverkar Sveriges arbete för att vara ett framgångsrikt och konkurrenskraftigt industriland. Digitaliseringen inriktar arbetet på att stödja industrins förnyelse, med möjlighet att öka konkurrenskraften. Arbetet påverkar hur produkter utvecklas, produceras och marknadsförs. För företag utmanas etablerade affärsmodeller. Små och stora företag ges nya fortsättningar att utvecklas och tillsammans öka innovationstakten. Samverkan mellan företag i tidiga skeden, startups, och storföretag, är ett exempel. Medan startups fokuserar på att utveckla idén, generera kapital och hitta en marknad, erbjuds industrin nya lösningar som ger möjlighet till ökad tillväxt, konkurrenskraft och export. Studiens syfte är att förstå betydelsen av samarbetet mellan storföretag och startups i industribranschen, med utgångspunkt i hur varumärket hos startups uppnått sitt värde. Informationen kan motivera behovet av ekosystem i gränssnittet mellan tjänste- och varubranscher, för att stödja startups väg till framgång. Resultatet visar faktorer som är av särskild vikt för startups arbete med varumärke och affärsmodell. Faktorerna påverkar varandra och visar en stegvis process för att uppnå spridning på marknaden.

Different types of business incubators have been established worldwide in the last decade. As the latest generation of incubation models, the accelerator provides a mix of services including mentorship, office space, access to the latest technology and a network of investors, with an aim to help ventures survive in the market. Meanwhile, startups are important to the society because they help balance the labor market and make contributions to the economic growth. The aim of this paper is to find the factors which best predict the success of new ventures based on characteristics of entrepreneurs and ventures. This research utilizes a case study of TechStars Accelerator and includes 640 startups from all industries and geographical regions which participated in the programs between 2007 and 2015. The analysis employs two statistical models, namely the Logit Model and the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Model. This study finds that technology intensive ventures founded by a team of entrepreneurs are more likely to succeed. Also, other variables such as the amount of funding, previous industry experience and location have a positive effect on the success of accelerator backed startups.

This Master thesis deals with the Comparison of environment for foundation of startups in the Czech Republic and Spain. The scope is to discover which of these two countries has more suitable business environment for the establishment of a startup. The first chapter defines startup and illustrates its importance and development. Second part is dedicated to foundation of a startup regarding legal differences and funding aspects. The last section confronts business environment and support for the foundation of a startup in both countries.