Att ett bra varumärke kräver en tydlig visuell identitet råder inget tvivel om, men vad innebär det i praktiken? Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka tech startups uppfattning om värdet av den visuella identiteten. Genom semi-strukturerade djupintervjuer med nio respondenter från nio olika tech startups, samt en affärscoach, undersöker studien således hur tech startup värderar den visuella identiteten i förhållande till hur de hittills har arbetat med den. Den generella uppfattningen, utifrån intervjuerna, visade att den visuella identiteten är viktig. Samtliga respondenter har uppdaterat den visuella identiteten en eller ett flertal gånger med anledning av att den visuella identiteten har vuxit fram med tiden. I studien framkom det även att tech startups, vars grundare hade en bakgrund inom design eller kommunikation, hittat sin visuella identitet tidigt även om enklare uppdateringar har genomförts. Trots att samtliga respondenter understryker vikten av den visuella identiteten betonar de emellertid vikten av att inte kunna mäta design. Då startups i allmänhet, men tech start synnerhet, har begränsat med resursers ses det som en risk att prioritera det visuella, vilket bidrar till att tech startup istället fokuserar på andra områden som är mer akuta än den visuella identiteten. / There is no doubt that a great brand requires a clear visual identity, but what does it mean in practice? The objective of this study was to investigate the tech startups perception of the value of the visual identity. Through semi-structured interviews, with nine respondents from nine different tech startups, as well as a business coach, the study analyses how tech startups evaluate the visual identity in relation to how they have been working with it. The general view, based on the interviews, showed that the visual identity is important, where all respondents have updated the visual identity one or several times thus, the visual identity has evolved over time. The study also revealed that tech startups whose founders had a background in design or communication found its visual identity on a early stage, albeit smaller updates have been done. Although all respondents emphasize the importance of the visual identity, they see measureability of design, as a problem. As startups in general, but tech startups in particular, have limited resources, prioritizing the visual identity is seen as a risk. Therefor tech startups tend to prioritize other aspect above the visual identity.

Of late, technology entrepreneurship has been receiving growing importance as a means of contribution to national economic growth, both from Empirical Researchers and Policy Makers. According to NASSCOM, India has emerged as the third largest base for high-tech start-ups in the world. Although there is a surge in start-up creation rates in India, very little is known about the vital factors that are required for these star-ups to survive, sustain and grow into large enterprises. This study reviews the entrepreneurial, firm-specific and external environment specific aspects that influence the key lifecycle stages of high-tech star -ups and identifies the key factors that influence each of the milestones. There are very few studies in this domain that have examined the unique features and influential factors of different lifecycle stages of start-ups in the context of emerging economies like India. This limited exploration on the structure, process and strategies adapted by high-tech start-ups has resulted in insufficient understanding about the high-tech start-up lifecycle. This study therefore, attempts to fill these gaps. Accordingly, the objectives of this study are to determine the factors that influence the creation, survival and growth of the high-tech start-ups operating out of India. Further, an examination of what factors influence and impact the entire lifecycle of high-tech start-ups is also carried out – to obtain an integrated perspective on the lifecycle of high-tech start-ups. Primary data gathered from 275 high-tech start-ups, operating at different stages of the lifecycle formed the basis of the present study. To obtain additional insights on the factors influencing the milestones of the high-tech start-up lifecycle, the available data are analyzed against three segments – based on the target market segment that these start-ups focused on (B2B or B2C), based on the region of operations of the start-ups and based on whether the founding team had transnational work or start-up exposure or not. Our findings indicate that age and technical education of the entrepreneurs (from entrepreneur-specific perspective), the R&D and financial capitalization capabilities of the start-ups (from firm-specific perspective) and the external ecosystem parameters such as a robust SDP growth rate, presence and occurrence of VC funded deals in the region of start-ups operations have an influence on the high-tech start-up lifecycle in India. The findings of the study formed the basis to derive implications for entrepreneurs, other ecosystem stakeholders and policy makers.

The increasing pace of technological change is creating significant disruptions in the marketplace. In these markets, successfully managing innovation has become a key competitive advantage. Global trends of low-cost manufacturing and environmental sustainability have mademanufacturing innovations increasingly important. Many alternative manufacturing solutions are developed in not-for-profit institutions such as universities and research centers. This has created a gap between the owners of new technologies and the potential beneficiary of the technology. Correctly asserting if an invention or technology has commercial potential is a challengingprospect.What methods can be used to evaluate the commercial potential of a new technology? Whatimportant considerations and delimitations must be made to provide a reliable value estimation?How should the commercial potential be communicated to stakeholders, financiers andcustomers? If there is commercial potential, how do you successfully commercialize thetechnology? These themes are explored in this study. The question of how to estimate the value of a ninvention is investigated in the first section. Using a case-study approach and looking at a new manufacturing technology in the solar cell market an attempt to estimate the value is made. The results show that the innovation value can be estimated using a quantitative approach where benefits and costs are estimated using publicly available data. This approach was found to work well for technologies that are sustaining the current manufacturing paradigm but struggled to provide an accurate estimation for newer technologies. The process was found to require a diverse set of skills and to preferably be made by a co-founder team with technical and industry knowledge. The second section focuses on how an invention can be successfully commercialized. By interviewing firms who had developed and sold manufacturing innovations and were growing quickly. They were found to have started their companies together with their customers and having had a close working relationship with them throughout the process. Furthermore, they were found to have founding teams who were close friends prior to starting the company. The firms also stressed approved patents and timing of financing as key factors to their success. As technology transfer between universities and large industrial firms become increasingly important the questions of how researchers and inventors can commercialize their technologies will attract much attention. This study provides clear guidelines on how to approach the processof finding and commercializing new technologies from the perspective of the inventor.

International entrepreneurship is a prominent phenomenon in contemporary research, because of the ease of internationalisation for companies. Start-up hubs in Europe are booming and especially web-based tech companies internationalise quickly. This new type of company, which internationalises almost immediately after foundation, is called born global. Research showed that despite the interest in born global tech start-ups, there is no representative model visualising the process of their internationalisation. Therefore, secondary research is conducted, as well as empirical research in the form of qualitative interviews with three representative, successfully internationalised tech start-ups from Europe. These companies are the music streaming service Spotify, social marketing SaaS Facelift and business management SaaS Ivy. The internationalisation factors resulting from this research can be divided into a preparation phase, possible strategy development and an implementation phase. Within these phases, factors are separated into company- internal and external influences. Based on these findings, a new model on the internationalisation process of web- based tech start-ups is developed. / Internationell entreprenörskap är ett framstående fenomen inom modern forskning eftersom det blir enklare för företag att expandera över nationsgränserna. Startup-hubbar växer fram överallt i Europa och framförallt webbaserade techbolag är snabba med sin internationaliseringsprocess. Det handlar huvudsakligen om en viss typ av företag som kallas för born global, vilket innebär att bolaget börjar sälja sina produkter eller tjänster internationellt direkt efter grundandet. Forskning kring ämnet visar att det finns ett stort intresse för denna typ av företag men inga representativa modeller som visualiserar processen bakom deras internationalisering. Därför genomfördes sekundär forskning samt empirisk forskning i form av tre kvalitativa intervjuer med representanter från framgångsrika och internationella tech startups från Europa. Undersökningen ledde till upptäckten av olika faktorer som påverkar internationaliseringsprocessen. Dessa faktorer kategoriseras som interna eller externa påverkningar på företaget. Internationaliseringsfaktorerna kan delas in i tre faser - förberedelse, möjlig utveckling av strategi och implementering. Baserat på dessa resultat har en modell om internationaliseringsprocessen för born global tech startups utvecklats.

Swedish tech startups are at the forefront of innovation and growth. Startups however often face challenges in knowledge management, due to their fast paced growth. The purpose of this study is to explore how Swedish tech startups work with knowledge management in order to utilize inbound open innovation across a company. The study takes on an abductive approach. Furthermore, the study is qualitative including data gathered through semi-structured interviews with eleven Swedish tech startups. The findings show that the investigated tech startups work with knowledge management systems to transfer explicit knowledge, but tacit knowledge is communicated verbally, as the systems do not successfully facilitate the transfer of tacit knowledge, nor fully support the conversion from information to knowledge. Furthermore, employees have a high level of operative freedom and initiate collaboration and networking when needed. The investigated companies selectively hire like-minded people to create a culture that facilitates information sharing and collaboration through internal commitment across the organization. Top management is important to the overall structures and in communicating the company vision, while lower-level managers support and ease the daily operations. These activities strengthen a company's knowledge management and in turn its ability to utilize inbound open innovation. Overall, it is also evident that the startups are challenged by their fast paced growth, affecting all four researched dimensions of knowledge management.