Start-up Scale-up: Addressing the Manufacturing Challenge for Start-ups

Author(s):  
William B. Bonvillian ◽  
Peter L. Singer

This chapter looks at a new but related problem: start-up scale-up. There is an additional and compounding innovation gap problem affecting start-ups that need to manufacture their products. While the advanced manufacturing institute model detailed in the previous chapter addresses innovation at large, midsize, and small manufacturing firms, to date it has largely focused on existing firms and has not encompassed new entrepreneurial start-ups. These start-up firms face not only an early-stage technology development gap, but also a production scale-up gap. Start-up scale-up is a problem in general, and particularly for manufacturing start-ups. This third category of firms, then, comprises the start-up and entrepreneurial firms that manufacture products based on their own new innovative technologies, typically emerging from university research centers.

Biotechnology ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 1293-1321
Author(s):  
Anna Białek-Jaworska ◽  
Renata Gabryelczyk

This chapter concerns the subject of research-developmental activity of biotech spin-offs in Poland with particular reference to their strategy, determinants of their development and determinants of their financial standing. In the chapter, the authors analyse the determinants of biotech spin-offs and start-ups development in Poland in the light of the research commercialisation cooperation on the universities-business line. The literature overview contains the definition of a process for the commercialisation of the results of research and development (R&D) activity and components of companies' business models. The chapter defines key activities in the development of business models in the context of the commercialisation process and the life cycle of the company, especially at the start up and early stage. Quality-quantitative analysis includes the business models of seven biotechnology spin-offs traded on the alternative market of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, especially the structure of their intellectual capital, R&D expenses in relation to received subsides and grants, third-party shares in start up equity, and the ability to realise the “Go Global” strategy.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raffaele Fiorentino ◽  
Sergio Longobardi ◽  
Alessandro Scaletti

PurposeDespite the relevance of innovation in entrepreneurship literature, empirical research on the innovation-performance relationship in start-ups is underdeveloped and shows controversial results. To bridge this gap, the aim of this paper is to investigate the role of innovativeness on new venture performance in the early stage of the life cycle.Design/methodology/approachRegression modelling and propensity score matching are used to reveal systematic differences in growth between innovative start-ups (ISUPs) and non-innovative start-ups. We use an ad hoc dataset obtained through merging the financial database AIDA with data from administrative sources (Italian Chambers of Commerce and the Italian Ministry for Economic Development).FindingsThe results show that differences in growth can be explained by the different levels of innovativeness in new ventures. Moreover, unlike in prior studies, the innovation inputs matter more than innovation outputs. Indeed, the results support the idea that innovation policies can contribute to maximising the potential of start-ups.Practical implicationsThe findings provide suggestions for policy makers and entrepreneurs to help firms configure ex ante appropriate actions to support the growth of new ventures in the start-up stage.Originality/valueThis study is the first to use the new objective measure of start-up innovation, available from the Italian LD 221 register. Second, different types of innovation are investigated as antecedents of firm growth. Third, we employ propensity score matching, which favours revealing systematic differences in growth between ISUPs and non-innovative start-ups. Fourth, the results of our study are the first to offer evidence on the effectiveness of the new Italian sustaining ISUPs policy.


2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-121
Author(s):  
Mary A. Keating ◽  
Mariabrisa Olivares

Focusing on Irish high-tech start-ups, this paper reports on the results of an empirical study of organization building by entrepreneurial firms, specifically in relation to human resource practices. The research findings are benchmarked with findings from SPEC, the Stanford Project of Emerging Companies (Baron and Hannan, 2002). Human resources management and entrepreneurial research have rarely been combined in the literature and there is no distinct body of work in the area of human resource management in entrepreneurial firms.


Author(s):  
Daphna GLAUBERT ◽  
Zarina CHARLESWORTH ◽  
Nathalie NYFFELER ◽  
Luc BERGERON ◽  
Luc BERGERON

This paper looks at the use of design practices in start-up firms for the creation of strategic advantage through product/service innovation. Start-ups face non-negligible challenges during the early-stage of development. The research questions examined to what extent design practices can provide the leverage needed to face these challenges. A 4-day Innovation by Design Challenge workshop provided the field for the research carried out. Participants were start-up firms each working together with two designers to form six teams. Methods used included: observation for the mapping of team activities; a short self-report questionnaire and; pre- and post-workshop semi-directed interviews with the start-ups. The findings support the idea that design practice integration into the initial development of a start-up can indeed provide a lever for success and provide the start-up with the strategic vision needed to go through the early-stage and bring their products/services to market successfully.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hal Wesley Snarr ◽  
Dan Friesner

This analysis empirically evaluates the effectiveness of entrepreneurial policies using the number and distribution of firms as outcome variables.  The analysis occurs within the context of a natural experiment: the START-UP NY program. Implemented in 2014, START-UP NY created enterprise development zones adjacent to publicly supported universities (i.e., SUNY and CUNY campuses) within the state. New business start-ups operating within these zones, and within a specific set of technology and health-related industries received tax incentives that substantially lowered tax rates for a 5-10 year period. In 2016, the State of New York substantially altered its corporate tax structure; a policy initiative affecting firms, business owners, and households in the state simultaneously, and may also induce entrepreneurship. The results suggest that START-UP NY had a positive effect on the growth of New York's micro and small-sized firms operating in professional, scientific, and technical industries. START-UP NY also negatively affected micro-sized manufacturing firms, while positively affecting small manufacturing firms. The latter finding suggests that START-UP NY is effective in incubating micro-sized manufacturing firms that eventually grow into small manufacturing firms.


Author(s):  
Isabelle Choquet ◽  
Jacques Folon

The authors intend to demonstrate that corporate social networks (CSN) are a very efficient tool for SME's and start-ups, since their early launch. They will immediately create an interactive structure and a culture of collective intelligence. The chapter aims at revealing how SMEs or start-ups are able to capture the opportunities provided by CSNs, perceived as proximity social networks. The research investigates if the use of CSN at the launch of the SME promotes the development of a collective intelligence culture, but also if several CSN may coexist within the same structure according to the needs encountered: “above-the-flow” approach (dialogue, exchanges) or “in the flow” approach (integration of workflow and document). The authors strongly believe that CSN has to be introduced by a web entrepreneur at the early stage of creation of his start-up, because it supports the scaling of the business, allowing the creation of a knowledge sharing culture, making the knowledge available inside the company.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Hanage ◽  
Pekka Stenholm ◽  
Jonathan M. Scott ◽  
Mark A.P. Davies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to respond to the call by McMullen and Dimov (2013) for a clearer understanding of entrepreneurial journeys by investigating the entrepreneurial capitals and micro-processes of seven young early stage entrepreneurs who all exited their businesses within 3 years of start-up.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analysed empirical data from concurrent in-depth interviews which generated rich longitudinal case studies. Theory-building then led to a proposed “Longitudinal Dynamic Process Framework” of entrepreneurial goals, processes and capitals.FindingsThe framework builds on prior studies by integrating entrepreneurial processes and decisions into two feedback loops based on continuous review and learning. It thereby enhances understanding of the dynamics of new business development and unfolds the early stage ventures entrepreneurs' business exits.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are based on a small purposive sample. However, the main implication for research and theory is showing how the entrepreneurial capitals are dynamic and influenced by entrepreneurs' environment, and also separating entrepreneurs' personal issues from their business issues.Practical implicationsThe findings challenge some assumptions of policymakers and offer new insights for practitioners and early stage entrepreneurs. These include having more realistic case-studies of the entrepreneurial journey, recognizing the need to be agile and tenacious to cope with challenges, understanding how capitals can interact in complementary ways and that entrepreneurial processes can be used to leverage them at appropriate stages of the start-ups.Originality/valueThe concurrent longitudinal analysis and theory-building complements extant cross-sectional studies by identifying and analysing the detailed processes of actual business start-ups and exits. The proposed framework thereby adds coherence to earlier studies and helps to explain early stage entrepreneurial development, transformation of capitals and business exit.


2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-53
Author(s):  
Diego Matricano

In markets characterized by strong competition, new knowledge and new knowledge development are generally recognized as the key means for an enterprise to gain competitive advantage. This knowledge-based competitive advantage is critical for all commercial ventures, but is especially so for high-expectation start-ups (technology-based ventures anticipating high growth rates). Even though the organizational processes of a start-up are still under development, the success of new knowledge development is affected by three critical factors – the structure of the enterprise, the organizational technology and the knowledge promoters. An analysis of these factors suggests that the role of the knowledge promoter is the key determinant of knowledge development success in the case of early-stage high-expectation start-ups.


Author(s):  
João Vasco Coelho

In Portugal, an evolving start-up hype has been promoted in recent years, presenting the country as an emergent European entrepreneurial hub, a rising start-up nation. In this context, less laudatory perspectives, focused on analysing labour relations or employment creation effects, are scarce or not particularly visible. In order to address this specific analytical dimension, this article conceives a start-up as a temporary organisational form, arraying temporariness not only as an organisational attribute, but also as a specific interaction condition that moulds employment relations established between start-uppers and entrepreneurs. Analytical work is anchored in in-depth interviews and direct observation data, collected during a 12-month longitudinal study, carried out in one of the most successful start-ups created or operating in Portugal. A narrative is used as an empirical illustration of observed temporariness effects and three employment relation-specific attributes are discussed as aspects that should be inform public funding endorsement decisions: the prevalence of task-focus managerial arrangements; low levels of trust and institutionalised reciprocity; short-lived social relations and conflict deprioritisation.


Author(s):  
Antonio Del Pozzo ◽  
◽  
Salvatore Loprevite ◽  
Domenico Nicolò ◽  
◽  
...  

This article analyzes the decline of one of the best well-known and promising European start-ups: Mosaic on L. t. d. The business case is emblematic of many bankruptcies caused by strategies focusing on the expectations of continuous growth of economic capital and based on unconventional performance indicators, without considering the economic-financial results and self-financing. The expectations of return on capital are extremely high and this forces one to undertake risky growth paths with very high expected return rates. This also happens in the absence of an advanced and effective capital market. Venture capitalists, even when they are public, cannot compensate for these excesses. The analysis of the case contributes to the debate on the complex topic of assessing the potentiality of start-ups and it provides useful suggestions to operators (venture capitalists, business angels, start uppers, investors, etc.) for greater prudence in considering the non-financial performance indicators. Start-ups do not produce economic results in the early stage, so they may also be valued by using non-financial metrics. However, unconventional indicators cannot be the only parameters for evaluating. When the firm is a start-up without meaningful financial information, it is more appropriate to refer to a reliable business plan drawn up on rigorous estimates of expected incomes and cash flows. Keywords: Venture capital, Start-up, Default, Performance indicators, Business case.


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