Hinz, Andreas
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How smart service portals trigger social action to reduce energy consumption
Scientific procedures of municipalities to reduce energy consumption, a comparison.
Creating social impact with startup incubator programs for refugees. Using social entrepreneurship to accelerate integration
Focusing on social business model innovation at the example of startup incubator programs for refugees, this research provides insights into how such programs can create social impact. With the importance of social integration in mind, the guiding question for this work is how social entrepreneurship in the form of startup incubator programs for refugees can create social impact by addressing key challenges of integration. Based on a literature review and interviews with refugees and integration experts, it appears that challenges primarily relate to language skills, professional qualifications, psychological stress and discrimination. While conventional standardized integration programs address some of these issues, gaps remain that slow down integration. This is where startup incubators can make a difference. For instance, they offer personalized coaching and mentoring to allow for individual needs and to empower participants to develop and deploy their potential. Further, they help participants build a strong personal network in the local ecosystem. Moreover, entrepreneurial skills are developed to prepare participants for self-employment as an alternative to the difficult job search. Overall, this work illustrates that social innovation of startup incubator programs for refugees can accelerate integration and create social impact.
Start-up incubators for refugees. How to develop and deploy entrepreneurial skills to generate impact
Refugee entrepreneurs play an increasingly important role in the ecosystem. However, they may find themselves unable to use their potential because they lack relevant skills, encounter language barriers, have weak local networks and deal with personal problems. Start-up incubators for refugees address these challenges by offering programmes that empower them to develop and deploy entrepreneurial skills for business creation. This work-in-progress paper presents initial insights on skill-related programme elements which will be extended into a detailed analysis of resulting types of economic impact.
Effectuation in practice. How is it embedded in innovation-driven start-ups?
Effectuation suggests that entrepreneurs decide which goals to pursue based on available means. Instead of following rigid plans and acquiring means as is the case with causation, they get to work immediately with available means and exploit arising opportunities. Various research directions of effectuation are discussed in the literature and this work-in-progress paper focuses on effectual behaviours. Drawing on the extant literature, typical behaviours relate to forming partnerships, exploiting contingencies, using experimentation and defining affordable loss. These behaviours appear to be relevant for innovation-driven entrepreneurs and this work seeks to examine how they are embedded in Swiss start-ups. To gain insights, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with entrepreneurs participating in an innovation competition in Switzerland.
How Swiss start-ups deal with business model innovation
The term business model innovation refers to the introduction of innovations that differ from state-of-the-art business models in the same field. Current research indicates that business model innovations are more resilient (e.g. to imitation) overall and more successful in the long term compared to traditional types of innovation (e.g. product innovations). Working on business model innovation, therefore, can provide valuable insights, particularly for start-ups looking to grow and scale up under conditions of extreme uncertainty. Business model innovation involves the innovation of two of four core elements of a business model: customer, value proposition, value chain and revenue mechanism. A business model can be described using these four elements in a sophisticated and comprehensive manner. Moreover, these elements help us to determine whether a business model innovation exists. However, do start-ups really use the advantages of business model innovation and to what extent? This research paper addresses this issue and examines the role business model innovation plays for start-ups as well as how it has been implemented. To gain these insights, we examine the business plans of 24 finalists of a Swiss innovation competition in 2021 in a multi-stage process. We systematically reviewed and analysed business plans individually using pre-defined innovation criteria for each of these four elements of a business model. The individual analysis allows a robust assessment to be able to make a comprehensible classification. On reviewing the results, we were surprised by how many of the analysed start-ups are pursuing business model innovations, and that they often innovate more than two elements of their business models. According to our findings, start-ups nowadays deal with business model innovation more often than they did in previous research studies. We can also show that business model innovations are often more complex than they were in the past.
Linking effectuation logic with business model innovation in the context of Swiss start-ups
Effectuation and business model innovation (BMI) are research topics that are frequently discussed in the literature. While effectuation describes the effectual behaviour for founding a start-up with an emphasis on using currently available means, BMI is considered a way of creating a business model with long-term competitive advantages. Both approaches are valuable for start-ups pursuing growth in an uncertain environment. This work-in-progress paper presents insights from the reviewed extant literature. Further research will investigate effectuation and its enabling impact in designing innovative business models in the context of Swiss start-ups.
Linking effectuation logic with business model innovation in the context of Swiss startups
Effectuation and business model innovation (BMI) are research topics that are frequently discussed in the literature. While effectuation describes the effectual behaviour for founding a start-up with an emphasis on using currently available means, BMI is considered a way of creating a business model with long-term competitive advantages. Both approaches are valuable for start-ups pursuing growth in an uncertain environment. This work-in-progress paper presents insights from the reviewed extant literature. Further research will investigate effectuation and its enabling impact in designing innovative business models in the context of Swiss start-ups.