Hinz, Andreas
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Start-up incubators for refugees. Applying psychological methods to increase chances of entrepreneurial success
An increasing number of start-up incubators offer programmes designed specifically for refugees. They provide entrepreneurship training and access to a closely-knit community for start-up development. Beyond that, they also support refugees in overcoming typical challenges, including a lack of language skills and required qualifications, an uncertain residence status, discrimination and psychological distress on various levels. While these incubators have already contributed to refugees’ social and economic integration, the number of successful participants is still relatively low. The question remains about what can be done to multiply the potential so that more significant numbers of refugees can benefit. To support incubators in achieving more significant numbers, this work presents a framework of methods and tools based on health and organisational psychology literature. More specifically, this work focuses on methods and tools to be applied during two critical phases of the incubation cycle, namely the selection process and the actual programme. First, suitable candidates may be overlooked and/or less suitable candidates admit-ted during selection. This work proposes approaches to improve the accuracy of assessment methods so that more significant numbers of candidates with good chances of success are admit-ted. In addition, these methods can help identify those candidates who may appear unsuitable at first sight but could likely get ready with a preparatory course before joining the programme. Second, participants may have difficulty keeping up during the programme for various reasons (often related to the mentioned challenges) and therefore drop out early. This work proposes science-based approaches which help to adapt and improve existing programme elements and/or implement new elements to increase the chances of successful programme completion. Overall, this work seeks to contribute to the academic discussion on innovative approaches to upscale the work of incubators for refugees. Further research will involve co-developing practical approaches with incubators for refugees, cooperating on the implementation, and measuring impact. The goal of providing incubators with relevant practical insights is to deploy more significant numbers of refugees as entrepreneurs and contribute to broader social and economic impact.
How applying the lean start-up methodology can affect business model innovation
Start-ups often apply entrepreneurial approaches like the Lean Start-up Method (LSM) and Business Model Innovation (BMI). LSM emphasises experimentation during product development and testing in close interactions with potential customers to get first-hand feedback. Lessons learned are implemented so that improved product variants go through further feedback loops and so on. Products are developed by rapidly getting closer to what customers really want. BMI focuses on altering existing or developing new business models to enable differentiation from competitors. Typical elements of business models include target customer segments, value propositions, value chains and revenue mechanisms. BMI is assumed to take place when at least two of these elements are innovated in conjunction. Going beyond typical product or process innovation in isolation, BMI suggests to holistically consider interdependencies within the entire business model. The need for a better understanding on connections between LSM and BMI is expressed in the literature and this work’s goal is to contribute to this discussion. More specifically, this work seeks to address the question of how the application of LSM can affect BMI. In search of answers, business plans of 25 finalist start-ups in the 2022 edition of an annual innovation competition in Switzerland are reviewed. While the evidence on the connection between LSM and BMI is not entirely convincing, reviewed business plans reveal insights into LSM-related factors at play that can support business model changes and trigger BMI.
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.
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.
Linking effectuation logic with business model innovation. An investigation in the context of Swiss startups
Over the last decades, business model innovation and effectuation have been widely discussed in the literature. While effectuation represents a behavioural approach for entrepreneurs using available means for founding a start-up, business model innovation represents an approach to creating a business model with long-term competitive advantages. Designing a business model requires to focus on four dimensions: customer, value proposition, value chain and revenue mechanism. A business model innovation is referred to when an innovative characteristic can be attributed to two of the four dimensions. Both effectuation and business model innovation are valuable for entrepreneurs who are pursuing growth in dynamic and uncertain business environments. This paper elaborates on effectuation and its potential effects on business model innovation. The addressed research questions are: Is the effectuation logic a facilitating aspect of business model innovation? And to what extent do entrepreneurs apply effectuation logic and design innovative business models? The underlying data consists of business plans of 25 finalists of a Swiss innovation competition with more than 100 startups from different business sectors every year. First, the chosen sample is reviewed on the extent of the application of effectuation based on selected behavioural criteria. Second, the sample is analysed for evidence of business model innovation based on the above-mentioned business model dimensions and their innovative potential. Third, the link between the two approaches is highlighted to gain insights into the potential influence of the applied decision logic to develop innovative business models, thus providing an understanding of how entrepreneurs could leverage the advantages of effectuation in the context of innovating the business model. Further research will focus on examining critical success factors of entrepreneurial behaviour in the applied business model types and their correlations with business performance.
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.
How smart service portals trigger social action to reduce energy consumption
Scientific procedures of municipalities to reduce energy consumption, a comparison.
Effectuation and lean startup in Swiss start-ups. An integrative analysis
Founding a start-up entails numerous risks and uncertainties. To minimise these risks and to deal with uncertainties, the popular concepts of Effectuation and Lean Startup, among others, are discussed in entrepreneurship research. Although both concepts are not new, they have gained importance in recent years. Effectuation focuses on dealing with uncertainty and contrasts with causation, which focuses on planning. The starting point for Effectuation is the resources available to the founders, which leads to different business ideas. The core of Effectuation includes four key dimensions: available means, affordable losses, exploiting contingencies and building partnerships. Lean Startup can be understood as a framework for decision-making in which direct interaction takes priority over extensive planning. The approach is based on three fundamental principles: experimentation rather than planning, focus on customer feedback and iterative learning. The core elements include a clear entrepreneurial vision, close contact with the customer, the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop and the Minimum Viable Product. The key dimensions of Effectuation and the core elements of Lean Startup also form the frame of reference for the empirical investigation. The article examines the extent to which these concepts are applied by Swiss entrepreneurs and whether a combination of the two takes place. The data comes from the business plans of 25 finalists of a Swiss innovation competition from 2022. The business plans are evaluated and analysed in a multi-stage process. The study provides insight into the behaviour of Swiss start-ups, whether they proceed according to Effectuation and apply the Lean Startup principles. Surprisingly, the study reveals that many start-ups proceed according to Effectuation, while relatively few start-ups apply the Lean Startup principles. We were able to show the extent to which the two approaches are used and how they relate to each other. We also found that the origin of the start-up (research-based or industry experiencebased) plays a significant role.
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.
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.