2023, Meyer, Dario, Schmutz, Therese, Meyer, Rolf, Moreira, Fernando, Jayantilal, Shital

The number of Brazilian citizens in Switzerland has risen significantly over the past decades by factor 24 compared to the total foreign population, which grew by factor 2.5. As with many migrant groups, integration into the labour market is difficult. This can lead to a higher number of people choosing to start their own business. Brazilians in their home country are more entrepreneurial than Swiss people and among Brazilian women, 17.3% are entrepreneurially active. This can partly be explained with less options on the labour market – a challenge that Brazilian women also experience in Switzerland. Therefore, entrepreneurship also became a viable career option abroad. Little is known about neither the businesses, the challenges, and the needs of female Brazilian entrepreneurs, nor of female entrepreneurs of other minority groups. This paper looked at these points to find out how they can be supported best to enhance their businesses. The findings will be of use for entrepreneurs themselves, as well as for supporting organisations to adapt their offerings. To get the required insights, we took a quantitative approach and surveyed 54 Brazilian women in Switzerland with an online questionnaire. The participants were members of a Brazilian women business club. The results were analysed using SPSS. The entrepreneurs came to Switzerland mainly for love and family reasons. The businesses are small, mainly targeting the Brazilian community and only a small minority can sustain themselves from their self-employment alone. While the financial success is rather low, the personal satisfaction of having a business is very high. The biggest challenges are finding customers, where also the biggest need for support is. The results show that the support structures are not accessible enough for founders from minority groups and that offerings need to be adjusted to have a broader reach.

2023, Meyer, Rolf, Meyer, Dario, Schmutz, Therese, Moreira, Fernando, Jayantilal, Shital

Business model innovation (BMI) has received increasing attention from academics in recent years and its positive impact on companies has been demonstrated in the literature. However, there is a lack of research though on whether the managers of SMEs actually know what BMI means and how to implement it. This study is looking at this gap and analysed the know-how about the term in the Swiss canton of Schwyz. It is based on a survey among 418 managers of SMEs and shows that there is lack of knowledge on what BMI is and how to implement it; however, the importance of it is well-known. This research contributes to the existing literature in three ways. Firstly, awareness is the first needed step in increasing the number of BMIs in Switzerland, as many companies do not know the term. Secondly, managers claim to have no issues in generating new ideas and know about the importance of BMI, but nevertheless, do not implement it. Thirdly, only a small minority of SMEs work with universities on innovation and miss out on a large support structure. The study closes with recommendations for companies as well as universities and other state organisations to support BMI in Switzerland through the steps awareness, empowerment, implementation.

2022-12-30, Schmutz, Therese, Meyer, Dario, Meyer, Rolf

Die Studie untersucht die Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede zwischen kommerziell und nachhaltigkeitsorientierten Schweizer Start-ups basierend auf einer quantitativen Umfrage, Basissample von 265 Unternehmen, ergänzt um 11 Fallstudien. Die Start-ups werden in vier unterschiedlich stark nachhaltigkeits- bzw. profitorientierte Unternehmenstypen eingeteilt, berücksichtigt werden Merkmale der Gründer:innen, der Unternehmen, des persönlichen und unternehmerischen Erfolgs sowie derer beider Entwicklungsperspektiven. Daraus hervorgehen zahlreiche signifikante Unterschiede zwischen den vier Unternehmenstypen, die in der Gesamtheit nicht in einen klaren, grossen Unterschied resultieren. Zusammenfassend erlaubt die vierfache Abstufung, Nuancen sichtbar zu machen, die durch ein dichotomes Gegeneinanderausspielen der beiden Extreme verborgen bleiben würde und zeigt, dass das Gemeinsame die Unterschiede zwischen kommerziell und nachhaltigkeitsorientierten Unternehmen deutlich überwiegt.