Different sources emphasize the importance of new technology-based start-ups, in the growth of the national economy (Clarysse and Bruneel, 2007; Radas and Božić, 2009, Wallin et al., 2015). Establishment of new business not only creates jobs, but also enhances overall country’s innovativeness level (Radas and Božić, 2009, Wallin et al., 2015). However, technology-based start-ups are considered to be an engine to economic growth only if they accomplish their main task - development and commercialization of innovation (Radas and Božić, 2009). Moreover, according to Clarysse and Bruneel, (2007) only fast growing start-ups have the greatest contribution to the growth. Emerging digitization boom also cannot remain unnoticed as virtual interactions replace real ones and this find reflection in business as well. More and more technology-based start-ups refer exactly to the digital ones (Tiago and Veríssimo, 2014).
The intention to build own company is usually influenced by personal traits of entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, these traits do not guarantee survival and success of the start-up (Frank`s et al., 2007). Previous researches identified several stages of start-start-up development process (Clarysse, B. and Bruneel, J., 2007, Wallin et al., 2015). Different challenges, which start-ups face during these stages were discussed by scholars (Giardino et al.,2015; Kasabov, 2015; Agostinho et al., 2015). However, there is no consensus in the literature, which challenges have real impact on start-ups performance. This research mainly focuses on market phase of start-up development. Because exactly go-to-market stage is characterized by commercialization of innovations (Wallin et al., 2015).
The academic literature has already found the methods, which can be used by start-ups to overcome certain challenges and accelerate their go-to-market. However, many important questions remain still open. For example, concepts of accelerators and incubators (institutes for start-ups support) are quite widely studied (Bergek, and Norrman, 2008;
Cohen and Hochberg, 2014; Frank et al., 2016) however, the role of accelerators` and incubators` programs on start-up on start-up performance is no clear.
In spite of high innovativeness level and governmental support of entrepreneurship in Finland, statistics show that there is a lack of high-growth start-ups (OECD, 2016). Thus,
there is a need to find ways to solve this problem. Furthermore, as Finland is still perceived as an ICT oriented country (Giertz et al., 2015), this thesis concentrates exactly on this sector.
1.1 Background of the study
Following research is a part of ITEA co-funded Accelerate project, funded consisting of 18 consortium partners from Finland, Belgium, France, Spain and Romania. The main aim of the project is a creation of services, which will allow companies to speed up commercialization of their ideas and innovations, through use of digital innovations and technologies (Apilo et al., 2015).
The main motivation for the study was to explore impact of the challenges, on start-up performance; the supporting actions start-ups take to overcome these challenges; and output from the taken actions. Moreover, incubators and accelerators are considered to be prominent means to support and accelerate growth of early-stage technology-based start-ups and especially ICT start-start-ups (Aaboen, 2009; Frank, 2016). That is why this thesis aims to explore the role of incubators` and accelerators` programs on performance of Finnish technology-based start-ups. Furthermore, other methods and tools for acceleration of go-to-market were identified and suggested by the researchers involved in the Accelerate project (Apilo et al., 2015). Within this thesis, these tools and methods were more precisely studied and their impact on start-up performance was explored.
1.2 Research questions and objectives
The aim of the research is to identify challenges of Finnish ICT start-ups, negative impacts of these challenges on start-ups performance and approaches of start-ups to overcome these challenges to accelerate their go-to-market. The theoretical ground of this thesis is built by critically reviewing existing literature on the fields of entrepreneurship and new venture creation. Combined with empirical research, the goal is to find an answer to the main research question:
What approaches do Finnish technology-based start-ups use to accelerate their go-to-market?
The objective is to find out what tools and methods are used by Finnish ICT start-ups.
Furthermore, which of them have positive impact on overcoming challenges and performance enhancement. This research focuses on tools and methods, previously defined by Accelerate project’s researchers, as well as on personal traits and factors to entrepreneurial success.
Sub-questions:
The first sub-question (1) focuses on personal characteristics and factors that lead to entrepreneurial success.
1) What personal traits of Finnish ICT entrepreneurs and what factors lead to entrepreneurial success?
The main accent of the second sub-question (2) is on challenges that nascent firms face when going through four key phases of development process.
2) What challenges are inherent to Finnish ICT start-ups, and have negative impacts on start-ups performance?
The third sub-question (2) tests, whether accelerators/incubators, like tool for acceleration, really positively influence companies’ performance.
3) What is the role of accelerators and incubators for ICT start-ups in Finland?
The fourth sub-question (3) focuses on activities, which companies do for acceleration of their go-to-market.
4) Which acceleration activities (tools or methods) minimize negative effects of certain start-ups` challenges, and therefore positively influence start-up performance?
1.3 The structure of the research
This section is dedicated to presentation of the overall research process and structure of the study. Research process is described in the Figure 1. In addition, a short overview of each chapter is provided.
Figure 1. The structure of the research
Chapter one contains introduction, motivation for the research, presentation of the main objective of the study and research questions.
Chapter two focuses on review of entrepreneurial and technology-based start-up literature.
In this chapter we also raise question of start-ups` challenges. Four groups of challenges were identified and first group of hypotheses was built during the literature review.
Chapter three and four introduce the concept of acceleration. Choice of investigated activities is explained in this part. Each of the tools, methods and activities are reviewed in details, such as business incubators and accelerators, ICT tools, strategic partnerships and
participation in events. Second and third groups of research hypotheses were developed and listed in this chapter. In the chapter four, the theoretical framework is presented.
Chapter five describes research methodology and why quantitative research strategy is applied in the empirical part. Moreover, this chapter contains summary of research hypotheses.
Chapter six presents detailed results and findings. This part includes descriptive statistics and results of the linear-regression analysis.
In the chapter seven, discussion and conclusions are provided. Answers to the research questions have been found. Two hypotheses found support during this research.
Limitations and motivation for further research are also discussed in the last section.