Startup Community Research Articles

Utilizing Social Media Platforms to Foster Entrepreneurial Communication among Start-up Communities

Social media networks are an essential component for the enhancement of modern business environment. These networks provide entrepreneurs with a platform for their startups' development and scalability. However, little is known about the impact of social media used as a communication tool in identifying scalability among startups. Using dynamic capabilities theory, this study examines how specific characteristics, such as innovation and opportunity creation, affect the scalability of startups. The research aimed at a sample of owners or managers of Chinese startups. Purposive sampling approaches were used to choose participants, and data was gathered via a questionnaire and analyzed using SmartPLS 4.0 for PLS_SEM. The findings indicate that use of social media for customer relations and services is the strongest predictor of innovation, followed by social media marketing—the innovation toward the scalability of startups and the innovation toward opportunity creation. These results have significant practical implications for how social media affects entrepreneurship and may be utilized to improve entrepreneurs' capacity to uncover new possibilities and build relationships with customers, suppliers, workers, and partners.

A Perspective on Teaching Small Business and Entrepreneurship in Communist Vietnam

This article describes the author’s experience teaching a hybrid course on entrepreneurship in Vietnam, one of the few remaining communist countries. Based on the author’s positive experience, the author recommends Vietnam as a location for business faculty interested in international teaching. The article details the structure and outcomes of the course at a Vietnamese university, highlighting the potential and challenges of teaching entrepreneurship in a socialist-oriented market economy. Despite the inherent challenges, Vietnam’s vibrant startup community and government support for small and medium enterprises make it an ideal environment for fostering entrepreneurial skills.

Foreign entrepreneurship in the Japanese startup ecosystem: Can deviance fuel innovation?

ABSTRACT The Japanese economy has experienced continued modest growth, and recently contraction, and has struggled with a formidable demographic crisis. In dire need of innovation, the Japanese government has started to focus on foreign entrepreneurship, encouraging innovation from abroad. This article examines the practices of knowledge-intensive, or “innovation-driven”, foreign entrepreneurship in contemporary Japan. Using qualitative data from in-depth interviews with foreign entrepreneurs of varied ethnic and national backgrounds, stakeholders of the Tokyo startup scene, as well as from participant observation at events of the Tokyo startup community, I propose that the concept of positive deviance can help us understand migrant entrepreneurs’ strategies for navigating business formation. As argued by previous migration literature, foreign migrants are suspected of deviance and are tightly controlled by the state. At the same time, the newly created Startup visa, which allows the entrepreneurs relatively easy and affordable access to the Japanese market, signals an unprecedented openness to migrants with the hope that their transnational experiences and connections facilitate innovative business creation and overcome Japanese norms of risk-aversity. The analysis reveals that the migrants walk a fine line between challenging social norms and slipping into illegality due to inflexible visa policies and structural constraints. Eventually, immigration policies, which have become increasingly flexible regarding skilled foreign employees, keep a firm grip on skilled foreign employers, thereby exposing migration authorities’ deeply ingrained notions of foreignness as negatively deviant. That said, migrants with sufficient socialization in Japanese institutions increasingly know how to maneuvre the legal system and the startup ecosystem.

Enhancing The Digital Ecosystem and Empowering Community Businesses In Pedurungan Lor Through The Productive Waqf-Based SIWAP

Based on the evaluation of the situation, there are several main problems that require priority handling in the effort to empower the novice community. These problems include limitations in capital, lack of integrated information, promotion, sales, and financial management systems, and lack of knowledge of the potential and challenges faced by Pedurungan Lor Village, Pedurungan District, Semarang. To overcome these challenges, the main objective of the startup community empowerment is to initiate a Productive waqf-based crowdfunding called SIWAP, with the aim of providing access to capital to goat farming groups, tourism village management, and product development from creative business groups in Pedurungan Lor Village. SIWAP will function as a tourism marketplace that not only provides a platform for promotion and sales, but also offers integrated solutions for financial management. The goals of the program include increased capital, turnover, and net profit of the business groups, publication through electronic media and national journals, and video documentation of activities. Additional expected outcomes include the establishment of SIWAP crowdfunding and intellectual property rights protection. The activity plan will include a survey of partner locations, design and creation of the SIWAP crowdfunding platform, training for system users, technology implementation, and regular mentoring and monitoring of the use of the SIWAP system by business groups in Pedurungan Lor Village, Pedurungan District, Semarang.

Studying Essential Assets and Startup Communities of Korean Urban Innovation Districts

Studying Essential Assets and Startup Communities of Korean Urban Innovation Districts

The Effect of Artificial Intelligence Adoption, Machine Learning, and AI Ethics on Product Innovation in Start-ups in Bogor

This research investigates the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, machine learning (ML) integration, and AI ethics on product innovation within Bogor's startup ecosystem. A quantitative approach was employed, collecting data through an online survey from 180 startups. Structural equation modeling with Partial Least Squares (PLS) 3 was utilized for data analysis. The results reveal significant positive relationships between AI adoption, ML integration, AI ethics, and product innovation. AI adoption and ML integration positively impact product innovation, while adherence to ethical AI practices also plays a crucial role. These findings highlight the importance of leveraging AI technologies responsibly and ethically to drive innovation within startup ecosystems. Policymakers, entrepreneurs, investors, and other stakeholders can utilize these insights to foster a conducive environment for sustainable growth and innovation in Bogor's startup community.

The influence of service strategies and business relations on the growth of starup businesses in medium digital marketing

The lack of business land to foster the growth of new firms is the issue facing South Sulawesi's startup community. Getting funding is one of the biggest problems that companies have. Even with the abundance of public and private financing initiatives, getting funding is frequently a challenging and drawn-out procedure. There are still a number of places in South Sulawesi with restricted access to digital technology and the internet, despite the country's ongoing technical growth. This could be a barrier for new business, particularly those are in the technology industry. An industrial ecology is therefore required. The purpose of this study is to examine how digital marketing, business partnerships, and service initiatives affect the expansion of startup companies. additionally, to examine the ways in which digital marketing-related service tactics adopted by startups can impact the expansion of their enterprises. This may entail evaluating the ways in which service personalization, speed, and quality may affect client happiness and, eventually, company expansion. A sample of 225 startups was used in this study, and questionnaires and focus group discussions were used to collect data. To evaluate the data, the Smart-PLS application was used. The study's findings demonstrate the importance of service plans and commercial partnerships for both digital marketing in startup companies and digital marketing itself. Digital marketing, meanwhile, is powerless to mitigate the impact of commercial partnerships and service plans on fledgling companies.

ANALISIS KEPEMIMPINAN KEWIRAUSAHAAN PADA STARTUP BERBASIS METAVERSE DI INDONESIA

This research focuses on analyzing the dimensions of entrepreneurial leadership in metaverse-based startups in Indonesia. The aim of the research is to determine the implementation of entrepreneurial leadership in startups, using eight dimensions of leadership according to Bagheri & Harrison (2020): Framing Challenges, Absorbing Uncertainty, Underwriting, Building Commitment, Defining Gravity, Opportunity Identification and Exploitation, Orientation Toward Learning, and Creative Collective Self-Efficacy. The research method uses a mixed approach, with quantitative data collection through questionnaires filled out by 156 respondents from the Bandung Startup community, and qualitative data through in-depth interviews with 11 informants. The research results show that the entrepreneurial leadership dimension in metaverse startups received very high ratings, with an average score above 4.3 on a 1-5 Likert scale. The main findings from interviews indicate that metaverse-based startups are generally full-time remote, flexible, and oriented towards completing work targets. Additionally, opportunities in the metaverse industry to generate revenue and grow businesses are still vast, requiring constant innovation from leaders. In conclusion, entrepreneurial leadership plays an important role in managing the dynamics of metaverse-based startups, accompanied by high adaptation and innovation to achieve optimal performance in a rapidly developing ecosystem.

A Framework for Innovating the Technological Startup in the Cordillera Region through an E-commerce Mobile Platform

The technological startup community is beginning to be recognized in solving various needs in the Cordillera region. However, these technological startups have limited growth because they encounter challenges such as financial concerns, limited market reach, lack of awareness of intellectual property rights, and inadequate digital infrastructure. Thus, the researcher proposed the development of an e-commerce mobile application that addresses the needs of startups. Through the use of data gathering techniques, the researcher was able to determine the design considerations in terms of the architecture framework and features of the e-commerce mobile application that addressed the problems encountered by startups in the Cordillera region. The use of the 4+1 view model illustrated the architecture framework of the e-commerce mobile platform for intended stakeholders by providing a logical view, process view, physical view, development view, and scenario view. The architecture framework was used to determine the features to be integrated into the proposed e-commerce mobile application to address the challenges of the technological startups of the Cordillera region.

Female entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystems

PurposeThis study aims to delve into the lived experiences, challenges and visions of women entrepreneurs in Jordan, placing a magnifying glass on those spearheading or co-pioneering start-ups. It aims to understand the myriad factors that influence their entrepreneurial journey, from motivation to the future of their niche.Design/methodology/approachAdopting a qualitative lens, this study is anchored in semi-structured interviews encompassing 20 Jordanian women entrepreneurs. Following this, thematic analysis was deployed to dissect and categorize the garnered insights into ten salient themes.FindingsThe study reveals that personal experiences and challenges are pivotal in directing these women towards niche markets, aligning with the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Tools such as digital instruments, customer feedback and innovative strategies like storytelling and augmented reality are integral to their entrepreneurial success, resonating with the resource-based view (RBV). Additionally, challenges like cultural barriers and infrastructural limitations are navigated through adaptive strategies, reflecting the resilience inherent in these entrepreneurs. Networking, mentorship, embracing technological advancements and implementing sustainable practices are highlighted as crucial elements underpinned by the social identity theory (SIT).Originality/valueContrary to the extant body of research, this study provides new insights into the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in Jordan, highlighting the practical relevance of theories like TPB, RBV and SIT for both policymakers and the start-up community in niche markets.

Community Cultural Wealth among a South Australian Muslim Population: A Reflective Evaluation of Strengthening Family Health and Wellbeing

Muslims living in non-Muslim countries may experience marginality, which has associations with exclusion, poor socio-emotional health, higher rates of family violence, and poor quality of life. Faith-based strategies have the potential to bridge the gaps and improve the outcomes for these communities. We undertook a reflective evaluation of the individual and group interventions of a Muslim start-up NGO, Community Development, Education and Social Support Inc. (CDESSA) (Adelaide, SA, Australia). Qualitative data were generated via dialogue, storytelling, and making connections with meaning based on observations of the lived experiences of the narrators. The analysis involved revisiting, reordering, refining, and redefining the dialogue, and conscious framing around a theoretical model of community cultural wealth. The results showed the growth of family and community engagement in CDESSA’s support and intervention activities, commencing with a small religious following in 2021 and growing to more than 300 Muslims regularly joining together for faith, health, welfare, and social wellbeing activities. Reflections on the dimensions of aspirational, navigational, social, familial, ethnoreligious, and resilient forms of community cultural wealth showed that the range of individual and group interventions, involving religious leaders, contributed to improving health and wellbeing, thereby growing community capital as a mechanism for strengthening families in this community.

A Critical Analysis of the Small Business and Startup Community in the U.S. State of Maine: A Sustainable Way Forward

This study is a student-faculty research collaboration that examines the landscape in which small business owners, startups and entrepreneurs operate within the U.S. State of Maine with the aim of bringing invaluable insight and creating awareness. Supporting small business is a salient topic for local economic development councils, governments, and agencies. A survey was conducted and distributed to small business owners and entrepreneurs to gather their perspectives and opinions. One finding is that there are significant gaps in awareness with regards to support entities and their associated programs in general. Another finding is that survivorship bias has a large presence in the data collected previously by other agencies as well as by the data collected by the study. Finally, sustainable recommendations are suggested which, when implemented by the state of Maine as well as by municipalities, counties, or regional development boards, governments, and business support organizations, will increase the efficacy of existing policy and create a more cohesive, diverse, equitable, inclusive, resilient, and robust small business, startup, and entrepreneurship community.

Building bridges to entrepreneurial resilience: Exploring the mediating role of business model innovation capacity in ambidextrous leadership and entrepreneurial mindfulness

In the dynamic landscape of contemporary business, achieving entrepreneurial resilience is an important goal for organizations facing unprecedented challenges. This study investigates the complex interactions between ambidextrous leadership, entrepreneurial mindfulness, and the mediating mechanisms of business model innovation capacity in fostering entrepreneurial resilience. This research uses a quantitative approach with the population of the startup community in Indonesia. A sample of 340 startup actors was selected randomly. Data was collected via a Likert Scale questionnaire with a scale range of 1-6. Hypothesis testing was carried out using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) Partial Least Squares (PLS) to overcome model complexity and small sample size. Findings support the relationship between entrepreneurial alertness, ambidextrous leadership, business model innovation capacity, and entrepreneurial resilience. The theoretical implications enrich the literature by introducing mediating variables and leading to the development of a more comprehensive theoretical model. The practical implications highlight the importance of leadership development and business innovation to improve adaptation and response to change. Policy implications emphasize the need for policy support to strengthen entrepreneurship and innovation in the national economy.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems as multiteam systems: Navigating independence and interdependence in the leadership of startup communities

Entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) leadership is the orchestration of multiple groups to influence the effectiveness of an EE. Although singular leaders can influence ecosystems, EE leadership rarely works alone. EE leaders often function in interconnected groups from different organizations and are in the unique position of simultaneously leading their organizations (leadership within EEs) while providing leadership to the ecosystem itself (leadership of EEs). However, it is not clear how EE leadership groups work independently on their respective goals and interdependently on the superordinate goal of coordinating effective EEs. To address the lack of theory to explain this inherent characteristic of ecosystems, we adapt insights from group dynamics to develop a multi-level model of EEs as multiteam systems. We explain how EE teams devote attention to organizational and ecosystem leadership, identify four EE archetypes produced by different attentional configurations, and discuss how our main insight—effective EEs are multiteam systems—can change how scholars and practitioners view EEs.

Regional startup ecosystems of Ukraine

The startup ecosystem of each country contains separate elements and reflects the effectiveness of their interaction, which is also reflected in regional ecosystems. The aim of the research is to identify and rank the start-up ecosystems of the regions of Ukraine according to various indicators, distinguish the differences between the ecosystems and determine the main directions of their development, expansion within a separate region. In the research multifactorial comparative analysis in four stages has been used, such as: justification of the indicator system, normalization of the matrix of standardized coefficients, squaring of all elements of the matrix of standardized coefficients and placement of the obtained rating values by rank. The highest level is charac­terized by a sufficient number of supporting elements that help startups find financing options and accelerate market entry processes; the high level has a dynamic ecosystem that helps early-stage startups find support and funding programs; the medium level has a developing ecosystem, and the existing business structure contributes to the development of the startup movement in the region; the low level has the potential for further development and additional initiatives by local authorities and business structures. According to the rating, the highest level was determined in Kyiv region, the high level is found in Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, Odesa and Kharkiv regions, the average level is found in Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions. Other regions belong to the lower and the lowest levels, which emphasize the promising development of startup ecosystems in the regions. Regions with the highest level can focus on maintaining and expanding their existing ecosystem by providing additional support and funding for startups; with high indicators they can focus on the further development of its dynamic ecosystem, creating more clusters and events to attract startups and investors; medium level regions can consentrate on increasing the number of supporting elements to make it easier for startups to find funding and scale; with a low level regions can focus on conducting competitions, hackathons, involving the IT community for the development of the startup community.

Transforming the Network of Co-working Spaces for Start-ups into an Open Knowledge Ecosystem

The paper focuses on the issues of transforming the geographically spread co-working spaces of start-up firms into the open knowledge ecosystems, i.e. hubs of growth-focused organizations characterised by sharing and generating new industrial knowledge. The presented insights are based on the combination of theoretical review and empirical survey of 92 managers of start-ups and SMEs in Lithuania. This is an emergent community of regional start-up firms with rudimentary linkages and elements of knowledge sharing. The paper looks into the key issues that could contribute to strengthening the knowledge-based collaborations and synergies in such community, while assessing both the current situation and the evolutionary potential of such collaborations. We present the critical discussion in the light of ecosystem-as-structure vs. ecosystem-as-affiliation (Adner, 2017) approaches. Ecosystem-as-affiliation approach stresses the affiliation of ecosystem actors (to the network or focal actor), while ecosystem-as-structure views ecosystem through the lense of value proposition that network actors are co-creating. The first view has a more open-ended network perspective where spontaneous collaborations may lead to different outcomes and the network welcome different members with no prior objective in sight. The second view is more focused on aligning the resources and activities of multilateral set of partners for materialising specific value propositions, and members are invited to join based on these specific needs. The research has shown that, on one hand, the emergent start-up community relies on institutional coordination while retaining the element of openness. On the other hand, there is an explicit need for leadership in building the shared vision and designing the knowledge partnerships for delivering the shared value propositions. One should stress the importance of focal organizations and boundary spanners - both in terms of the organizational and knowledge boundaries. The shared business interests, network leadership and trust have been identified as the key cornerstones for further development of network into an open knowledge ecosystem, yet they are also associated with the greatest challenges to sustained knowledge sharing in the network.

Thinking Like Entrepreneurs: Qlegal’s Experience of Teaching Law Students to have an Entrepreneurial Mindset

To advise a client you need to understand what they do. To provide truly innovative, client-centred advice, you also need to understand how they think. These observations are especially true when working with entrepreneurs who may be otherwise inclined to move forward with their business with or without legal guidance. Entrepreneurs are distinguished by their growth mindset and resilience, appetite for innovation and comfort with taking risks and doing things themselves. As the legal marketplace in the UK becomes increasingly competitive (due to legal technology and the growing number of alternative legal service providers), law students need to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset themselves, both to navigate the legal marketplacefor their own careers and to provide commercially aware legal services to their clients. Law schools need to teach law students to think like entrepreneurs, and commercial law clinics provide the natural setting. This paper adopts a qualitative case study approach to examine how qLegal, the pro bono commercial law clinic within the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (“CCLS”) at Queen Mary, University of London (“QMUL”) teaches students to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. We reflect on the importance of students learning about and developing this mindset, for their own professional development and to service the unmet legal needs of the start-up community. This paper will also highlight the challenges faced by qLegal staff, including our own legal training and experience, our obligations to real clients and our students’ expectations. We conclude by sharing examples of how we are currently teaching our students to have an entrepreneurial mindset and our ideas for overcoming our institutional challenges and improving our offering even more.

Enablers and inhibitors of digital startup evolution: a multi-case study of Swedish business incubators

Global advances in digital technology are facilitating corresponding rises in digital entrepreneurship and its startup manifestation. There are many uncertainties on the road to digital startup evolution, some of which may be successfully navigated with the assistance of business incubators. While these organisations provide valuable guidance and support to the startup community, their efforts are at least partly constrained by the lack of a consistent, coherent roadmap to guide both them and their incubatees. T0 help efforts to develop such a map, this paper seeks to identify factors that influence digital startup evolution within an incubator setting through a multiple-case study focusing on digital startups under the umbrella of three business incubators in the Swedish city Umeå. Sets of enabling and inhibitory factors are identified through literature searches and the case studies. The latter may include inertia and possibly attitudes towards failure. In addition, present the Ideation Dynamics Model as a guide for both incubators and digital startups is proposed.

A novel enhanced bio-ecological combined reactor for rural wastewater treatment: Operational performance and microbial communities

Due to the low efficiency and high energy consumption of conventional rural wastewater bio-ecological processes, a novel multi-compartment enhanced hydrolysis-composite media ecological filter bed combined reactor (EH-CMEFB) was constructed. The combined reactor's start-up, operational performance, and microbial communities were studied for low-strength rural wastewater treatment. The results showed that EH-CMEFB could achieve synchronous start-up quickly, with the average removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total phosphorus (TP) reaching 87.20 % and 87.98 %, respectively, during the stable period. The multi-compartment partition hydrolysis of the enhanced hydrolysis unit (EH) increased the hydrolysis of tryptophan-like protein and soluble microbial products (SMPs), thereby improving the biodegradability of wastewater. The synergistic effect of Acorus calamus root and filling materials on pollutant absorption, adsorption, and precipitation in the composite media ecological filter bed (CMEFB) achieved the main removal of pollutants. High-throughput sequencing technology assessments indicated that the population and relative abundance of dominant functional bacteria in the different compartments of EH were different, and the partitioning hydrolysis function enhanced the hydrolysis of different types of pollutants in different compartments. This novel combined reactor has a competitive advantage in rural wastewater treatment owing to its economic benefits.

Pursuing the Innovation Economy: Implications for Startup Labour

Abstract This article considers how the UK and Scottish governments’ policy push to promote the innovation economy affects labour. It applies a regulatory approach to consider the issue, focusing specifically on the co-ordinated efforts of government, universities and the private sector to promote and support technology startups. Data is drawn from an empirical case study of the digital technology sector in Scotland. My analysis is 2-fold. First, I demonstrate how the performance of this regulation constitutes people as startup employees. It does this by increasing the quantitative supply of labour, but also by shaping the qualitative features of that supply. The practices of government, universities and the private sector give rise to particular norms within the startup community that shape the way that startups operate as well as startup actors’ knowledge, values and general sense of how things should be done in the sector. Second, I examine how labour law interacts with these newly situated employees. I focus on the legally structured relation of subordination of employees to employers and argue that the norms the multi-actor regulatory effort promotes within the startup community have direct bearing on how this manifests in the sector.