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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Towards Understanding Startup Product Development as Effectual Entrepreneurial Behaviors

Anh Nguven-ducYngve DahleMartin SteinertPekka Abrahamsson

subject

EffectuationProcess managementProcess (engineering)business.industryComputer science05 social sciencesSoftware development020207 software engineering02 engineering and technologyOutcome (game theory)Empirical researchSoftwareNew product development0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineering0501 psychology and cognitive sciences020201 artificial intelligence & image processingProduct (category theory)Duration (project management)business050107 human factors

description

With the rapid development of technology and competitiveness of IT sectors, the speed of learning and evolving is vital for success of software startups. However, software startups often face with multiple technical and business challenges, which lengthen the duration of their idea-to-launch process. Little is known about the relation of entrepreneurial characteristics of software startups and their product development. We conducted an empirical study on twenty software startups to understand their challenges that leads long idea-to-launch processes. Six engineering-related challenges were identified and interpreted via a lens of an entrepreneurial behavior theory. Our main finding is that the effectuation-based approach of developing a startup business is mismatched with the iterative, evolutionary-oriented approach of developing a startup product. Software startups search for local optimal solutions, emphasize on short-run feedback rather than long-run strategies, which results in vague prototype planning, paradox of demonstration and evolving throw-away prototypes.

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
2017-01-01
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69191-6_15