Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2017-05-17"
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- Do accelerated ventures learn what really matters? : an exploratory study of the Portuguese EcosystemPublication . Castro, José Pedro Freire Vieira de; Costa, Cláudia Isabel de SousaEntrepreneurs are drivers for economic prosperity and innovation. They take risks that are normally avoided by established companies, pushing industry boundaries to the next level. Several incubation mechanisms emerged in order to support new ventures in coping with initial challenges. Accelerators were born in 2005 and completely revolutionized how business incubation is done. By offering knowledge intensive and specialized support, acceleration programs aim to speed up new ventures´ development in approximately three months. Scholars have studied this new incubation mechanism over the last years but still little is known about the impact that accelerators have on startups. In order to address this research gap, we interviewed ten accelerated startups to understand the entrepreneurs´ perspective about the program. Based on acknowledged research, we investigated the impact of accelerators on the drivers of startup success. Literature divides the drivers in four main categories – Team, Product, Marketing and Financials. We found accelerators to be remarkable Team Builders for accelerated startups. Due to the cohort effect and the knowledge-sharing environment promoted by accelerators, ventures develop their Team Personality and Credibility throughout the program. Additionally, we found that accelerators are great Market Development Champions for high-tech startups. Our results suggest that the accelerators´ market-oriented mindset positively impact all the drivers of startup success of the Marketing category.
- Start-up learning process in accelerator programsPublication . Gviniashvili, Giorgi; Costa, Cláudia Isabel de SousaThe modern world is shaped by rapid innovation and disruptive ideas. Start-ups are drivers of these innovations. They replace incumbent technologies, existent business models and in sum make the world a better place to live. However, nascent ventures still have a tendency to fail often due early stage challenges and problems. In order to help newly founded ventures to overcome early stage obstacles, in last decade accelerator programs were created. Accelerators provide entrepreneurship education to ventures’ founding teams and help them to transform their ideas into successful businesses. Despite the rapid proliferation of these programs worldwide, pervious literature is still descriptive of main features of accelerators and little is known which are main mechanisms to accelerate startups. This dissertation aims to explore if accelerators accelerate the learning process of participant ventures, and how and which mechanisms of accelerator programs impact the learning process. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, from eleven participant ventures in one single Portuguese accelerator program, Building Global Innovators (BGI). The results suggest that accelerators in fact impact learning process of participant ventures. Therefore, the learning process is affected by time compression of accelerator programs and through two main mechanisms: through accelerator support and through cohort role, which consequently comprise two learning vehicles and one learning facilitator, each. Alongside several empirical implications, this study contributes to the advance of research about accelerator programs.
- A descriptive assessment of sacraments as language events in Louis- Marie Chauvet and David Noel PowerPublication . Bardata, Kornelius Supranoto; Eleutério, JoãoThis paper is entitled: A Descriptive Assessment of Sacraments as Language Events in Louis-Marie Chauvet and David Noel Power. What motivates the author to proceed with this topic is that the author feels the need of finding a new and creative approach to the sacraments. The author is determined to discuss this topic using the methodology of library reading. The two theologians whose theologies are being presented in this paper, namely, Louis-Marie Chauvet and David Noel Power, are the main sources. In addition to reading the works of Chauvet and Power, the author also gets into discussions with the supervisor. Since Chauvet and Power live in postmodern world, their theology can be of the good readings for students of theology who are interested in the theology of the sacraments in the midst of this ever-changing world. Chauvet, for example, proposes a new looking into the sacraments as language of the Trinitarian communication with his people. The church is the place where this interaction happens. The interaction itself occurs through the listening of the Scripture, sacraments and ethical commitment. In the same rhythm, David Noel Power suggests a theology where the sacraments are read as the language of God’s giving. They are the language of God’s giving because the church is the bodily present of the Trinity in the church. This present is, in turn, celebrated and relived through the Scripture, the sacraments, liturgy, rite, customs and cultures. Through all these elements, the language of God’s giving in the past is brought to life in the present time through the language of the church. Chauvet and Power recommend a fundamental theology through which the sacraments are no longer viewed as alienated from the daily experience of the church.The paper is written primarily as the author’s personal journey into the reflection on the sacraments. The author, therefore, hopes to achieve nothing more important than the growing of a personal love of the sacraments. In the second place, the author expects to have been able to introduce the fundamental sacraments of Louis-Marie Chauvet and David Noel Power to a larger context.
- Marketing and sales management : FERESPE's case studyPublication . Guimarães, Ana Carolina Gomes; Silva, Susana Cristina Lima da Costa eNo matter how competitive a particular industry may be, the essential will always be the collaboration and sharing of interests between the different parties. So, more than ever, it is absolutely crucial to exceed consumer expectations through innovative strategies that will ensure competitive advantages. Therefore, the maintenance and creation of good customer relationships have been a priority for every business as well as understanding which factors influence loyalty. In fact, this concept has been studied by several authors throughout the years. However, the definition of loyalty and what influences it is not consensual due to its complexity (Majumdar, 2005) (cited by Gee et al. (2008), p.360). That is why the purpose of this Master Final Work is to contribute, in theoretical and practical terms, to unveil what influences the loyalty of FERESPE’s clients. Furthermore, it is a valuable contribution to understand the main constructs of loyalty in order to improve marketing strategies and to achieve retention and creation of more and better relationships within customers. Applying the proposed conceptual model, built upon literature review, it was concluded that providing a good experience is important as it affects customer satisfaction, delivers customer loyalty, installs confidence, supports the brand and also creates emotional bonds with customers (Kong, 2011).
- Reputation for innovation on Millennials’ consumer perceptions : case of auto insurancePublication . Lopes, Flávio António Paulete Fernandes; Costa, Cláudia Isabel de SousaThe purpose of this study is to understand how reputation for innovation influences the perceptions of co-created products. From a managerial standpoint this is an important topic given the growing importance of co-creation in the development of new products and because of the impact of corporate reputation on evaluation of co-created products. As such we investigated how consumers that do not participate in the co-creation process, i.e, the broader market, perceive the product outcomes of co-creation. Our setting is the insurance industry and we particularly look at the result of co-creation with customers and sale agents vis-à-vis developed by firm professionals. We focus on perceptions of firm innovation ability, intentions to recommend the firm, purchase intention and willingness to pay. Our finding show that firms that co-created are perceived with more innovation ability, display higher intentions to recommend and co-created products reveal higher purchase intentions. Interestingly, this highly innovative firms draw the least benefit from communicating co-creation. In these firms when the broad market learns that a product was cocreated innovation ability, intentions to recommend, purchase and willingness to pay decrease. As such the positive effect of communicating that consumers were involved in the development of the product is mainly benefitial for low innovative firms. In this instance, our finding indicate that co-creation enchances innovation ability as well as intentions to recommend and purchase. We then discuss implications for theory and practice.