Lean startup for opportunity exploitation: adoption constraints and strategies in technology new ventures
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research
ISSN: 1355-2554
Article publication date: 8 March 2021
Issue publication date: 27 May 2021
Abstract
Purpose
Most studies investigating the adoption of lean startup (LS) practices by technology new ventures focus on software startups in mature entrepreneurial ecosystems and disregard their applicability for opportunity exploitation in other technological backgrounds. This study contributes to this research stream by exploring how Brazilian technology new ventures (in different technological fields) tentatively adopt LS to exploit opportunities and whether LS is suitable to their emerging economy context.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors adopt an exploratory multiple-case study based on qualitative data collection and analysis of nine Brazilian biotechnology, engineering and software startups.
Findings
The study shows how technology new ventures tackle the activities of opportunity exploitation – namely, developing a product or service, acquiring human resources, gathering financial resources and setting up the organization – by leveraging LS tools and practices for business model validation; also, it identifies six contextual constraints hindering the systematic adoption of LS and reveals how technology new ventures cope with such constraints in their early stages by integrating LS with complementary strategies and practices. Furthermore, the study reveals that the systematic and comprehensive adoption of LS nurtures the development of an entrepreneurial experimental capability to explore opportunities in a quasi-scientific and hypothesis-driven fashion.
Originality/value
The study investigates how Brazilian engineering, biotechnology and software startups exploit opportunities and overcome constraints to business model validation through the combined adoption of LS and complementary strategies and practices and provides a set of propositions to guide future research.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Professor Donald F. Kuratko for his valuable insights on a previous draft of this research. Thanks also to professors Paul Jones and Lois Shelton for the support during the submission and revision processes and the two anonymous referees for the developmental suggestions, imperative for the refinement of the paper. The first author would also like to thank the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Research Coordination of the Brazilian Ministry of Education (CAPES) for the financial support received throughout this research.
Citation
Silva, D.S., Ghezzi, A., Aguiar, R.B.d., Cortimiglia, M.N. and ten Caten, C.S. (2021), "Lean startup for opportunity exploitation: adoption constraints and strategies in technology new ventures", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 944-969. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-01-2020-0030
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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