Understanding The Startup Studio Incubation Model

Abstract

Over the past few years, thanks to the rise of a substantial figure of startup unicorns including: Dollar Shave Club, Zalando, Jumia, DeliveryHero and HelloFresh , “ Startup Studios ” have emerged vigorously into the startup scene, as a vital incubation tool to support startups and promote entrepreneurship. However, due to the infancy of the startup studio incubation model, the divergence in the way each startup studio organizes itself, and the lack of academic research regarding startup studios, the concept of the startup studio incubation model has always been blurry, indistinct and confusing. Thus, the aim of this research is to provide a well-structured, distinctive and comprehensive understanding of the startup studio incubation model. For this purpose, the study utilizes the three fundamental dimensions of startup incubation theoretical framework, as the research main tool to investigate, highlight, describe and differentiate the startup studio incubation model from other startup incubation models. The thesis is designed as a multiple case exploratory study, and includes three cases of startup incubation models from Sweden, a startup studio, a startup incubator and a startup accelerator. It is based on both qualitative primary data collected through semi-structured interviews, and secondary data that includes websites and relevant documents. Moreover, the thesis presents an extensive literature review of the startup studio incubation model. The empirical findings of the study provide a clear and distinctive description of the startup studio incubation model in terms of the three fundamental dimensions of incubation: infrastructure , business support and access to networks , and illustrate the distinctive differences between startup studios, incubators and accelerator with regards to the three fundamental dimensions of startup incubation.