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The purpose of this paper was to present the stages of the Brazilian startups' organizational life cycle (OLC), identifying and describing the main factors related to the entrepreneurial and organizational perspectives, as well as the factors related to external relationship agents and the associated risks at each OLC stage. In addition, the variables that comprised the three perspectives above were used for a descriptive reading of the evolutionary process from the perspective of intellectual capital during the stages.

The type of research used was quantitative with a descriptive character. For data collection, the authors have used the survey method and two complementary questionnaires were used as research tools. The measurement scale used in these instruments was the 11-point Likert scale. In total, 100 Brazilian startups registered in the STARTUPBASE and residents in São Paulo comprised the sample of this research. For the data processing, it was used the exploratory factor analysis techniques, to identify the analysis factors, and the cluster analysis, to identify the OLC stages.

Based on the results obtained, four stages were identified and described to build the OLC model of this research: Stage I – conception and development; Stage II – organization and traction; Stage III – growth and scale; and Stage IV – consolidation and transition. In addition, the authors described the main lines of evidence found at each stage.

This research contributes to academic studies of the OLC in startups and the evolution of risks that originate from the relationship between external agents in the business environment and startups. Thus, a management map is built, which helps entrepreneurs and managers construct these businesses since such a management map allows identifying the risks and challenges that a startup needs to overcome to grow and develop.

The originality of this research lies in the adaptation of the OLC approach, which is widely used in studies analyzing the growth and development of mature organizations. The authors used this adaptation to analyze the growth and development of startups in Brazil. In addition, the identification and analysis of external agents that make up the business environment, as well as the analysis of the risks, originated from the relationships between the startup and these agents, brought original and essential results and discussions, both for OLC studies and for risk analysis studies in startups.

The study aimed to analyze the association between dynamic capabilities and sustainable business model innovation of startups in the Brazilian logistics sector.

A qualitative approach was used through a multiple case study that was operated from semi-structured interviews and secondary data analysis.

The evidence found pointed to different types of innovations in sustainable business models and distinct activities inherent to the three dynamic capabilities surveyed. In addition, the results confirmed that dynamic capabilities can be considered internal drivers that stimulate sustainable business model innovation, since the conception until the change or dissemination.

The diffusion of a model that jointly addresses the theory of dynamic capabilities and sustainable business model innovation.

For managers, the study provides insights into the archetypes of sustainable business model innovation and guidance on how to incorporate into the organization's strategic activities aimed at the different dynamic capabilities to achieve sustainable innovation.

Sustainable business model innovation is seen as a key factor for competitive advantage and corporate sustainability. However, a more comprehensive understanding is necessary for those that promote the design and innovation of sustainable business models. Therefore, the paper addresses this gap by (1) systematizing sustainable logistics initiatives, (2) detailing the processes that support the development of startups' sustainable dynamic capabilities and (3) proposing a framework that establishes connections between capabilities, business model innovation processes, business model archetypes and the environmental, social and economic impacts.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the process of why a Brazilian digital startup company reached unicorn status the fastest.

After the literature review, the authors conducted the questionnaire containing 13 questions used in 18 in-depth interviews conducted in the case study. Saturation point combined with the independent and in-depth analysis of the researchers is used to achieve internal and external validity. The primary data collected underwent an analytical approach, followed by a resource-based view (RBV). RBV does not deal with time. There is a gap in the literature and an opportunity here: to analyze the fastest company to become a unicorn under the RBV lens.

The case reveals that value can be found in traditional sectors, as is the case of the real estate sector. This is a case of a company in the direct home-buying space.

The contribution of this paper is both practical, with the seven lessons, and theoretical. Resources allocated to a specific context in a specific geographic region shift the attention away from the absolute value of resources to the timing of aggregating them. Thus, the contribution accounting for time is new to the RBV.

The originality lies in the analysis of the dynamics of digital businesses with exponential growth.

This study based on qualitative data aims to highlight emerging journalistic practices. It analyzes entrepreneurship in Brazilian journalism in order to determine to what extent this development can be regarded as a form of organizational innovation. Over 30 case studies of Brazilian journalistic startups are examined.

The method adopted in this analysis consists of four complementary stages. In the first stage we identify Brazilian media’s political and economic standing and the impacts of digitization on journalism. Then we assess journalistic startup experiences in Brazil through innovation and entrepreneurialism and map the cases. Finally, the fourth and final stage involves interviews of journalists responsible for such startups.

In the past, startups were associated with oppositional forms of journalism aimed at producing alternative views. We find that these startups represent a hybrid of innovation and conservation in news production. On the one hand, they create the potential for journalism’s independence, a crucial asset for the democratic societies utilizing various forms of news production. On the other hand, they remain tied to political and economic interests springing from the neoliberalism that characterize the global media industry.

This chapter focuses on journalistic startups in Brazil and identifies five relevant characteristics of these entrepreneurial organizations. These innovative forms of news production open up spaces for a plurality of social actors and productive sectors. They also offer alternative approaches to covering many relevant issues in Brazilian society, such as legal and judicial topics.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of performance management (PM) practices on in-bound open innovation (OI) and out-bound OI. To do this, the authors examine the organizational effectiveness as well as the non-financial and financial performance of Brazilian startups that have had recent OI relationships with larger companies.

Using data collected from 103 Brazilian startups, the hypotheses were tested via partial least squares–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). An additional analysis was performed using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

The findings show that PM practices orchestrate in-bound OI and out-bound OI; however, only in-bound OI promotes organizational effectiveness in Brazilian startups. Organizational effectiveness results in good non-financial performance, which in turn improves financial performance. PM practices have an indirect effect on financial performance from the serial mediation of in-bound OI, organizational effectiveness and non-financial performance. Moreover, several combinations of conditions lead to high levels of organizational effectiveness, non-financial performance and financial performance.

This study provides new evidence and insights from an emerging market on the antecedents and consequences of startups' OI adoption.

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.

The authors adopt an exploratory multiple-case study based on qualitative data collection and analysis of nine Brazilian biotechnology, engineering and software startups.

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.

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.

The aim of this research was to evaluate the maturity level of strategic communication management implemented by Brazilian startups.

This study employed the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), survey and Grey Fixed Weight Clustering modeling techniques. Three experts with extensive academic and practical experience in the subject participated in the AHP process, providing their opinions on the relative importance of eight variables associated with the topic under investigation, thus enabling their prioritization. Concurrently, data were collected through a survey from 23 respondents who have extensive knowledge about the realities of Brazilian startups. The weights derived from the AHP and the survey data were utilized in the Grey Fixed Weight Clustering modeling.

Based on the opinions of the 23 respondents, the level of implementation of practices related to strategic management, brand management, external image management and internal communication management is superficial. In addition, according to the majority of experts, Brazilian startups exhibited a medium level of maturity to address the key challenges related to communication management. Furthermore, this study reveals that the variables “financial resources allocation,” “stakeholder relationship” and “brand management” were deemed the most significant for the model.

The contributions presented herein can be beneficial for both researchers and startup managers seeking to enhance communication strategies in their organizations. This research also contributes by highlighting how grey systems theory can be extremely useful for conducting decision-making analyses in the context of startups, which is characterized by uncertainty and imprecise information.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of transformational and instrumental leadership on the individual performance of the employee and the financial performance in Brazilian startups.

The adopted methodological construction strategy was structural equation modeling, with the purpose of applying the model to primary data collected from a sample of leaders of Brazilian startups (n = 126).

Results suggest that when leadership types are analyzed separately, both directly influence employee performance.

This study has four main contributions: to test the influence of the two leadership styles on employee performance and thus to help advance the theoretical understanding of leadership; to perform this test in the context of Brazilian startups; to equip professionals with more information about the effects of crucial leadership types on individual type of employee performance; and to expand knowledge for recruitment and managerial training in initial-stage companies.

This paper aims to identify and analyze the agtech classification and categorization systems in the Brazilian context.

The systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out according to the protocol of Kitchenham and Charters (2007). The classification systems found in literature were evaluated using the thinking aloud protocol, as proposed by Ericsson and Simon (1993). The responses obtained were evaluated through lexicographic analysis, described by Bécue-Bertaut (2019) and content analysis, described by Bardin (2011).

SLR identified four agtech classification systems. The model proposed by Dias, Jardim, and Sakuda (2019) was the one with the highest adherence to classify Brazilian agtechs. From the analysis of the systems found in literature, the authors proposed a new categorization model of agricultural startups (agtechs).

The study has limitations in relation to the theoretical and empirical validation of the model proposed by the authors. This limitation can be the subject of subsequent research.

The SLR study considers the evolution of the classification systems of a new agribusiness reality, the agtechs. In addition, there is a practical contribution in proposing a new classification system that attempts to address some of the limitations found in previous studies.

Agtechs are startups focused on developing solutions for agriculture and have shown a significant increase in recent years. However, there are few studies focused on this type of company. Even rarer are the studies that seek to classify and categorize them. The present work opens the horizon for future studies focused on this new reality.

This study aims to understand the relationship between the elements of a startup firms’ management control system (MCS) package, its entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and firm performance.

The authors collected survey data from a sample of 100 Brazilian startups who had exited technology-based parks and incubators. The authors used two data analysis techniques, namely, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

The findings show that cultural and planning controls were the only two MCS elements that were included in all high-performing startup firms’ MCS packages. The authors also found that EO has a positive influence on firm performance through the MCS package.

The mixed-method approach allowed for a holistic view of the analyzed phenomenon. PLS-SEM analysis was applied to the symmetric relationships between the proposed relationships while fsQCA was used to analyze the asymmetric combinations between EO dimensions and MCS package elements, which promoted high firm performance.

The authors show how different combinations of MCS elements form a package, mediating EO, which can enable high performance.

Using fsQCA and PLS-SEM, the authors were able to better understand the important role that MCS package adoption has on a startups’ performance and provide new evidence regarding the interface between MCS and EO. This extends the understanding of the importance that cultural and planning controls have in an MCS package to support startup performance.