Det kaotiska laboratoriet - En kvalitativ studie om organisationen i IT-startups under olika perioder
The great economic impact of startups on society has made these types of companies an increasingly popular subject for research. Though no single definition of the word startup currently exists, one could define it as a temporary organization in search of a scalable, repeatable, and profitable business model. Seen from a historic perspective, tech-startups in particular should be considered a new phenomenon and the topic is still relatively unexplored. This study investigates the structure in tech-startups during their first months of existence and compares it to the structure that prevails when the companies have recruited at least five additional employees. In addition, the study explains why these changes occur. By interviewing employees at four different tech-startups we have been able to draw a number of conclusions that hopefully contribute to existing academic literature. The empirical findings suggest that a tech-startup in its initial phase is largely unstructured in order to be flexible and able to adjust its product to fit market preferences. As the company grows in size and number of employees, it moves away from this experimental stage towards structure and coordination. Fields of responsibilities and defined job descriptions arise and it becomes clear which co-worker should complete a specific task. Furthermore, the strategic decisions that initially were of a short-term nature are in the continuation based on long-term reasoning and made at different parts of the organization. We hope that the reader of this report will find it interesting and enriching.