Lean Startups and Innovation Strategy: Towards a New Paradigm? Andy Wu & David Clough Academy of Management Annual Meeting 5 th August 2017

Transcription

1 Lean Startups and Innovation Strategy: Towards a New Paradigm? Andy Wu & David Clough Academy of Management Annual Meeting 5 th August

2 The Lean Startup framework Ideas popularized by Eric Ries and Steve Blank They put forward a systematic process for finding a new venture business model, for low up front cost Some major components of the process Customer Development Minimum Viable Product Validated Learning & Build-Measure-Learn Pivot or persevere decisions A/B Testing The method has been broadly adopted amongst practitioners and gets taught in many entrepreneurship programs 2

3 The Lean Startup framework Too many startups begin with an idea for a product that they think people want. They then spend months, sometimes years, perfecting that product without ever showing the product, even in a very rudimentary form, to the prospective customer. When they fail to reach broad uptake from customers, it is often because they never spoke to prospective customers and determined whether or not the product was interesting. When customers ultimately communicate, through their indifference, that they don't care about the idea, the startup fails. Eric Ries, theleanstartup.com 3

4 Is The Lean Startup being cited in academic research? As of 2 nd August 2017, Eric Ries book has 2,083 Google Scholar Citations 26 articles in the top management & entrepreneurship journals cite Ries Articles citing Ries 2011, count by year (15 top management / entrepreneurship journals) H1 2017

5 Is The Lean Startup being cited in academic research? As of 2 nd August 2017, Eric Ries book has 2,083 Google Scholar Citations 26 articles in the top management & entrepreneurship journals cite Ries Articles citing Ries 2011, count by year (15 top management / entrepreneurship journals) H1 2017

6 Is The Lean Startup being cited in academic research? As of 2 nd August 2017, Eric Ries book has 2,083 Google Scholar Citations 26 articles in the top management & entrepreneurship journals cite Ries 12 Articles citing Ries 2011, count by year (15 top management / entrepreneurship journals) 10 1 st edition of this PDW H1 2017

7 Is The Lean Startup being cited in academic research? As of 2 nd August 2017, Eric Ries book has 2,083 Google Scholar Citations 26 articles in the top management & entrepreneurship journals cite Ries 6 Articles citing Ries 2011, count by journal (15 top management / entrepreneurship journals) ETP JBV SEJ RP AMR JMS AMP AMD ASQ

8 Where does Lean Startup methodology intersect with academic research? (Entrepreneurial) Learning from failure e.g. McGrath, 1999 Deliberate learning from experimentation e.g. Thomke, 1998 Lean Startup Searching for business model / for opportunities e.g. Amit & Zott, 2001; Pontikes & Barnett, 2017 Engaging users in entrepreneurial process e.g. Shah & Tripsas, 2007 New Product Development process Organizational strategic change e.g. Marx, Gans & Hsu, 2014 e.g. Erat & Kavadias,

9 Where does Lean Startup methodology intersect with academic research? (Entrepreneurial) Learning from failure e.g. McGrath, 1999 Engaging users in entrepreneurial process e.g. Shah & Tripsas, 2007 Deliberate learning from experimentation e.g. Thomke, 1998 Lean Startup Interdependence of elements of strategy New Product Development process Searching for business model / for opportunities e.g. Amit & Zott, 2001; Pontikes & Barnett, 2017 Organizational strategic change e.g. Marx, Gans & Hsu, 2014 e.g. Erat & Kavadias,

10 Some speculative research questions to prime the pump RQ1: Does adopting Lean Startup methodology raise venture performance? What research designs and settings could test this? RQ2: Can we theorize about the Lean Startup methodology? What existing theoretical frameworks map onto Lean Startup or conflict with it? RQ3: What are the boundary conditions or moderators of a Lean Startup innovation strategy? For what environments is it more / less effective? For what types of organizations is it more / less effective? RQ4: Are the constituent elements of the Lean Startup methodology intrinsically complementary? Which elements work best together, and why? How might we model this, e.g. formally or with simulation? 10