”Innovation is not about creativity, it’s about discipline” : Uncovering the effects of shared leadership on disruptive innovation in international new ventures

Sammanfattning: In recent years, start-ups and small to medium sized enterprises that operate globally from their inception have become commonplace. These companies often use shared leadership structures and aim to disrupt an existing market with a innovative product. This thesis intends to explore and understand the influence of shared leadership on disruptive innovation inside these international new ventures using a qualitative research approach, by gathering relevant theories of shared leadership, such as disruptive innovation and international new ventures and contrasting them in an abductive manner with the results of six interviews conducted with representatives of chosen start-ups. In these interviews the participants were questioned about shared leadership and disruptive innovation separately and try to integrate the results of shared leadership that relate to disruptive innovation in a positive or negative manner. Our findings suggest that creativity, efficiency, intrinsic motivation as well as cross-field knowledge have an incubative effect, while shared leadership itself, when managed poorly, can hamper disruptive innovation.