Contextualizing for a smarter future

Sammanfattning: Title: Contextualizing for a smarter future – A comparative study on technological startups’ value delivery in the agriculture sector. Seminar date: 2021-06-02 Course: FEKH99, Degree Project Undergraduate level, Business Administration, Undergraduate level, 15 ECTS. Authors: Anna Goffhé and Lisa Klofsten Advisor: Devrim Göktepe-Hultén Key words: Digitalization, Context, Agriculture, Smart agriculture, Value delivery Research question: How are technological startups in the agriculture sector influenced by their context in the process of value delivery? Purpose: This study aims to create an understanding of how technological startups are influenced by their context when delivering value to the agriculture sector. The purpose is to gain a new perspective on innovation by investigating different contexts. Methodology: To fulfill the purpose, a qualitative comparative study on six interviewed startups was conducted with an abductive approach, to expand the understanding of contextualization. Theoretical perspectives: The literature review consists of two parts. First it presents previous research on the contextual dimensions, namely business, institutional, spatial and social. Second, these key dimensions are combined into a framework together with the concept of embeddedness, to analyze the influence on value delivery. Empirical foundation: The empirical findings consist of primary data from interviews with the six technological startups and additional secondary data. Conclusions: This study concludes context influences startups in different ways. Consequently, in order to develop necessary solutions, there is a need to listen to the external environment. Depending on the degree of embeddedness, insights and information about the sector are gained differently, hence the value delivery process varies.