Value creation through digital services in start-up support organisations

Sammanfattning: Background and purpose - Digitisation is connecting various business actors to create interconnected ecosystems through digital platforms. Meanwhile entrepreneurial ecosystems are offering various benefits for start-ups e.g. through support organisations that offer services for them. Currently, these start-up support organisations face the challenge of leveraging digital services to create value for their member start-ups. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the digital services offered in start-up support organisations create value for start-ups. Approach - From a theoretical perspective, the sociology of value and service dominant logic concepts such as value co-creation and service ecosystems are considered. Qualitative methods were used to conduct a pre-study and an in-depth case study with a start-up hub in Stockholm's entrepreneurial ecosystem. Data was collected using 18 semi-structured interviews with start-ups and other actors in the ecosystem and participant observations of 17 events. Findings - Needs and challenges for start-ups were identified and mapped against the digital services used by the start-ups. These services facilitate interaction between various actors in the start-up hub. Seven interconnected value types for the start-ups were identified emerging from the use of digital and non-digital services in the start-up hub. Moreover, many of the digital services are not provided by the start-up hub alone but in collaboration with other actors, connecting the start-up hub to other actors in the start-up ecosystem. Research limitations and implications - The findings contribute to the understanding of how start-up support organisations leverage digital services to support their member start-ups. The connection of digital service usage to the creation of various value types provides a theoretical concept to research about service ecosystem. As the study has been conducted with a limited number of respondents and events in Stockholm, further research in other ecosystems and using different methods is suggested to ensure generalisability of the findings of this study. Practical implications - A number of practical suggestions for start-up support organisations can be derived from the findings, including that start-up support organisations can benefit from establishing and moderating a digital community, involving several actors from the ecosystem and continuously adapting digital services to the changing environment and needs of start-ups. Originality - To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first study to investigate digital services in entrepreneurial ecosystems from the perspective of value in service ecosystems.