Exploratory study on innovation management in startups, an attempt to design it through the business model

Startups operate in markets where uncertainty is high. As a consequence, they must constantly adapt their Business Model (BM) to the needs and requirements of their stakeholders, leading to the adoption of more reactive and flexible management methods.

Innovation is predefined by the process of implementing the invention in the market. This requires the integration of: resources, competences, partners, tools and management methods allowing to create, propose and share value from an innovative BM.

This paper aims at citing the different methods of innovation management in startups in order to develop a combinatorial model linking the three approaches: Lean Startup, Effectuation and Design Thinking. By adopting an exploratory approach, we have designed this model that calls upon the different innovation management approaches that allow the successful creation, development and growth of startups.

Our empirical study focuses on the innovation management process in Moroccan startups. Thanks to the LaFactoryStartup incubator, we were able to select radically innovative startups. Four out of seven companies responded favorably to our request. For confidentiality reasons, we finally conducted interviews with four startups.

The four innovation phases developed (Idealization, Startup Product Design, Product Launch and Testing, Business Growth) are the main coding categories. We then defined sub-categories of coding resulting from an inductive mode of reflection from the empirical data collected.

Thanks to the inter-case and intra-case analysis, we were able to build a model of innovation management in startups integrating the three innovation methods: lean startup, effectuation and design thinking.