Field of Expertise
«Business Creation and Development»

External: Prof. Dr. Andrea Herrmann, Prof. Dr. Josh Hsueh, Prof. Dr. Christian Hundt, Prof. Dr. Martin Obschonka, Prof. Dr. Philipp Sieger, Prof. Dr. Rolf Sternberg, Prof. Dr. Joakim Vincent

Focus

At any given time, millions of people around the world are trying to start a new business or become self-employed. In Switzerland alone, more than 100,000 people are involved in start-up activities. However, only some of these efforts are actually successful; other start-up projects are abandoned after a more or less long period of time. In this research field, we investigate the entrepreneurial process from the first entrepreneurial intention to the establishment of a new company. The overarching question is which founder, company and environmental factors are conducive for the successful founding of a new company. We either look at the entire spectrum of entrepreneurial activities or only at start-ups in certain areas or sectors. Current research projects focus on start-ups in the circular economy and start-ups that work closely with established large companies ('venture clienting'). We also investigate how founders use AI-tools and how this affects the entrepreneurial process.

Our research questions are as follows:

• Which framework conditions are conducive to entrepreneurial activities and how do they interact with personal characteristics of (potential) founders?
• Which characteristics and activities of founders promote the creation of a profitable company?
• What motivates founders to persist with their venture for a long time despite an apparent lack of success?
• What are the success factors of circular economy start-ups?
• What characteristics and activities of start-up teams promote the successful collaboration with established companies?

Key Publications

Research Projects

• Eye-opener or Business as Usual? – How an external shock affects already unprofitable part-time entrepreneurs (GFF Project)
• Swiss Panel of Emerging Businesses (SwissPEB)
• SNF-Projekt on long venture gestation processes

Impact and transfer

• Teaching at HSG, mainly at the bachelor profile area «Entrepreneurship»
• Coordination of the course «Capstone projects» on bachelor level
• Research conference «Renontres de St-Gall»
• Executive education
• Supervision of dissertations, master and bachelor theses
• Policy reports and contract research