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Effectiveness of humble leadership for creativity and innovation in context of online-based startups : a qualitative examination

Funck, Martin (2015) Effectiveness of humble leadership for creativity and innovation in context of online-based startups : a qualitative examination.

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Abstract:Humble leadership (HLB) has gained increasing attention in research recently as the world becomes more complex and the difficulty rises for leaders to know everything on their own. There is almost no published research concerning the role of HLB for the creative and innovative (C&I) behavior of employees in startups with online-based business models. The purpose of this study is to find out how HLB can foster C&I related to business model development and under which circumstances it is effective. 19 semi-structured interviews have been conducted with founders of startups in Berlin. The companies were in an age between 6 months to 3.5 years and had staff between 5 to 150 employees. The interviews were analyzed with the help of the combination of elements grounded theory and of elements of template analysis. This thesis found evidence for the importance of HLB for the startup development. It suggests that the effectivity of HLB differs over lifecycle stage and the kind of the affected C&I. External development associated with an earlier stage requires the leader to admit failures whereas for internal development associated with a later stage the spotlighting of followers strengths becomes more important. This study adds insights to the HLB research, the business model related C&I research, and gives practical advices to founders and investors which behaviors are useful to accelerate a company’s success.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:Business Administration MSc (60644)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/68640
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