Start-up company analysis and theories for internationalization: Case HVO Finland Oy

Purpose - The rise of e-commerce and software startup companies have significantly changed the Internet and business playground. HVO Finland Oy is a young startup company, operating in software industry providing a health care site for manual therapy businesses. The purpose of this paper is to investigate internationalization as a concept analyzing different theories and to investigate a case company HVO internally and externally. The theoretical framework studies several common theories in an early startup perspective, representing stage theories, international entrepreneurship and external environment using Porter's 5forces theory. The main purpose is the fact that we are emphasizing the importance of analysing the company itself. All internationalization is based on transferring a working concept to another country and the basis of this is in the working concept. As the company operates in the Finnish market the comparison is done with the US market and the Finnish market honouring the company's interests Design/methodology/approach - Data is done qualitatively through open and semi structured interview, which was conducted to HVO Finland Oy Chairman of the Board. A 3rd party consultant work was distributed and utilized by the researchers in the internal study of the company. A proposed research models were investigated through secondary research using theories that ignore and notice the role of the entrepreneur especially in the early stage start-up company. Findings - The empirical research shows that the common stage models do not support the study of an early startup company. The main academic value comes from the more precise view of this second part in internationalization Model for Software companies. The end result is that the company is, despite of its micro size and young age, well equipped for internationalization phase. As the company's idea can be described as "born global" it is clear that the true potential lies abroad. Research limitations/implications - There are some limitations that the research paper uses. The questionnaire data is provided from one key executive from the company. The research findings have significant implications for the practicing managers, and thus it is not generable with any further context. Originality / Value - The research has a contribution with literature of internationalization and early stage startup case HVO. The study is a research paper with introducing different internationalization theories and providing a case study with the HVO Finland Oy company investigation. Keywords - Entrepreneurship, Internationalization, startup, Software Company, HVO Finland Oy, Micro Enterprise, Born Global. Paper type: Case Stud

InDEx – Industrial Data Excellence

InDEx, the Industrial Data Excellence program, was created to investigate what industrial data can be collected, shared, and utilized for new intelligent services in high-performing, reliable and secure ways, and how to accomplish that in practice in the Finnish manufacturing industry.InDEx produced several insights into data in an industrial environment, collecting data, sharing data in the value chain and in the factory environment, and utilizing and manipulating data with artificial intelligence. Data has an important role in the future in an industrial context, but data sources and utilization mechanisms are more diverse than in cases related to consumer data. Experiences in the InDEx cases showed that there is great potential in data utili zation.Currently, successful business cases built on data sharing are either company-internal or utilize an existing value chain. The data market has not yet matured, and third-party offerings based on public and private data sources are rare. In this program, we tried out a framework that aimed to securely and in a controlled manner share data between organizations. We also worked to improve the contractual framework needed to support new business based on shared data, and we conducted a study of applicable business models. Based on this, we searched for new data-based opportunities within the project consortium. The vision of data as a tradeable good or of sharing with external partners is still to come true, but we believe that we have taken steps in the right direction.The program started in fall 2019 and ended in April 2022. The program faced restrictions caused by COVID-19, which had an effect on the intensity of the work during 2020 and 2021, and the program was extended by one year. Because of meeting restrictions, InDEx collaboration was realized through online meetings. We learned to work and collaborate using digital tools and environments. Despite the mentioned hindrances, and thanks to Business Finland’s flexibility, the extension time made it possible for most of the planned goals to be achieved.This report gives insights in the outcomes of the companies’ work within the InDEx program. DIMECC InDEx is the first finalized program by the members of the Finnish Advanced Manufacturing Network (FAMN, www.famn.fi).</p