Best practices and structures for start-ups to adequate culture and governance

: on the example of start-up consultancies

Abstract

Starting a business is a significant undertaking; numerous factors to consider. Typically, the organizational structure is handled last during the growth phase of the business. While the literature discusses several critical points, the start-up consultancy business is not adequately represented. This dissertation began as a consulting project with a start-up consultancy in Portugal. However, after conducting literature searches, it became clear that additional academic research on that subject should be conducted. Now, the dissertation seeks to close the knowledge gap by providing a general guide on growing a start-up consultancy. While current organizational structures in consultancies operate effectively, the shifting demands of employees may result in future disputes. The mixed research methodology, which included expert interviews and a survey, enabled us to acquire significant insight from the employer's perspective and the employee's by combining current literature and real-world instances. The findings indicated that personal development, adaptability, and motivation are critical components of meeting employee needs. Combining these insights with the matrix framework enables a start-up consultancy to flourish. For future research, aspects of innovation and digitalization can be examined in greater detail, as more change is likely in the future, and businesses must be prepared to deal with it.

Date of Award	28 Jan 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Rute Xavier (Supervisor)