Major findings from this study are that innovation culture is important for tech startups for their ability to grow and competitiveness, and the key to innovation culture is the leader and their vision towards innovation culture. The reason why the author was interested in tech startup companies is because it is something new and very interesting. What are the source or strategies of innovation culture in tech startup companies in Thailand.
Research Objectives
LITERATURE REVIEW
Startup Companies
To sum it all up, a startup is a company that is a new company that aims to grow and develop a business model, and it is not necessary to be a technology-related company. The most popular and largest part of startups is the 'tech' startup company; tech startup is a company that brings new or existing technological products and/or services to the market through a new business model (Wongsarot, 2016).
Innovation
It is the technology-based company most known and valuable in the world of startups like Uber; the online application that helps passengers call for transportation, or Airbnb; the company that helps connect travelers looking for a place to stay and the host who wants to rent out their place (Raymundo, 2014). Ahmed (1998), said that innovation is the feeling or culture of the organization that leads to its true priorities or capabilities. While Porter and Stern (1999) defied innovation as a transfer of knowledge to new things, be it product, process or service, with technological involvement.
According to many given definitions of "innovation", it is possible to say that innovation in organization is something that came from within the organization itself;. Product innovation - It is the creation or production of new products and services for markets and customers. Process innovation - This is the type of innovation that aims to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the process, it could be the improvement of the existing ones or the introduction of new ones to the organization.
Olso said that process innovation is the implementation of new or significant changes in techniques, equipment and/or software' (OECD, 2005). Business model innovation - Or strategic innovation, it is the creation or development of a business model that changes the value proposition of the type of business.
Organization Culture
In terms of goal orientation, Thai organizations tend to focus on the long term as they seek long-term benefits for the organization and stability status for themselves and the organization (Pimpa, 2012). As mentioned earlier about innovation and organizational culture, it turns out that innovation is an important factor for the success of the organization, and culture is the medium to bring about innovation through employees in the organization and create the innovative work environment for the desired outcome or performance from the company. However, the typical Thai organization seems to have the traditional culture of not wanting to try new things and trying to behave as part of the group, not doing anything different from everyone else or how things used to be, which is the very thing that drives innovation or stands in the way of innovation. creativity within the company, especially those organizations that have been active for a long time or organizations with a large number of employees.
On the contrary, smaller organization such as start-up company, or to be specific in this paper: technological start-up company, is the one that has newly appeared in the market with a small number of employees, needs technology to deliver their product or service to customers, and must think/act fast enough to catch up to the market are in a position to create their own culture of being innovative because that is the thing that will grow their company and have complete advantage over their competitors.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Primary Data Collection Method
The data used in this study will be collected through semi-structured interviews conducted by the author with the selected group of interviewees; these are the employees and management of tech startups in Thailand. The information obtained by the author from the interviews would be analyzed along with the extensive research on relevant scientific articles, websites, published books and other various sources, and would be used to analyze, combine and compile frameworks and interview data. In addition, observations will be made during the interview sessions to find out the reaction of the interviewees while answering the questions, to see their facial expressions and body language and to observe the physical appearance of the workplace and environment of each company. use when analyzing the data.
Interview Method
- Open-Ended Interview Questions
- Target Population
- Sample Selection
- Interview Process
The population of the target in this study consisted of fifteen employees from five tech startups companies in Thailand; with at least one interviewee from management level, and at least two interviewees from operational level, making up at least three interviewees from each company. The author focuses on employees from core positions in the company to be the interviewees, to get the information from the person who really understands the business of each startup, for example application development team, marketing team and sales team. The interview dates were held at the end of February to the end of March 2017.
The author contacted the participants by phone to make appointments, explain the purpose of the research, the number of targets required and the length of time for the interviews. However, all participants who contacted the author are willing to be part of the interviews and are happy to give their thoughts for the study, some management have shown interest in the work and ask that the completed paper be sent to them as soon as it is completed. The author asked permission to record the sessions and explained the purpose of the research before the interview began.
The author requested a small conference room or private space to interview each participant so that they can express their opinions freely and to avoid feeling like they can't say something because there are other people around. During the interview sessions, the author took notes and carefully observed as he explored the questions so that the interview did not stop midway.
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
List of interview companies
Due to the privacy of the interviewed company and to prevent any bias that may occur while reading this study, the names of the start-up companies would be kept confidential, but the list of company codes and its type of business would be provided below;.
The Analysis from Interviews
- Organization Structure
- Leadership
- Work Environment
- Knowledge Sharing
- Culture
- Teamwork
- Communication
- People
They know that structure is part of the management thing that the company must have in order to be organized, and that those in higher positions or team leaders are still the same person as before placed in the titles. In conclusion, structure in start-ups would help innovation continue if it is flat, because people in the structure can still collaborate; the company leader stands strong in the position of being a leader that every employee can approach, and communication across the company still occurs. Furthermore, most of the employees the author interviewed see their CEO and/or founder as role models, in terms of character, work styles, and leadership style.
Sales, Company C In startup companies, the leader is the one who thinks of the ideas for the company's products and services, so many employees would see these people as their heroes/heroines, and the leadership style would influence the company's culture. , and. Marketing, company Most of the employees interviewed said that they like coming to work because they don't feel like coming to work, in the sense that it's not boring, because the offices are arranged with the aim of making everyone enjoy the place. and enjoy their work. This topic is one of the most important factors for innovation in startup companies, because new ideas or innovations usually come from sharing knowledge so that new ones can be created.
CEO, Company C Knowledge sharing is known to be a source of innovation, as a person can use the knowledge or experience they have to combine with what they have received in the sessions to create new ways of thinking or new ways of working. . And you have to be quick, you have to be ready for everything all the time. Most managers said they want those who have the right qualities and personality for startup companies, which require a lot of energy, will, knowledge and skills, depending on the type of business and position they are applying for.
The most important thing is that they (the management team or the recruitment panel) must be sure that the candidate is someone who has the right culture and is able to learn new things at a fairly fast pace.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusions
Recommendations
- Set the vision that focus on growth and innovativeness
- Set strategies according to the vision
- Shape organization structure to align with the strategies
- Communicate the vision, strategies, and the new structure throughout the company
- Motivate employees to share the value of innovative ness
Since a vision is something that would make everyone go in the same direction, if a tech startup company wants to grow and nurture a culture of innovation at the same time, it needs to set the vision in such a way that it can be like a pillar that keeps the company moving in the same direction. For example, the vision for the company could be "innovate to become the best restaurant reservation company". The essence of the vision is that it should focus on the area that the company wants to imagine.
Since the goal of tech startup companies is to grow, and now that the company has vision, they can set the strategy to move forward and not wander off their expected route. Although some companies from the interviews said that they do not want to have a formal structure affecting their work anyway, the management must remember that organizational structure is important for work processes and management as the number of employees increases. Since communication is one of the keys to innovation, when everything is set, it is necessary to communicate to set the same understanding so that everyone knows what the company wants and what they need to do.
You could do this by starting with a leader who demonstrates a desirable action, such as a desire to learn new things, share knowledge with others, and always try to communicate in such a way that everyone equally understands what is going on in the company. As it was found from the interview that most of the employees see the leaders as role models, it would not be difficult for them to follow the behavior if the leader is the first to initiate it and encourage everyone to do the same.
Limitations and Difficulties
