Instilling an entrepreneurial culture in a small growth-oriented firm : An explorative study using a shadowing approach

Abstract: Good working conditions have become one of the most important factors in today’s Swedish workplaces. The impact that culture has on companies and their atmosphere is of great importance for overall productivity. Existing research has mainly focused on large established businesses. As a consequence, the work that has been conducted on small entrepreneurial companies is limited. There are studies highlighting the difficulty of transitioning from a small firm to a large entrepreneurial firm. Still, there is a lack of studies investigating this process in depth. Gaining insight into this process is highly relevant for practitioners, policy makers and researchers alike. Therefore, we have chosen to study this field closer. In order to explore this field and to dive deeper within the concept of organizational culture, a shadowing method has been used on a newly started growth oriented company. The company is founded by two opportunity driven leaders who strongly believe in a happy workplace where the focus lies on the individual and where problems are met with a “how hard can it be” attitude. We followed the firm for 8 weeks. During that time we were present full time in their facilities, conducted formal interviews, informal interviews, interacted with employees and the entrepreneurs during lunches and small gatherings. In order to develop an entrepreneurial culture they follow an ideology that is based on a few cornerstones; they strive to have short decision paths, a familial atmosphere, individual focus, strong commitment mixed with a fun factor. When investigating how the culture expresses itself we have found four different forums of particular interest; the office where the decision process takes place, the group meetings where beliefs and values are shared, the individual meetings where feedback is provided and the recruitment process where the cultural marketing takes place. Our conclusion is that these forums work together in a circular motion that expresses – shapes - shares - aligns the organizational culture of this small and young company.