Graduation Year

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

D.B.A.

Degree Granting Department

Business

Major Professor

Alan Hevner, Ph.D.

Co-Major Professor

Matthew Mullarkey, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Sunil Mithas, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Robert Hammond, D.B.A.

Keywords

Emergent Management Frameworks, Firm Succession, Leadership, Organizational Development, Scaling, Team Empowerment

Abstract

Growing a business beyond its founder’s capacities and talents presents a challenging undertaking. When a founder is no longer involved or motivated to grow the business, firm decline is a likely outcome. Small businesses often have a deep and, at times, hindering reliance on their early founders for development. Therefore, a continuous engaging plan to advance entrepreneurial success is needed to grow a small business.

My research objective aims to find methods and designs, through academic literature and practitioner interviews, that transition leadership responsibilities and increase team empowerment within a small business, enabling these firms to continue growing as the founder role diminishes. Utilizing a well-structured, elaborated action design research (eADR) process, the research study guides organizational diagnosis and design efforts that can contribute to design principles for future firm decision-making. The process involves conducting a literature review of entrepreneurial constructs, business scaling, and leadership decision frameworks, followed by a deep dive into Fizen Technology, an IT services firm that serves as the primary data source for this study. Next, theme development occurs with support from expert practitioners in contributing to intervention creation. The research process culminates in a well-suited growth framework that supports continuous executive decision-making.

Through this emergent process, artifacts that aid practitioners aspiring to achieve greater success are presented. Through the lens of academia, interviews with experts, and introductions of novel design principles for Fizen Technology, an academically guided and novel approach to aid in scaling a small business emerges. The outcome is a plan of action for small IT service firms, inspired by academia and reinforced by expert practitioners.

Download

Share

COinS