Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Firms offer dog care service when owners are away for work or travel. Owners leave their dogs to these firms because they do not want to leave them alone for too long. The welfare of dogs in firms that offer dog care service depends on the environment where the dogs are kept. Entrepreneurs that start new firms need to create value in the service that they provide, and also need to take animal welfare into consideration. The process in new firms where entrepreneurs create value by providing dog care service are therefore examined in this study.

This process was studied through a qualitative case study on two companies: Yttergårds Hunddagis & Pensionat and SittFint. Findings show that entrepreneurs are affected by context when they create value in their new firms, for example, what type of service that is easy to offer. The context, in the form of the entrepreneur's network, also inspires entrepreneurs when they design their firms through bricolage. It means that they combine resources that other companies use together with resources they already have.

The field of entrepreneurship is a relatively popular field of study, but how the context affects the use of bricolage in new firms has not been extensively explored. In firms where animals are included there has been few studies on how animal welfare affect value creation in new firms.