CREATING A FASHION-TECH STARTUP THROUGH AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE CASE OF STYLEPOLL

Abstract

The academic fields of entrepreneurship and innovation aroused an increasingly interest in recent times. Limited researches proposing an application of the lean startup theory, discovery driven planning and design thinking have been carried out in the field and none of them have taken an integrated approach of the three. This study is an action research1 thesis which describes the creation of a fashion social network in the form of a mobile application. The need for this thesis emerged from the company's potential project development and the author’s personal interest. The enterprise was looking for a strategy to launch its new digital venture with limited resource. The objective of this thesis consists in deciding whether to turn the idea into something concrete and to validate its concept and viability. Each of the mentioned theories has its own peculiarities and advantages but none of them could be completely adapted to the project discussed. For this reason, the author of this thesis has implemented a new integrated approach putting into practice some of the main strategies for innovation and entrepreneurship. This paper hence contributes to the study of the concepts of several approaches to Innovation and Entrepreneurship by providing a concrete application of the methodologies and by demonstrating how the techniques can be used for testing of innovations and business ideas and speeding up company development.