IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/intemj/v18y2022i4d10.1007_s11365-022-00797-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ideas and methods of lean and agile startup in the VUCA Era

Author

Listed:
  • Chengbin Wang

    (Taizhou University)

  • Min Dai

    (Taizhou University)

  • Yongyan Fang

    (Taizhou University)

  • Chuanfeng Liu

    (China University S&T Achievements Transformation Center)

Abstract

In today’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) era, entrepreneurs face highly uncertain startup environments. Thus, traditional methods for launching startup businesses must address the challenges associated with uncertain environments. Based on the definition of startup as “the practical activity of starting a business in an uncertain environment”, the greatest challenge in startup is reducing uncertainty. Thus, this paper defines the lean and agile startup (LAS) method by using the business model canvas (BMC) as an iterative tool and combining the customer development (CD) method and agile method (AM). LAS is an upgraded version of lean startup (LS) that provides entrepreneurs with a “0-to-1” startup exploration method. It allows entrepreneurs to promote startup exploration activities through the “hypothesis-exploration-test-cognition” iterative model, thereby evolving their ideas into sustainable business models. Moreover, this paper articulates a developmental approach for building iterative startup software based on LAS. It therefore offers entrepreneurs a convenient and visual iterative tool for startup to improve the effectiveness of startup exploration.

Suggested Citation

  • Chengbin Wang & Min Dai & Yongyan Fang & Chuanfeng Liu, 2022. "Ideas and methods of lean and agile startup in the VUCA Era," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 1527-1544, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:intemj:v:18:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s11365-022-00797-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s11365-022-00797-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11365-022-00797-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11365-022-00797-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robin de Cock & Johan Bruneel & Annelies Bobelyn, 2019. "Making the Lean Start-Up Method Work: The Role of Prior Market Knowledge," Post-Print hal-02111482, HAL.
    2. Guindalini, Camila & Verreynne, Martie-Louise & Kastelle, Tim, 2021. "Taking scientific inventions to market: Mapping the academic entrepreneurship ecosystem," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    3. Rainer Harms & Mario Schwery, 2020. "Lean Startup: Operationalizing Lean Startup Capability and testing its performance implications," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(1), pages 200-223, January.
    4. Dennis Lyth Frederiksen & Alexander Brem, 2017. "How do entrepreneurs think they create value? A scientific reflection of Eric Ries’ Lean Startup approach," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 169-189, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chengbin Wang & Minju Chen & Qingyang Wang & Yongyan Fang, 2023. "The study of value network reconstruction and business model innovation driven by entrepreneurial orientation," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 2013-2036, December.
    2. Mihaela Minciu & Razvan Catalin Dobrea & Irina Olimpia Susanu, 2025. "The influence of coaching on employees: a quantitative analysis in the context of the VUCA world," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-24, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chengbin, Wang & Hongbin, Wang & Min, Dai & Yongyan, Fang, 2022. "Lean Startup Approaches(LSAs): Convergence, Integration and Improvement," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    2. Rosca, Eugenia & Agarwal, Nivedita & Brem, Alexander, 2020. "Women entrepreneurs as agents of change: A comparative analysis of social entrepreneurship processes in emerging markets," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    3. Eric Christian Brun, 2019. "Understanding a Business Incubator as a Start-Up Factory: A Value Chain Model Perspective," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(03), pages 1-28, May.
    4. Alberto Peralta & Javier Carrillo‐Hermosilla & Fernando Crecente, 2019. "Sustainable business model innovation and acceptance of its practices among Spanish entrepreneurs," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(5), pages 1119-1134, September.
    5. Steffen Paust & Steffen Korsgaard & Claus Thrane, 2025. "Entrepreneurial prototyping: the role of purpose, prototype recycling, and skills bricolage," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 64(2), pages 407-431, February.
    6. De Cock, Robin & Andries, Petra & Clarysse, Bart, 2021. "How founder characteristics imprint ventures’ internationalization processes: The role of international experience and cognitive beliefs," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(3).
    7. Maria Patrocínia Correia & Carla Susana Marques & Rui Silva & Veland Ramadani, 2024. "Academic Entrepreneurship Ecosystems: Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Directions," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(4), pages 17498-17528, December.
    8. Azlina Mohamad & Adriana Mohd Rizal & Suzilawati Kamarudin & Musli Sahimi, 2022. "Exploring the Co-Creation of Small and Medium Enterprises, and Service Providers Enabled by Digital Interactive Platforms for Internationalization: A Case Study in Malaysia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-24, December.
    9. Newbert, Scott L. & Tornikoski, Erno T. & Augugliaro, Jeff, 2020. "To get out of the building or not? That is the question: The benefits (and costs) of customer involvement during the startup process," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).
    10. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2021. "A Comprehensive Model for Idea Evaluation at Early-Stage Level (Pre-Seed)," OSF Preprints axngj, Center for Open Science.
    11. Jamshidi, Zahra & Keyhani, Mohammad, 2024. "Timing and pricing of micro-acquisitions: A Perspective from effort justification theory," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 22(C).
    12. Nadja Hatzijordanou & Nicolai Bohn & Orestis Terzidis, 2019. "A systematic literature review on competitor analysis: status quo and start-up specifics," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 69(4), pages 415-458, November.
    13. Krammer, Sorin M.S., 2022. "Navigating the New Normal: Which firms have adapted better to the COVID-19 disruption?," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    14. Giones, Ferran & Brem, Alexander & Berger, Andreas, 2019. "Strategic decisions in turbulent times: Lessons from the energy industry," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 215-225.
    15. Boyoung Kim & Hyojin Kim & Youngok Jeon, 2018. "Critical Success Factors of a Design Startup Business," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-15, August.
    16. Yngve Dahle & Kevin Reuther & Martin Steinert & Magne Supphellen, 2023. "Towards a systemic entrepreneurship activity model," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1583-1610, December.
    17. Ghezzi, Antonio, 2019. "Digital startups and the adoption and implementation of Lean Startup Approaches: Effectuation, Bricolage and Opportunity Creation in practice," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 945-960.
    18. Marco Cantamessa & Valentina Gatteschi & Guido Perboli & Mariangela Rosano, 2018. "Startups’ Roads to Failure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-19, July.
    19. Diana C. Pérez-Bustamante Yábar & Juan José García-Machado, 2025. "Competences that affect the gastronomic entrepreneur for a proper business management," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-34, December.
    20. Chengbin Wang & Minju Chen & Qingyang Wang & Yongyan Fang, 2023. "The study of value network reconstruction and business model innovation driven by entrepreneurial orientation," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 2013-2036, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:intemj:v:18:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s11365-022-00797-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.