Entrepreneurship Report: Splash-Up Case Study

Introduction

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Innovation is considered to b one of the most important aspects of an entrepreneurial journey. This credential aims at enhancing nature, creativity, and design. Innovation also helps the firm to identify and create opportunities for itself in the present volatile and ruthless market of extreme competition(Mustafa, M., Gavin, F., Hughes, M 2018). The following report will focus on the operations and process of the Australian start-up company Splash-up. This report will focus on identifying the existing issues of innovation within the entrepreneurial activities within the company. Furthermore, the report will aim towards providing belligerent solutions and recommendations for the issues identified with effective comparisons with other peers of the firm.

Splash-Up; An Overview

Splash-Up is a tech start-up firm in Australia that laid down its establishments in the year 2021 and is presently headquartered in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The total strength of the start-up in the present times as per records is about 10 employees. Splash-up aims to provide a personalized customer experience to all the visitors of e-commerce businesses. This tech company is a B2B business. This means that this firm does not directly work with customers, rather its works with clients that deal with e-commerce and provide services to make the experience of their customers better. Splash-up limits the presence of generic email advertisements as well as online paid marketing ventures. The firm uses special AI technology that provides the firm with special filters for their customers such as Shopper Preference Capture, Onsite Engagement Layer, Automated Outreach, Rich Shopper Controls, Zero Party Data Analytics, and so on. All these features are specially customized for each registered customer through effective scanning of digital footprints. At the beginning of the year 2022, the firm received funding of over $310,000 primarily from two investors(Splashup. co. 2022).

SWOT Analysis

The following portion of the report will focus on a comprehensive analysis of the Australian start-up determining the areas of semblance for the tech start-up and the arenas where the firm might need some extra attention:

• Strengths: Splash-Up has a certain kind of autonomy within the Australian market. This type of customer experience enhancing B2B platform is yet to see a duplication of itself in the Australian market. Hence, the aspect of individuality is of great strength to the firm. The statistics of the firm portray the firm's business to be moving on a steady upwards graph. According to the firm's financial reports, they have helped the business of their clients grow up to 45 percent in 3 months. The firm offers a very lucid process for its clients to go through with the process of integration, there are no special tech skills required for the same, the firm also provides all one solution as well as brand-specific customer engagement. The firm presently uses about 43 technologies for its overall processing(Kreiser et al., 2021). These include software like SSL which is a default setting, viewport meta, mobile compatibility, and so on.
• Weakness: Although the firm is performing quite well being at the initial stage of its operations, there are visible weaknesses of the firm as well. These weaknesses are both internal and external in nature. Some of the most illustrative internal weaknesses of the firm as firstly, the sheer number of employees. The firm is growing at a certain pace however there are far lesser employees when compared to the workload, which causes breaches in the quality of the work that is being done. Furthermore, the firm is a tech establishment and hence all types of candidates are not suitable for the firm as well(organization splashup. crunchbase. 2022). Secondly, the aspect of financial management of the firm has also been rendered unclear. The firm has received huge investments and is also creating good revenue for itself, however, the firm refuses to increase its strength in terms of manpower. One of the most vibrant external weaknesses of the firm is the aspect of government funding that is very limited in the arena of start-ups in Australia.
• Opportunities: the technical aspects and the increased use of hi-tech software and AI (artificial intelligence) is a good opportunities for the firm to expand its growth that is beyond the physical borders of the continent. Furthermore, due to the online and virtual presence of the firm, it can be expanded to various areas without the necessary availability of a physical presence(Salamzadeh, A., Tajpour, M., Hosseini, E. 2019).
• Threat: Australia has a somewhat tarnished business history of mergers and acquisitions, especially among small start-up companies. There have been examples of cases like Hitwise which was acquired by Experian a US-based firm for $240 million. Another example is Retailmenot which was acquired by WhaleShark Media a US-based media firm for $100 million. Another potential threat to the firm is the government's hostility towards start-ups. The Australian government has made sharp cuts in innovation and research programs which were one of the main strengths of Australian Startups against acquisitions by foreign firms. The Australian government has very fewer grants and tax controls for start-ups, for example, the RD offset allows start-ups to claim back 38.5 percent of development costs. Australia also has the third highest average wage in the world(Cheema et al., 2020). This means that Australia is a fairly expensive state. The talent cost in the continent is huge and that might be one of the main reasons for start-ups keeping their employee numbers low.

Potential Solutions and Recommendations

The innovation entrepreneurship theory claims that what makes entrepreneurs different from conventional businessmen is that they organically disrupt the stationary economy. This means that entrepreneurs are diligent in understanding the present economic situation and trends of the market and economy and then introduce and alter the existing systems in a way that leads to an increase in benefits for the firm. Entrepreneurs primarily have two ways of doing this; 1. Reduction in the cost of production, 2. Increasing demands for certain products. Splash-up is a one-of-a-kind start-up in the continent of Australia. There are other similar countries present in the world such as Macai in Milan, Italy, Safesize in the Netherlands, 35up in Berlin, Germany, and so on. However, the continent of Australia is yet to witness any similar form of business, this is a major advantage for the company, especially with the rousing reception of e-commerce in the present times(Shafique, I., Kalyar, M. N 2018).

The threats that have been identified in the study are both internal and external in nature. This section will provide some solutions and recommendations for the issues. The solutions will base themselves onthe innovation entrepreneurship theory:

• Reduction in costs: it has been seen that what are the various factors have led the firm to areas in which cost control is tough. However, customization of the software can lead to multiple operations at a particular time. This action leads to a limited requirement of manpower and efficient processing at the same time. This venture will be cost-enduring, however, since the firm is ready to make investments in the tech field, this might as well be a successful investment as a whole.
• Generating demand: Acquisitions are a great threat to the firm. The firm hence requires to be more aggressive towards the aspect of marketing to create a space in the present market that will generate demand for itself. The present market state shows an organic increase in the level of e-commerce especially post the pandemic. This will generate the requirement of customer management, experience, and retention services. Effective marketing procedures and ventures will allow the firm to bring itself in limelight and notice the giants of e-commerce. This will help in establishing themselves as an important entity in the Australian market. This move will altogether save the firm from a potential acquisition due to its induvial demand in the market as well as drive the government's attention towards the firm when it contributes towards to GDP of the continent as a whole(Popowska, M 2020).
• Attracting investors: The present times show the government's hostile approach towards providing funding to start-ups. In countries such as Berlin, Milan, and Singapore, government support to start-up companies provides them with the push that they require to proceed. However, since the case of Australia is different, the firm will have to attract foreign investors apart from domestic ones. The primary advantage of foreign investors is that along with funds they also provide opportunities for expansion in the country where they belong to. This is an additional potential benefit that firms receive that facilitates their growth.

Conclusion

To conclude this report saw a wholesome approach toward corporate entrepreneurship. The case of splash-up, an Australian tech start-up company was taken for a wholesome analysis based on

the innovation entrepreneurship theory. This report saw an overall overview of the firm that was followed by a comprehensive internal and external analysis of the firm, which lead the report to identify the weakness as well as the threats of the firm. The final portion of the report was dedicated to introducing possible solutions as well as providing recommendations for the betterment of the firm based on the analysis.

References

Cheema, S., Afsar, B., Al?Ghazali, B. M., Maqsoom, A. (2020). Retracted: How employee's perceived corporate social responsibility affects an employee's pro?environmental behavior? The influence of organizational identification, corporate entrepreneurship, and environmental consciousness. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27(2), 616-629.

Kreiser, P. M., Kuratko, D. F., Covin, J. G., Ireland, R. D., Hornsby, J. S. (2021). Corporate entrepreneurship strategy: extending our knowledge boundaries through configuration theory. Small Business Economics, 56(2), 739-758.

Mustafa, M., Gavin, F., Hughes, M. (2018). Contextual determinants of employee entrepreneurial behavior in support of corporate entrepreneurship: a systematic review and research agenda. Journal of Enterprising Culture, 26(03), 285-326.

organization splashup. crunchbase. (2022). Retrieved 19 September 2022, from https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/splashup-009d/org_similarity_overview.

Popowska, M. (2020). Corporate Entrepreneurship: A Literature Review and Future Research Perspectives. International Journal of Contemporary Management/Wspó?czesneZarz?dzanie, 19, 61-87.

Salamzadeh, A., Tajpour, M., Hosseini, E. (2019). Corporate entrepreneurship in the University of Tehran: does human resources management matter? International journal of knowledge-based development, 10(3), 276-292.

Shafique, I., Kalyar, M. N. (2018). Linking transformational leadership, absorptive capacity, and corporate entrepreneurship. Administrative Sciences, 8(2), 9.

Splashup. co. (2022). Retrieved 19 September 2022, from https://www.splashup.co/.