Högskolan i Skövde

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of resource orchestration in rapidly growing founder-led companies.  

Design/methodology/approach – Based on a comparative case study of founder-led companies, the resource orchestration in a founder-led family firm is compared with a founder-led one. To comprehend the complexity of resource orchestration, a large amount of archival data and interviews are used. By using data derived from a period of ten years, the present study has a longitudinal approach.

Findings – By uncovering the resource management process, the findings indicate a difference in focus between the founder-led family firm and the founder-led firm. The resource orchestration in the family firm focuses to a greater extent on the early stages of the resource management process, i.e. the recruitment of new staff, the incorporation and the control of “right” values and norms. On the other hand, the founder-led business puts a higher focus on performance metrics and the documented coordination of teams and customers. However, both companies rely largely on self-organizing teams. By revealing the management role in a dynamic industry, the present study criticizes and extends general findings of the resource orchestration literature. Moreover, it contributes to the organizational culture and firm growth entrepreneurship literature.      

Practical implications – The study shows how founder-based companies can grow successfully in a dynamic environment. Furthermore, it reveals how software companies’ resources can be managed and bundled in a successful manner.

Originality/value – the present study conveys fine-grained insights in complex management processes operating in a dynamic environment.