Towards a Framework for Service Quality Improvement in Startup Companies

Abstract

Startups are vital to the economy and the digital future and are creators of around 50% of new jobs. Some studies indicate that around 90% of startups fail in their first months, mainly because they focus on launching products or services without adequate market validation. In addition, they have little or no experience in organisational management and lack the resources to apply quality models, which hinders their ability to face the challenges of a highly volatile and competitive environment. Therefore, this paper proposes the LightStartup framework, focused on startups in the service sector. LightStartup provides a lightweight, consistent and formalised process model, a process assessment model and a maturity model based on the ISO/IEC 33000 standard. LightStartup accompanies companies in transitioning from an informal management style to a formal and long-lasting management system, covering the management of services, people, customers and organisational governance.