sustainability Case Report Freelancing Models for Fostering Innovation and Problem Solving in Software Startups: An Empirical Comparative Study Varun Gupta 1,2,* , Jose Maria Fernandez-Crehuet 1 , Chetna Gupta 2 and Thomas Hanne 2 1 Departamento de Ingeniería de Organización, Administración de empresas y Estadística, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, Spain;
[email protected] 2 School of Business, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, 4600 Olten, Switzerland;
[email protected] (C.G.);
[email protected] (T.H.) * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 20 October 2020; Accepted: 27 November 2020; Published: 3 December 2020 Abstract: Context: freelancers and startups could provide each other with promising opportunities that lead to mutual growth, by improving software development metrics, such as cost, time, and quality. Niche skills processed by freelancers could help startups reduce uncertainties associated with developments and markets, with the ability to quickly address market issues (and with higher quality). This requires the associations between freelancers and startup to be long-term, based on trust, and promising agreements driven by motivations (leading to the growth of both parties). Freelancers could help startups foster innovations and undertake software development tasks in better ways than conducted in-house, if they are selected using informed decision-making. Objectives: the paper has three objectives, (1) to explore the strategies of startups to outsource software development tasks to freelancers (termed as freelancing association strategies); (2) to identify challenges in such outsourcings; and (3) to identify the impacts of outsourcing tasks to freelancers on overall project metrics. The overall objective is to understand the strategies for involving freelancers in the software development process, throughout the startup lifecycle, and the associated challenges and the impacts that help to foster innovation (to maintain competitive advantages).