Resumo

The creation of a new business venture is recognized as complex, difficult and risky process. This study aims at assessing the usefulness and limitations of six frameworks in helping entrepreneurs start and develop their business in a changing environment. The six chosen methodologies are the Design Thinking, Lean Start-up, Business Model Canvas, Business Planning, Porter's 5 Forces and the Value Creation Wheel.

How useful are the frameworks of Design Thinking, Lean Start-up, Business Model Canvas, Business Planning, Porter's 5 Forces and Value Creation Wheel in helping entrepreneurs to deal with uncertainty and risk when launching and developing a new business? The problem addressed in this article is the usefulness and limitations of these six frameworks that may help entrepreneurs to succeed in dealing with uncertainty and risk in the process of launching and developing their new venture. This involves activities needed to provide new products to the market and the process of business development.

Six frameworks are presented: Design Thinking which helps solving problems from a customer perspective; the Lean Start-up centered on Build-Measure-Learn process lacking some checkpoints; the Business Model Canvas, a visual chart of the business model; Business Planning, a team´s plan to explore an opportunity; Porter´s 5 Forces which shows that competition is a function of other four forces and the Value Wheel which is a meta-framework that allows solving problems through a dynamic process for creating value for society and all the stakeholders involved in the value chain.

The frameworks that can be used when launching and developing a new business have some limitations: Design Thinking, although it is dynamic, it privileges the designer´s view; the Lean Start-up lack some checkpoints; the Business Model Canvas and Business Planning are static models, Porter´s 5 Forces is less appealing due to the jargon used and the Value Wheel can be applied in different ways in the case of different cultural backgrounds when solving challenges.The combination of different methodologies could be a solution to overcome some limitations of each framework.

The most simple and intuitive framework is Business Planning which does not require any specific knowledge to be used. However, despite allowing the incorporation of other methodologies it lacks the dynamism of other frameworks like the Lean Start up, Value Creation Wheel and Design Thinking. The Business Model Canvas is a simple visual chart, a static framework that is useful to have an overview of the chosen business model. The most complex is Porter Five Forces which is also a static and self-contained framework. Combining approaches to overcoming these limitations can be an alternative.

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