Phoenix Firms: A study of spin-offs that emerged from a dying mother

This project aims at examining start-up companies supported by Nokia’s Bridge Program in Denmark and Finland. After closing down sites in these countries, Nokia offered employees a unique severance package, which included financial and managerial support for entrepreneurial activities – what constituted a dream start for an entrepreneur. This resulted in the establishment of 38 companies in Denmark and around 400 in Finland. Drawing on a multi-method approach that combines survey data, interviews and registry data, this project has the objective of investigating the entrepreneurial behaviour of individuals supported by the Bridge program, the performance of the spinoffs and their relationship to the mother company Nokia.