2020年3月中旬爆發的Covid-19大流行病在全球範圍內導致了巨大的社會經濟影響。這種影響也打擊了奧地利的初創企業，他們不得不與員工抵抗因此出現的商業挑戰。隨著社交距離的施行，初創企業必須安排員工在家進行遠端工作。創意合作進而推動創新一直是一個挑戰，並被視為許多初創企業的關鍵成功因素。然而，除了病毒大流行和家庭辦公室帶來的挑戰外，這種發展也給初創企業帶來機會。本文採用質性研究，藉由採訪奧地利一家初創企業的創始人和員工，探索他們認為出現了哪些挑戰和機會。低程度的社會互動和不確定的市場形勢導致了員工的工作積極性不高。此外，對於初創企業來說，一開始要維持企業的正常運轉是令人難以承受的負擔。然而，這次病毒大流行導致數位解決方案更容易被市場接受。對於員工來說，病毒大流行帶來的最重大機會是家庭辦公室能提供的靈活性，而引入家庭辦公的政策能平衡結合辦公室日和家庭辦公日。

The Covid-19 pandemic outbreak in mid-March 2020 has resulted in an enormous socioeconomic impact on a global scale. The impact has also hit startups in Austria, and they have had to battle the employees and the business challenges that have arisen. With the introduction of social distancing, startups had to send their employees to work remotely from home. As creative collaboration drives innovation and is seen as a critical success factor for many startups, this has been challenging. However, in addition to the challenges created by the pandemic and the home office, opportunities for startups by this development emerged. The methodology used was a qualitative research method. Interviews were conducted with founders and employees of a startup in Austria to discover what challenges and opportunities they believe have emerged. The low level of social interaction and the uncertain market situation led to low work motivation among employees. Furthermore, it was incredibly burdensome for startups to keep their business afloat at the beginning. However, the pandemic has led to digital solutions being more readily accepted by the market. For employees, the most significant opportunity that came with the pandemic was the flexibility provided by the home office and the introduction of home office policies for a balanced combination of office days and home office days.

Table of Contents
Thesis Validation Letter .............................................................................................. i
Chinese Abstract ......................................................................................................... ii
English Abstract ....................................................................................................... iii
Table of Tables .......................................................................................................... vi
1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1
1.1. Importance of Topic .............................................................................................. 1
1.2. Problem Description and Research Aim ................................................................. 2
1.3. Structure of the Thesis .......................................................................................... 3
2. State of the Field ................................................................................................ 5
2.1. Definitions ............................................................................................................ 5
Startups .............................................................................................................................................. 5
Remote Work ..................................................................................................................................... 6
Covid-19 Pandemic ............................................................................................................................. 6
2.2. Impact of Covid-19 on Startups ............................................................................. 7
Case 1 –Impact on Iranian Startups .................................................................................................... 7
Case 2 – Impact on the Startup Environment of the United States .................................................... 9
2.3. Impact of Remote Work on Startups .................................................................... 11
Challenges ........................................................................................................................................ 11
Opportunities ................................................................................................................................... 14
3. Methodology ................................................................................................... 17
3.1. Research Process ................................................................................................. 17
Interviews ......................................................................................................................................... 17
Selection of the Interview Partners .................................................................................................. 19
Interview Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 20
v
3.2. Data Processing ................................................................................................... 22
Interview Transcription .................................................................................................................... 22
Interview Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 22
4. Results ............................................................................................................. 24
4.1. Situation Basics ................................................................................................... 24
4.2. Challenges ........................................................................................................... 26
Personal Challenges ......................................................................................................................... 27
Corporate Challenges ....................................................................................................................... 29
4.3. Opportunities ...................................................................................................... 31
Personal Opportunities .................................................................................................................... 31
Corporate Opportunities .................................................................................................................. 34
5. Discussion ........................................................................................................ 37
6. Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 41
6.1. Limitations and Future Research ......................................................................... 41
7. References ....................................................................................................... 43
8. Appendix ......................................................................................................... 52
8.1. Interview Guideline ............................................................................................. 52
8.2. Interview Transcripts ........................................................................................... 55
Interviewee A – CIO & Co-Founder .................................................................................................. 55
Interviewee B – Software Engineer .................................................................................................. 59
Interviewee C – Sales Manager ........................................................................................................ 63
Interviewee D – Sales Development Representative ........................................................................ 70
8.3. Illustration of the Content Analysis ...................................................................... 75

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