Beyond the Startup: How Lean Startup is Understood, Taught, and Evaluated Across Stakeholders in the Indonesian Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Ihya Ulumuddin SY

Monash University, Indonesia

Despite the widespread global adoption of Lean Startup (LS) methodology, our understanding remains predominantly startup-centric, overlooking how this influential framework is collectively understood, transmitted, and evaluated across entrepreneurial ecosystems. This study addresses this gap by examining LS from a multi-stakeholder perspective within Indonesia's rapidly evolving startup ecosystem. Through 42 in-depth interviews with founders (n=15), investors (n=10), accelerator mentors (n=10), and early-adopting customers (n=7), we uncover significant divergences in how different actors conceptualize, implement, and assess LS practices. Our findings reveal that LS operates as a "boundary object"—flexibly interpreted across stakeholder groups yet creating systematic misalignments that affect startup outcomes. We identify five key themes: (1) divergent conceptualizations of what LS "means," (2) knowledge transmission gaps between teaching and practice, (3) evaluation misalignments regarding what constitutes "good" LS execution, (4) context-driven adaptations specific to Indonesia's institutional and cultural environment, and (5) ecosystem-level tensions that individual actors cannot resolve. We contribute to entrepreneurship literature by shifting analytical focus from firm-level to ecosystem-level, theorizing LS as a socially constructed methodology shaped by multi-stakeholder sensemaking processes. For practice, our findings inform ecosystem builders, educators, and policymakers seeking to enhance methodology adoption effectiveness in emerging economy contexts.

Article link: https://www.asianinstituteofresearch.org/JEBarchives/beyond-the-startup%3A-how-lean-startup-is-understood%2C-taught%2C-and-evaluated-across-stakeholders-in-the-indonesian-entrepreneurial-ecosystem