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This paper is one of the first studies to examine the link between infrastructure and entrepreneurship. Because infrastructure can enhance connectivity and linkages that facilitate the recognition of entrepreneurial opportunities and the ability of entrepreneurs to actualize those opportunities, a hypothesis is developed suggesting that startup activity is enhanced by infrastructure. However, not all types of infrastructure have a homogeneous impact on the entrepreneurial decision, so that a second hypothesis is developed suggesting that certain types of infrastructure which facilitate connectivity and linkages among people are more conducive to startup activity. The empirical results suggest that startup activity is positively linked to infrastructure in general, but that certain specific types of infrastructure, such as broadband are more conducive to infrastructure than are highways and railroads. Finally, we hypothesize that the types of infrastructure have varying influences in different sectors. Our empirical analyses support this view and we conclude that particular infrastructure policies can be used to facilitate regional startup activities and, furthermore, to foster startup activities in desired industries.

PurposeThis study offers empirical evidence from a nationally representative panel dataset of nascent entrepreneurs (PSED-II) regarding when external financing is acquired and how certain factors affect this timing during the cumulative process of nascent entrepreneurs taking actions toward establishing an operational entity. By assessing the relationship between the external financing event and the cumulative set of actions that nascent entrepreneurs undertake to create new businesses, we improve our understanding of how the timing of acquiring external financing affects organizational survival and growth.Design/methodology/approachWe apply nonparametric and semiparametric survival analysis techniques to a nationally representative panel dataset of nascent entrepreneurs. This ascertains the probability of an external financing event at any given moment in time and a set of startup conditions that we hypothesize will affect this timing. First, we use Kaplan–Meier analysis to explore when external financing occurs during new business creation. We then use discrete-time survival analysis to investigate whether certain startup conditions affect when external financing occurs. Finally, we conduct a test of independence to examine the external financing event relative to other startup activities completed during new business creation.FindingsNascent entrepreneurs tend to acquire external funding relatively late in the new venture startup process – on average, about two-thirds of the way from conceiving of the idea and becoming operational. They tend to take actions that are less resource-demanding early in the startup process to build their organizations to a fundable stage. Net worth tends to speed up the acquisition of external funding as wealthy entrepreneurs tend to ask for funding earlier in the process. Finally, entrepreneurs in capital-intensive industries do not seem to get outside funding before entrepreneurs in other industries.Originality/valueThis study is unique in three ways. First, we investigate the timing of the highly important external financing event. Timing is critical in unpacking and making sense of the very early stages of a new business and in guiding entrepreneurs and students about when to do what. Second, we do so in a subsample of preoperational, nascent, funded entrepreneurs derived from a nationally representative panel dataset of startup attempts. Third, our findings provide a counter-intuitive yet systematic understanding of organizational emergence and very early-stage financing.

The lean startup model emerging from the Silicon Valley recently has become worldwide practice. In this model, search and execution are the two primary activities conducted by entrepreneurial firms. Search activities focus on learning and discovery, such as exploring new customer and market segments, while execution activities focus on implementing well-defined plans and scaling up. Effectuation and causation are two different cognitive approaches an entrepreneur might use to conduct strategic moves. We argue that entrepreneurial effectuation cognition is associated with more search behaviors and that entrepreneurial causation cognition is associated with more execution behaviors. We test these hypotheses in a survey of 160 firms and find evidence in support of our arguments.

In this paper, we explore which local factors affect the creation of cleantech startups in a geographical area. Specifically, we note that these startups combine innovation and attention to the environment. Thus, we consider two primary sets of local factors: the availability of scientific and technological knowledge and the environmental awareness of local governments and communities as the main drivers of the creation of cleantech startups. Using a dataset of 393 cleantech startups created between 2012 and 2014 and extracted from the Italian official database of innovative startups, we estimate negative binomial regressions whose dependent variable is the number of cleantech startups created in each of the 110 Italian provinces. The results highlight that both the local availability of scientific and technological knowledge and the local environmental awareness are crucial determinants of cleantech entrepreneurship in a geographical area. We discuss the implications of these results for policymakers who intend to stimulate this type of entrepreneurship.

Start-ups often post updates during equity crowdfunding campaigns. However, little is known about the effects of such updates on crowd participation. We investigate this question by using hand-collected data from 71 funding campaigns and 39,399 investment decisions on two German equity crowdfunding portals. Using a combination of different empirical research techniques, we find that posting an update has a significant positive effect on the number of investments made by the crowd and the investment amount collected by the start-up. This effect does not occur immediately in its entirety; rather, it lags the update by a few days. Furthermore, the effect of updates loses statistical significance with the number of updates posted during a campaign. We also find that an easier language used in updates increases crowd participation, whereas the length of updates has no effects. With respect to the update's content, we find that the positive effect can be attributed to updates about new developments of the start-up such as campaign developments, new funding, business developments, and cooperation projects. Updates on the start-up team, business model, product developments, and promotional campaigns do not have meaningful effects. Our paper contributes to the literature on the effects of information disclosure on equity crowdfunding participation. Furthermore, our results have practical implications for start-ups and their investor communication during equity crowdfunding campaigns.

We investigate the economic and technological determinants inducing entrepreneurs to establish ventures with the purpose of reinventing financial technology (fintech). We find that countries witness more fintech startup formations when the economy is well-developed and venture capital is readily available. Furthermore, the number of secure Internet servers, mobile telephone subscriptions, and the available labor force has a positive impact on the development of this new market segment. Finally, the more difficult it is for companies to access loans, the higher is the number of fintech startups in a country. Overall, the evidence suggests that fintech startup formation need not be left to chance, but active policies can influence the emergence of this new sector.

Purpose The primary goal of a startup is to find a viable business model that can generate value for its customers while being effectively captured by the startup itself. This business model, however, is not easily defined, being a consequence of the application of tools involving trials, data analyses and testing. The Lean Startup (LS) methodology proposes a process for agile and iterative validation of business models. Given the popularity and importance of such methodology in professional circles, the purpose of this paper is to conduct a historical literature review of existing academic and professional literature, correlating LS concepts and activities to previous theory and alternative business model validation methods. Design/methodology/approach A historically oriented systematic literature review employing snowball sampling was conducted in order to identify academic and professional literature and references for iterative validation of business models. A total of 12 scholarly journals and professional magazines dealing with strategy, innovation, entrepreneurship, startups and management were used as data sources. The extensive literature review resulted in 963 exploratory readings and 118 papers fully analyzed. Findings The results position the LS as a practical-oriented and up-to-date implementation of strategies based on the Learning School of strategy making and the effectuation approach to entrepreneurship; the authors also identify a number of methods and tools that can complement the LS principles. Originality/value This paper identified and synthesized the scientific, academic and professional foundations that precede, support and complement the main concepts, processes and methods advocated by the LS methodology.

Understanding the circumstances and reasons which facilitate digital entrepreneurship (DE) is of interest to academic research, and guides business practice, as well as public policies aiming at supporting this phenomenon given its positive impacts in terms of job creation and economic growth. We define some relevant concepts and briefly map current research using a perspective that focuses on the way digital entrepreneurs create digital value by acquiring, processing, and distributing digital information. Through the adoption of a digital information processing perspective, we provide a micro-level approach to research on digital entrepreneurship (DE) that complements existing literature on DE focused at the systemic level (digital entrepreneurship ecosystems and in the digital platforms economy). We show how these two approaches can be jointly used to identify major research streams on DE: digital business models, the digital entrepreneurship process and the creation of digital start-ups, DE in digital platforms, and entrepreneurial digital ecosystems. As is the case with existing DE frameworks, our approach concurs in putting emphasis on the new collaborative and social dynamics enabled by digital tools to support knowledge sharing and facilitate opportunity recognition.

: Successful digital startups can generate income for the country and improve people’s lives. However, for prospective founders who will launch their startups, the success factor in pioneering digital startups remains unknown. The purpose of this study is to identify key success factors for digital startups in pioneering stages. Thematic analysis is a method for identifying success factors in pioneering stage digital startups. The data will be collected from the interviews of ten startup founders. The findings show that fifteen critical factors are success factors in the digital startup pioneering stage, namely; problems, business ideas, teams, business models, capital or funding, products, incubators, validation, competitors, marketing, mastery of technology, market analysis, founders and co-founders, partners, and passion. These findings are expected to be ground-breaking for anyone interested in launching a digital startup. The first conclusion that we can draw is that there are fifteen important factors that can be claimed and used as success factors in the classification of the digital startup pioneering stage. The second conclusion, based on the findings of the ten founders’ analyses, is that problem factors and team factors are two of the fifteen most dominant and influential digital startup success factors. Problem factor is critical for detecting problems encountered by many people and can motivate digital startup founders to develop solutions to these problems. While team factor is important because with a team, all problems raised are quickly and easily resolved, and all work is handled productively and collaboratively.

This paper uses a randomized field experiment to identify which start-up characteristics are most important to investors in early-stage firms. The experiment randomizes investors' information sets of fund-raising start-ups. The average investor responds strongly to information about the founding team, but not to firm traction or existing lead investors. We provide evidence that the team is not merely a signal of quality, and that investing based on team information is a rational strategy. Together, our results indicate that information about human assets is causally important for the funding of early-stage firms and hence for entrepreneurial success.