scholarly journals Wishful Thinking versus Reality: High-growth Aspirations of Start-ups and Established Entrepreneurs in ASEAN

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrike Guelich

Most enterprises in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are micro and small enterprises. Few have aspirations to “dream big.” From an economic perspective, high-growth firms provide many benefits. This empirical study explores both country-level contextual factors such as country competitiveness or innovativeness and individual-level factors associated with high-growth, such as an entrepreneur’s market expansion plans, new product perceptions, export orientation and use of latest technologies. In this context, we investigate whether to “dream big” is associated with specific strategic intentions and which influencing factors hinder or foster aspirations to grow the business by more than 20 employees within five years while developing it into an established business. Utilising random sampling of data in six ASEAN countries, collected in the years 2013 to 2015 and comparing male to female entrepreneurs, the regression results of this empirical study show that although high growth-oriented entrepreneurs in both start-ups and established enterprises account for only 2.7% of all enterprises in this study, high-growth aspirations can only partially be sustained by early-stage entrepreneurs into the next business phase since it depends on several factors: (1) receiving funding (for both genders); (2) being export oriented (for male entrepreneurs); and (3) perceptions of having new products or services to offer to the market (for women entrepreneurs). Both genders are less prone to pursue their initial early-stage growth goals as established entrepreneurs. We infer that established entrepreneurs gain more clarity on the deployment of growth through implementation in the organisation while running their businesses and therefore may be more realistic in their predictions or less confident in their pursuit of ambitious goals.

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 528-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioannis Giotopoulos ◽  
Alexandra Kontolaimou ◽  
Aggelos Tsakanikas

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore potential drivers of high-growth intentions of early-stage entrepreneurs in Greece before and after the onset of the financial crisis of 2008. Design/methodology/approach To this end, the authors use individual-level data retrieved from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor annual surveys (2003-2015). Findings The results show that high-growth intentions of Greek entrepreneurs are driven by different factors in the crisis compared to the non-crisis period. Male entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs with significant work experience seem to be more likely to be engaged in growth-oriented new ventures during the crisis period. The same appears to hold for entrepreneurs who are motivated by an opportunity and also perceive future business opportunities in adverse economic conditions. On the other hand, the educational level and the social contacts of founders with other entrepreneurs are found to drive ambitious Greek entrepreneurship in the years before the crisis, while they were insignificant after the crisis outbreak. Originality/value Based on the concept of ambitious entrepreneurship, this study contributes to the literature by investigating the determinants of entrepreneurial high-growth expectations in the Greek context emphasizing the crisis period in comparison to the pre-crisis years.


2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Walburn

There are signs that public policy is catching on to an understanding that not only start-up firms can achieve high rates of growth. More research is needed to find out what the needs of more mature enterprises might be, before policy lurches away from supporting early stage companies.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Villaseca ◽  
Julio Navío-Marco ◽  
Ricardo Gimeno

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand women’s approaches to acquiring financial and other resources is essential for closing the entrepreneurship gender gap. In nearly 40% of economies, women’s early-stage entrepreneurial activity is half or less than half of that of men’s. Design/methodology/approach Even when there is extensive literature on female entrepreneurs, the authors review the findings through a Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-1)9 crisis lens, trying to find new perspectives and solutions. With the approach of a systematic review of 4,520 publications on financing topics related to female entrepreneurs, various sources of financing available to female entrepreneurs are considered: bootstrapping, banks, business angels, venture capital and crowdfunding. Findings Identifying potential gender bias both on the supply and the demand side of financing, this research highlights new directions in encouraging female entrepreneurship and gives guidelines to public organisations on how to foster advanced forms of financing for female entrepreneurs in COVID-19 times. Social implications The COVID-19 pandemic has posed an unprecedented challenge for economies and companies. Female entrepreneurs are the ones who have been hit harder, as they overcome pre-existing barriers, such as lack of access to finance, lack of networks and mentors and gendered priorities, among others. Without ensuring gender policies to counter these incremental negative effects, the authors face the risk of widening the gender gap. Originality/value Regarding previous systematic reviews of literature, this paper focusses on a specific challenge, how women entrepreneurs finance their activity, with a double vision: supply and demand of money.


2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-53
Author(s):  
Diego Matricano

In markets characterized by strong competition, new knowledge and new knowledge development are generally recognized as the key means for an enterprise to gain competitive advantage. This knowledge-based competitive advantage is critical for all commercial ventures, but is especially so for high-expectation start-ups (technology-based ventures anticipating high growth rates). Even though the organizational processes of a start-up are still under development, the success of new knowledge development is affected by three critical factors – the structure of the enterprise, the organizational technology and the knowledge promoters. An analysis of these factors suggests that the role of the knowledge promoter is the key determinant of knowledge development success in the case of early-stage high-expectation start-ups.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 26-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessia Pisoni ◽  
Alberto Onetti

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of trends toward start-up exits. Exits represent the “end phase” of the start-up process, at least for the founders and the early investors. For high-growth venture-capital-backed companies, exits are often considered the ultimate goal of building a profitable venture. These ventures are intended from the beginning to harvest the financial value created by the business at some point in the future, and return capital to early investors. Design/methodology/approach The authors tracked 5,744 merger and acquisition transactions that have occurred between European and US tech start-ups since 2012. Data are drawn from CrunchBase, the most comprehensive database of high-tech companies and investors with information on the companies and investors around the world. The authors then compared the trends of acquisitions between European and US companies. Findings Results show that US companies are far more inclined to make acquisitions than European ones. Acquirers of start-ups, both from Europe and the US, prefer to buy local companies. However, recently, US companies have started to show more interest in European start-ups. Thus, signaling that the European start-up ecosystem is growing and becoming more attractive for US buyers. Furthermore, results show that start-up exits typically happen within a few years after a company’s establishment. Research limitations/implications The research does not take into consideration the price of the transaction, or the amount of capital invested by venture capitalists in the high-tech start-ups that have been acquired. Further research should address this specific problem by helping European start-ups understand how to plan the exit phase within few years from establishment. Practical implications The results have important implications both for entrepreneurs/managers and policymakers. Early exit appears to be a global trend among start-ups. This suggests that the exit phase should be properly planned to happen in the very early stage of the start-up process. On the other hand, the research also shows that there is still a gap to be filled in the European start-up ecosystems’ ability to produce exits and create new large innovative companies (the so-called “unicorns”). Originality/value To date, there has been a little research about exits for young high-tech ventures. This paper will attempt to shed new light on this so far under-explored issue by specifically analyzing exits as financial strategy for investors and entrepreneurs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Yang ◽  
Romi Kher ◽  
Thomas S. Lyons

AbstractDespite the emergence of startup accelerators as venture development organizations (VDOs) to high-growth firms, research has yet to identify where these accelerators fit into the venture development ecosystem. By clarifying and reviewing three different subsystems in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, our paper proposes that as an extension of the current incubation mechanism, accelerators contribute to the entrepreneurial ecosystem by transforming entrepreneurs and their ventures at early stages. Drawing upon the Pipeline model (Lichtenstein, G. A., and T. S. Lyons. 2006. “Managing the community's pipeline of entrepreneurs and enterprises: A new way of thinking about business assets.”Economic Development Quarterly20 (4): 377–386.), we first plot where the accelerator model fits in the broader entrepreneurship ecosystem, and then demonstrate how different types of accelerators help participating entrepreneurs and their ventures progress along the venture development pipeline. Our theoretical approach contributes to both the entrepreneurship ecosystem and the accelerator literature and provides a practical map for both policymakers and early-stage entrepreneurs to manage and utilize their entrepreneurship ecosystem more effectively.


Author(s):  
Sara Satterthwaite ◽  
RT Hamilton

This is an empirical study of the origin, demographics and fate of two cohorts of high-growth firms in New Zealand. Customised data on high-growth firms, covering 1125 and 1067 firms in the 2005 and 2008 cohorts, respectively, came from government sources. High-growth firms are smaller, more likely to emerge in service industries and grow through the creation of multiple separate establishments. The ability to sustain high-growth is independent of pre-growth age and employment size. High-growth firms have death rates up to four times greater than other contemporary firms, but the survivors do retain their employment size, continuing to contribute disproportionately to employment for some years beyond their initial high-growth phase. The demonstrated inability of high-growth firms to sustain high growth suggests a rethink on how ‘high growth’ is defined, with future research focusing on sustained growth firms.


Author(s):  
Keith Arundale ◽  
Colin Mason

Private equity has successfully weathered economic crises in the past and appears to be well-placed to manage the current coronavirus crisis. Whilst both fundraising and investments will be significantly reduced from pre-pandemic levels for some time these are expected to recover and resume the historic overall growth trend. Private equity firms may find opportunities through taking undervalued public companies private and in restructuring under-performing businesses. However, start-ups may find seed and early stage finance hard to access. Government support measures need to meet the characteristics and needs of high growth enterprises.


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