A Systematic Literature Review on the Failure Factors of Platform Startups

Abstract Purpose: With a significant number, platform startups are growing every year rapidly. The high birth rates of platform startups is an alarming issue as it has been found that 90% of the startups fail at the early stage of their life (Failory, 2020). And most of them fail in less than five years. The reasons behind the failure are still unfolded. While ample research propounded various reasons separately, there is a need to study those reasons combinedly. Therefore, we study those reasons together by proposing a conceptual framework by identifying the influencing factors behind platform startups' failure. Methodology: An extensive systematic literature review was conducted to unearth and analyse the various factors related to the failure of the platform. A total number of 113 academic and non-academic sources were examined and analyzed to find out the critical factors. During this process, we confined our study only to identify the failure factors. Findings/Contributions: Findings from the literature suggest 29 critical factors that affect the platform startups which are presented in this study. For platform startups, mostly product is the key driver that has a significant impact on the platform's survival. Three categories have been identified for the platform failure that leads to the startups' failure. Moreover, 29 critical factors have been stratified into six different categories focusing on the same implied meaning. Using the identified factors, we proposed a framework. It shows that multiple factors are responsible for the failure and one must be very strategic to make the venture survive in the market.