Founders and the success of start-ups: An integrative review

This study aims to identify the factors that must be present when founders develop start-ups and why these factors affect the success of start-ups. Despite the importance of founders’ involvement in start-up success, few studies have specifically and comprehensively focused on founders as the main factor in start-up success. This study presents an integrative literature review of start-up success studies published between 2010 and 2020 on the Web of Science. The study finds that the main founder-related factors that influence start-up success can be categorized as Knowledge, Experience, Competence, Characteristics, and Founding Team (KECCT). KECCT determinants have a substantial impact on strategic decision making, which ultimately determines start-up performance. The dynamic process that founders need to follow in building successful start-ups is described as the start-up success framework. The start-up success framework can be used for further research and by practitioners in developing start-ups. Our review indicates that previous studies have put more emphasis on the cognitive (rational) characteristics of the founder. Based on the Trilogy of Mind Theory, we add the emotional and motivational characteristics of the founder that contribute to the success of a start-up. Our proposed framework, the ERM Model, also enriches the upper echelons theory.本研究旨在识别初创企业创始人在创立过程中必备的核心要素，并阐明这些要素作用于初创企业成功的内在机制。尽管创始人的参与对初创企业成功至关重要，但鲜有研究专门且系统地以创始人作为初创企业成功的核心影响因素展开探讨。本研究针对科学网（Web of Science）平台2010至2020年间发表的初创企业成功相关研究，开展了整合性文献综述。研究发现，影响初创企业成功的核心创始人相关要素可划分为知识、经验、能力、特质与创业团队五大类，其首字母缩写为KECCT。KECCT要素对企业战略决策具有显著影响，而战略决策最终决定了初创企业的经营绩效。创始人构建成功初创企业所需遵循的动态过程，被归纳为初创企业成功框架，该框架既可用于后续学术研究，也可供创业实践者在初创企业培育过程中参考借鉴。本次综述发现，既往研究更多聚焦于创始人的认知（理性）特质。本研究基于心智三部曲理论（Trilogy of Mind Theory），补充了对创始人情感与动机特质的探讨，此类特质同样对初创企业成功具有促进作用。本次提出的ERM模型（ERM Model），亦进一步丰富了高层梯队理论（upper echelons theory）的理论内涵。