Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/99016 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 8219
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Many start-ups chose to compete with incumbent firms using one of two generic strategies: cost leadership or differentiation. Our study demonstrates how this choice depends on whether the startup was founded out of necessity. Our results, based on a representative data set of 4,568 German start-ups, show that necessity entrepreneurs are more likely than other entrepreneurs to pursue a cost leadership strategy, and less likely to pursue a differentiation strategy. Decomposition analyses further show that up to half of the difference in choice of strategy can be attributed to distinct endowments of human capital, socio-economic attributes, and start-up project characteristics that correlate with necessity entrepreneurship.
Subjects: 
cost leadership
competitive strategy
new venture strategy
necessity entrepreneurship
product differentiation
decomposition analysis
JEL: 
L10
L26
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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