Success and failure factors for technology-based startups: Turkish entrepreneurs' perception

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2019
Hızal, A. Sercenk
The aim of this thesis is to investigate and analyze the perception of Turkish entrepreneurs on the factors affecting the success of technology-based startups. The main contribution of this study to the literature is the data it presents and its usefulness in understanding the success factors for technology-based startups in terms of entrepreneur's perception. In the scope of this study, a survey has been conducted with 111 entrepreneurs who have taken part in a technology-based startup as a founder or partner. Entrepreneurs were asked to evaluate the most and the least successful technology-based startups that they have witnessed the development stages in terms of 28 factors under the categories of the lead entrepreneur, the team, business idea and market, strategy and financial consideration. In order to measure the performance; sales, profit, return on investment, market share and number of users were asked to be evaluated. One of the most remarkable results of this study is that the perception of entrepreneurs on the performance of technology-based startups is not very sensitive to regional and cultural differences. The study did not find a significant correlation between the time and capital requirement of the business idea and the performance of the technology-based startup. Lastly, full-time devotion, technical and organizational skills of the lead entrepreneur, the network of the team and the strategies of the company proved to have a significant effect on the success of the enterprise.

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Citation Formats
A. S. Hızal, “Success and failure factors for technology-based startups: Turkish entrepreneurs’ perception,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2019.