Factors impacting startup sustainability in the Czech Republic

  • Received May 21, 2019;
    Accepted June 24, 2019;
    Published July 15, 2019
  • Author(s)
  • DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/im.15(3).2019.01
  • Article Info
    Volume 15 2019, Issue #3, pp. 1-15
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The startup ecosystem in the Czech Republic falls far below the level of the developed economies of its Western neighbors. The startup map of the Czech Republic shows 1,717 continuously operating startups. And yet they have yet to receive priority attention in the academic realm. The primary goal of this article is to define the key factors of startup sustainability and to look for dependencies between them. The secondary goal is to identify the weaknesses of the Czech startup environment. The scientific hypotheses formulated focus on demonstrating the dependencies of selected factors influencing the startup sustainability. These have been verified on the basis of evaluation of data obtained via primary qualitative and quantitative research. Its findings were compared with the data of secondary research and with the conclusions of the scientific studies of international authors. The data were processed using statistical apparatus. Thanks to this research, the authors have identified in their conclusion the factors of the remote, immediate, and interior environments that can influence startup sustainability. They demonstrate a correlation between the level of strategic management and the quality of internal communications processes, between the capacities of startup management to manage relationships with customers (CRM) and to drive communications strategy, including brand support. In real practice, however, nine out of ten startups do not succeed. The reason is that their design fails to understand and address the needs of customers and lacks marketing and managed sales.

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    • Table 1. Description of variables examined
    • Table 2. Structure of analyzed startups according to a place of operation – a factor of location
    • Table 3. Structure of analyzed startups by legal form of business – a factor of the suitability of resources from legal form
    • Table 4. Structure of analyzed startups by number of employees – factor of number of employees
    • Table 5. Startups by area of business – the factor of attractiveness of their industry or field
    • Table 6. View of startups on planning and executing marketing activities – the factor of applying knowledge in the area of marketing management
    • Table 7. Other factors influencing success of startups – processing information from qualitative research, personal interviews with owners of startups
    • Table 8. Correlation analysis of the level of management of selected internal communication processes
    • Table 9. Correlation analysis of the level of selected marketing activities of selected internal communication processes