Why do entrepreneurs open tech startups? A comparative study between Brazilian and foreign enterprises

Abstract

This research identifies and compares the reasons that lead entrepreneurs to open a startup in Brazil or abroad along six factors: self-realization, financial, independence, innovation, roles, and recognition. Understanding differences between entrepreneurs in distinct settings may help designing better entrepreneurship policies and more effective support for nascent businesses, as well as providing better guidance to investors. Entrepreneurs who own technological startups answered an online questionnaire about the reasons for entrepreneurship through technological startups. Respondents ranked each statement using a Likert scale from (1) completely disagree to (5) completely agree. Of the respondents, 325 were Brazilian and 130 were foreigners. Results show that top-ranked reasons are mostly similar across groups, with four of the top five reasons being common. However, comparatively, they score several reasons differently. These results highlight the different reasons to enterprise between people from different countries, supporting the importance of studying the entrepreneurial phenomenon in emerging economies, which differ substantially from developed ones. They also may help conciliating conflicting results of the reasons to enterprise literature.

Motivações e Perspectivas Futuras de Empreendedores de Startups

“…Em relação à transformação social, mostra-se: "Eu percebi que aquela era a oportunidade de mudar a vida das pessoas e transformar o mundo através da educação" (E1), o que reforça o afirmado por Rossoni et al (2007), sobre os impactos do empreendedorismo social no contexto brasileiro. Ademais, a oportunidade é uma motivação na qual se configura a busca de empreendedores pela execução de novos produtos, serviços ou processos de produção, novas estratégias e formas de organização que antes não existiam ou eram pouco exploradas (Block & Sandner, 2009;Lasso et al, 2019;Souza et al, 2016).…”

“…Consideram-se, portanto, tanto as motivações para o empreendedor persistir no projeto quanto as razões que podem fazê-lo desistir do projeto. a) Persistência: os objetivos do empreendedor para a perpetuidade do negócio vêm sendo expressos nos estudos sobre motivação (Bay & Daniel, 2003;Cassar, 2010;Lasso, Mainardes, & Motoki, 2019;Locke & Latham, 2004). Segundo Carsrud e Brännback (2011), a mudança de objetivos, motivações e intenções configura a maneira de os indivíduos se adaptarem a situações futuras, muitas vezes consideradas adversas.…”

Emprendimiento de base tecnológica: un análisis basado en economías innovadoras y eficientes

“…Los motivos para innovar por parte de los EBT´s vienen dados por el conocimiento, manejo de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TICs), demanda del mercado, ciclo de vida del producto, entre otros (Lasso, Mainardes,& Motoki, 2017). Añadiendo a esto, los autores An & Ahn (2016) concuerdan que para innovar en este sector, las economías innovadoras trabajan basándose en el modelo de la tripe hélice: universidades (encargadas de proveer personal calificado); sector industrial (facilita el acceso a herramientas tecnológicas) y; el gobierno (establece políticas económicas y sociales que contribuyan al desarrollo de la innovación para las EBT).…”

“…Las incubadoras constituyen organizaciones de apoyo y están dirigidas por entidades públicas o privadas que brindan recursos tangibles e intangibles, para acelerar el proceso de consolidar un EBT (Mian, Lamine & Fayolle, 2016). Lasso et al (2017) por su parte expresa que el objetivo de las incubadoras es transformar empresas incipientes en altamente competitivas con mayor oportunidad de éxito.…”

Entrepreneurial Strategies and Factors Stimulate the Business of Tech Startups

“…Strategic approach of entrepreneurs is indispensable for the economic growth of a country (Eschenfelder & Holstein, 2017). Indeed, the primary reasons of capitalists for enterprising of startups are such as for their self-realization to own a business, for relishing independence in business decision making, for economic reliance, for recognition and status in the society, and for demonstrating capabilities of employing the innovations and building of large establishments or corporations (Lasso, Mainardes, & Motoki, 2017). Eventually, the investment of startup industrialists has depended on their personal experiences as financiers of enterprises and their social relationships with all stakeholders in the industry as well as their qualitative evaluations of firms operating in the market (Okafor & Shaibu, 2016;Bugu & Yucheng, 2018;Zhong, Liu, Zhong, & Xiong, 2018).…”