Beziehungsmodell der wesentlichen Erfolgsfaktoren von Unternehmensgründungen mit einem digitalen Geschäftsmodell

Successful start-ups are the basis of a competitive and stable growing economy. Due to the developments in the digital environment, it is precisely the start-ups of the net economy that contribute significant added value to the global economy.
The doctoral thesis investigates how business start-ups in the digital economy will be successful. The Thesis focuses on the relationship structures between the key success factors and thereby closes a gap in current research.
Grounded theory method was used to develop the theory. This allowed a flexible change between data collection, data analysis and theory formation and thereby the emergence of an object-based theory. The data was obtained through expert interviews with company founders of the net economy as well as observations in the field and expanded by the existing findings of current research.
The result of the thesis represents a relationship model of the essential success factors of business start-ups in the digital environment. During the study, five key success factors were identified; Founder, idea, market, employees and financing. In addition, the results made it possible to further classify them into essential factors (founders, idea, market) and additional factors (employees, financing). In the net economy the first three factors represent a minimum set, while the other factors are success-enhancing but not mandatory. Another important finding of the study is that all factors are strongly interlinked. The resulting model shows the strength and type of dependency between the success factors. In addition, it was found that the influence of success factors changes depending on the maturity of a Company. Furthermore, there are examples in which two or more factors act together on another factor.
All in all, a model has been created that not only identifies factors for the success of business startups in the net economy, but also holistically connect them with each other. This makes it possible to derive better statements and action strategies and to better understand the phenomenon of success.