The survival of business takeovers and new venture start-ups

Abstract

Abstract Business takeovers and new venture start-ups are two important and distinct entry modes of entrepreneurship. They differ from resource-based and organizational ecology perspectives. We compare firm survival patterns and determinants associated with the two entry modes. From two large French datasets, we find that business takeovers have a higher survival rate than new venture start-ups. However, these differences in survival probability reduce over the entrepreneurship life cycle and when controlling for different entrepreneur and firm characteristics. Moreover, we identify differences in determinants of survival for the two groups, highlighting a distinction between the two entrepreneurship entry modes. This work contributes to the literature on the relationship between entrepreneurship entry and firm survival, thereby contributing to both entrepreneurship and firm survival research.