Abstract
Many studies have analyzed empirically the determinants of survival for innovative startup companies using data about the characteristics of entrepreneurs and management or focusing on firm- and industry-specific variables. However, no attempts have been made so far to assess the role of the environmental sustainability of the production process. Based on data describing the characteristics of the Italian innovative startups in the period 2009–2018, this article studies the differences in survival between green and non-green companies. We show that, while controlling for other confounding factors, startups characterized by a green production process tend to survive longer than their counterparts. In particular, we estimate that a green innovative startup is more than twice as likely to survive than a non-green one. This evidence may support the idea that environmental sustainability can help economic development.
Highlights
Innovation has always been a distinguishing activity of humanity
This paper aims at filling this gap in the literature by assessing whether and how the risk of market exits that innovative startups face is affected by the environmental sustainability of their production process
Startups may represent a possible key to open the gates of recovery, in particular the most innovative ones and those that dedicate the right attention to environmental sustainability
Summary
Innovation has always been a distinguishing activity of humanity. Innovation is crucial for economic growth and sustainability. Following the growing pressure brought about by international competition, it is a duty for companies and modern nations to innovate. An important component of the engine of innovation is to be found in startup companies. The term startup appears for the first time on Forbes in 1976 [1] to indicate a new type of company and not an embryonic phase of the life of incumbent companies. The attention on the topic has been growing due to the occurrence of positive association among new business initiatives, innovation rate and economic growth [2,3,4,5]
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