Italian innovative start-up cohorts: An empirical survey on profitability

Abstract

Since 2012 attention to innovative start-ups has grown in Italy. This quantitative research analyzes the trend of the main income ratios of 673 large companies from 2014 to 2018. A disaggregated analysis by cohorts is also carried out, comparing the profitability of 4 start-up groups set up in the same year. Statistical tools are also used to better interpret the phenomenon including the Anova test, despite the sometimes-modest number of observations which reduces its information value. The general profitability of the company and that of the main business are on average increasing. This is true of all cohorts, already in the first two years of their establishment. In fact, Roe and Roi are always growing despite different values justifiable also in relation to macroeconomic phenomena. The main limitation of the study is its purely quantitative nature based on a heterogeneous sample, with companies operating in different sectors. However, it can be useful to those who govern and to companies in need of spatial and temporal comparisons. In the method, it promotes governance and control of innovative business models, re-evaluating classic performance measurement tools adapted to new production contexts.