Business in the digital age: Digital innovation outcome, exit and the founder’s start-up experience role

Abstract

Digital technology has shaped the way entrepreneurial process is driven, how ideas are generated, and how innovation is developed, exploited and marketed. To better understand the research on digital entrepreneurship process, research calls for interdisciplinary studies between innovation and entrepreneurship. The current study addresses this call by examining the role of founder’s start-up experience and the acquisition price of the venture, on their importance in digital innovation outcome and entrepreneurial exit. A total of 742 ventures were analyzed by answering two questions. Results show that the entrepreneur’s start-up experience and how much the acquirer is willing to buy them out can influence whether an entrepreneur will exit their ventures or not. The findings have important implications for entrepreneurs and larger organizations seeking to acquire innovative SMEs, by indicating which firms and entrepreneurs to watch out for when they intend to acquire new but fast-growing small ventures.