Structural Model of Factors Affecting Survival and Growth of Startups in Iran

The aim of this study is to investigate the structural model of factors affecting survival and growth of startups in Iran. The method of this research is descriptive survey. The research population was Managing Directors and Board Members of the Startups in Tehran that includes 129 startups and 370 members. 182 people were selected as samples based on Cochran's formula. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect data. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by Cronbach alpha coefficient and the composite reliability. Validity of the questionnaire was verified using confirmatory factor analysis, convergent validity and divergent validity. The structural equation modeling was used for data analyzing with SMARTPLS software. The results showed that financial resources, market opportunities, customer recognition, business intelligence, innovation, investment on research and development, marketing capabilities and technological capabilities had a positive and significant effect on survival and growth of startups but the effect of market knowledge and networking capabilities on survival and growth of startups was not confirmed. The final achievement of the paper is to provide guidelines for the survival and growth of startups.