A qualitative study of the determinants for the founding of web-based ventures

This paper reports on the results of the first, qualitative phase of a two-phase study of the Web-based new ventures that have been founded in the last several years in the New York City area. The overall research is an exploratory study of the antecedents necessary for founding successful "growth seeking" new ventures that were created specifically to exploit the opportunities offered by the growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web. In the second phase of this research in-progress, quantitative methods will be utilised to test the findings developed in this preliminary stage of the research. Interviews were employed to gather "grounded" data on the background factors as well as information on strategic intent from 32 entrepreneurs and top management team members representing 26 Web ventures. The findings indicate that business skills, prior entrepreneurial experience and presence of entrepreneurial role models are more important antecedents than technical expertise. Additionally, the study found that a munificent environment encourages entrepreneurial activity and that non-measurable factors such as vision and intuition affect entrepreneur intent.