IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/kob/dpaper/dp2025-05.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Determinants of the Growth of Japanese Start-ups: A Resource-based View Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Nobuaki Hamaguchi

    (Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University and Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry, JAPAN)

  • Joao Carlos Ferraz

    (Institute of Economics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL)

Abstract

The objective of this article is to determine and analyse the factors behind the growth of Japanese startups. The framework of reference is derived from the Resource Based View of the firm (Penrose 2009) and the quantitative analysis relies on data from a survey carried out in 2022 with 753 Japanese startups. The article assesses internal (entrepreneur, workforce, innovation) and external (finance, knowledge access and location) resources under uncertainty. Econometric findings suggest that larger but younger firms with a domestic market orientation, and experienced entrepreneurs drive growth, while intellectual property ownership and equity financing for fixed capital investment positively impact economic success. Market-product mismatches and weak supplier quality hinder growth, and Tokyo's location benefits ICT start-ups but not others. Employment growth, though weakly linked to sales growth is strongly influenced by business confidence and access to skilled labour and investors. These findings provide strategic insights to inform policies to foster start-up success in Japan.

Suggested Citation

  • Nobuaki Hamaguchi & Joao Carlos Ferraz, 2025. "The Determinants of the Growth of Japanese Start-ups: A Resource-based View Analysis," Discussion Paper Series DP2025-05, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    • Handle: RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2025-05
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rieb.kobe-u.ac.jp/academic/ra/dp/English/DP2025-05.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2025
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Hemmert & Adam R. Cross & Ying Cheng & Jae-Jin Kim & Florian Kohlbacher & Masahiro Kotosaka & Franz Waldenberger & Leven J. Zheng, 2019. "The distinctiveness and diversity of entrepreneurial ecosystems in China, Japan, and South Korea: an exploratory analysis," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(3), pages 211-247, July.
    2. Ryan A. Decker & John Haltiwanger, 2023. "Surging Business Formation in the Pandemic: Causes and Consequences?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 54(2 (Fall)), pages 249-316.
    3. Michael Roach & Henry Sauermann, 2024. "Can Technology Startups Hire Talented Early Employees? Ability, Preferences, and Employee First Job Choice," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 70(6), pages 3619-3644, June.
    4. Yasemin Y. Kor & Joseph T. Mahoney & Enno Siemsen & Danchi Tan, 2016. "Penrose's The Theory of the Growth of the Firm: An Exemplar of Engaged Scholarship," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 25(10), pages 1727-1744, October.
    5. Elena Cefis & Orietta Marsili, 2011. "Born to flip. Exit decisions of entrepreneurial firms in high-tech and low-tech industries," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 473-498, August.
    6. Masatoshi Kato & Koichiro Onishi & Yuji Honjo, 2022. "Does patenting always help new firm survival? Understanding heterogeneity among exit routes," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 449-475, August.
    7. Audretsch, David B & Mahmood, Talat, 1995. "New Firm Survival: New Results Using a Hazard Function," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 77(1), pages 97-103, February.
    8. Josh Lerner & Ramana Nanda, 2020. "Venture Capital's Role in Financing Innovation: What We Know and How Much We Still Need to Learn," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 237-261, Summer.
    9. John A. Mathews, 2003. "Competitive dynamics and economic learning: an extended resource-based view," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 12(1), pages 115-145, February.
    10. Susan Coleman & Carmen Cotei & Joseph Farhat, 2013. "A Resource-Based View Of New Firm Survival: New Perspectives On The Role Of Industry And Exit Route," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(01), pages 1-25.
    11. Takehiko Yasuda, 2005. "Firm Growth, Size, Age and Behavior in Japanese Manufacturing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 1-15, December.
    12. Cole, Rebel A. & Sokolyk, Tatyana, 2018. "Debt financing, survival, and growth of start-up firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 609-625.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. HONJO, Yuji & IWAKI, Yunosuke & KATO, Masatoshi, 2024. "Outside or inside the firm? The impact of debt financing on the exit routes of start-up firms," TDB-CAREE Discussion Paper Series E-2023-02, Teikoku Databank Center for Advanced Empirical Research on Enterprise and Economy, Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University.
    2. Masatoshi Kato & Koichiro Onishi & Yuji Honjo, 2022. "Does patenting always help new firm survival? Understanding heterogeneity among exit routes," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 449-475, August.
    3. Nobuaki HAMAGUCHI & João Carlos FERRAZ, 2023. "Startup Growth and Conditioning Factors: A conceptual framework for a survey-based study," Discussion papers 23012, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    4. Cefis, Elena & Marsili, Orietta, 2012. "Going, going, gone. Exit forms and the innovative capabilities of firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 795-807.
    5. Yuji Honjo & Masatoshi Kato, 2019. "Do initial financial conditions determine the exit routes of start-up firms?," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 1119-1147, July.
    6. Chun Yang & Bart Bossink & Peter Peverelli, 2017. "High-tech start-up firm survival originating from a combined use of internal resources," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(4), pages 799-824, December.
    7. Enrico Schötz, 2025. "Resilience vs. survival: same song, new melody?," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 1-29, December.
    8. Cefis, Elena & Coad, Alex & Lucini-Paioni, Alessandro, 2023. "Landmarks as lighthouses: firms' innovation and modes of exit during the business cycle," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(8).
    9. Masatoshi Kato & Yuji Honjo, 2015. "Entrepreneurial human capital and the survival of new firms in high- and low-tech sectors," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(5), pages 925-957, November.
    10. Marco Vivarelli, 2013. "Is entrepreneurship necessarily good? Microeconomic evidence from developed and developing countries," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(6), pages 1453-1495, December.
    11. Hyytinen, Ari & Pajarinen, Mika & Rouvinen, Petri, 2015. "Does innovativeness reduce startup survival rates?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 564-581.
    12. Christopher J. Boudreaux, 2021. "Employee compensation and new venture performance: does benefit type matter?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 1453-1477, October.
    13. George Saridakis & Kevin Mole & David Storey, 2008. "New small firm survival in England," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 25-39, March.
    14. Jan de Kok & Haibo Zhou & Chantal Hartog, 2012. "The risk of growing fast," Scales Research Reports H201119, EIM Business and Policy Research.
    15. Ortiz-Villajos, José M. & Sotoca, Sonia, 2018. "Innovation and business survival: A long-term approach," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(8), pages 1418-1436.
    16. Angelo Castaldo & Rosanna Pittiglio & Filippo Reganati & Domenico Sarno, 2023. "Access to bank financing and start‐up resilience: A survival analysis across business sectors in a time of crisis," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 91(3), pages 141-170, June.
    17. Masatoshi Kato & Koichiro Onishi & Yuji Honjo, 2017. "Does patenting always help new-firm survival?," Discussion Paper Series 159, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University, revised May 2017.
    18. Jan de Kok & Haibo Zhou & Chantal Hartog & Peter van der Zwan, 2012. "The Risk of growing fast: does fast growth have a negative impact on the survival rates of firms?," Scales Research Reports H201209, EIM Business and Policy Research.
    19. Ching-Fu Chang & Cherng-Shiun Lin, 2017. "The Role of Human Capital in Manufacturing Plant Growth: Evidence from Taiwan," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 554-584, October.
    20. Carmen Cotei & Joseph Farhat & Indu Khurana, 2022. "The impact of policy uncertainty on the M&A exit of startup firms," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 46(1), pages 99-120, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Internal resource; External resource; Uncertainty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2025-05. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Office of Promoting Research Collaboration, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rikobjp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.