Theoretical Aspects of the Concept Start-up in the Literature

Aija Vonoga and Anda Zvaigzne

Rezekne Academy of Technologies, Atbrivosanas street 115, Rezekne, Latvia

Keywords: Start Up, Start Up Business, Start Up Model, Entrepreneurship.

Abstract: The topic of this article is "Theoretical aspects of the concept start-up in the literature". The topicality of start-

ups is growing every year, so research of start-up development and definition is also expanding. The aim of

the research is to study the main theoretical aspects of start-ups in the literature. There are a large number of

different definitions of start-ups in the literature, where each author offers an interpretation of the concept

according to his or her point of view. In the article, the author reviews the definitions of the concept of start-

ups available in the scientific literature. Definitions from different authors were analyzed according to

keywords. Novelty of the research - by analyzing the information available in the literature, a definition of

the term “start-up” developed by the author has been created. Two studies were conducted in the article - one

qualitative and the other quantitative. The first study summarized short definitions of a start-up, listed the

authors and keywords, and gathered information and conclusions. The definitions are presented in ascending

order, starting with the oldest, with a time period between 1976 and 2021. The second study analyzes the

numerical indicators of the keywords “Start up”, “Start up business”, “Start up model”, “Business model”,

“Entrepreneurship” and draws conclusions. The data collection period of the research is December 2021.

1 INTRODUCTION

Start-ups are business ventures with an innovative

idea carried out under conditions of high uncertainty

in the formula of the so-called fast revenue growth

path. The core of the start-up concept are innovative

ventures implemented in the form of services or

products lunched on the market, which offer value to

customers and are desired by them. Investment

projects that take sustainable development into

account are particularly desirable innovations from a

social perspective. Thus, start-ups derive the

economic benefits from the business formula with

additional extended economic, social, and

environmental benefits for their own organization and

for the environment. The concept of sustainable

innovation is based on wider normative concepts such

as environmental sustainability, sustainable

development (Boons; Carrillo-Hermosilla et al.,

2009). Innovative measures and innovations are

important factors in the development of start-ups,

which can lead to sustainable development in the

future of the company.

Innovation is a central aspect of entrepreneurship

(Schumpeter, 1934) and an important goal for

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5762-8622

policymakers. Start-ups have been recognized as the

engine behind innovative behaviour, leading to

increased competition, employment generation, and,

ultimately, economic growth (Hébert and Link, 1989;

Schumpeter, 1934). Recently, there is increased

interest on the potential contribution of start-ups in

bringing solutions to environmental challenges such

as climate change and biodiversity loss (Shevchenko,

Lévesque and Pagell, 2016; York and Venkataraman,

2010). However, entrepreneurial firms, particularly

start-ups, differ in the extent to which they introduce

innovations to markets (Davidsson and Wiklund,

2001; Bhave, 1994). Understanding heterogeneity

among start-ups is the key to explaining their

variability in innovation and, subsequently, their

potential contribution to the economy and society

(Colombelli, Krafft and Vivarelli, 2016). Trends in

the positive impact of start-ups are global. Start-ups

address global challenges and help countries to

develop not only nationally but also internationally.

Startups are perhaps the most interesting form of

company because they offer a unique opportunity for

global influence and growth – an opportunity that

many people could only dream about a few decades

ago.

Vonoga, A. and Zvaigzne, A.

Theoretical Aspects of the Concept Start-up in the Literature.

DOI: 10.5220/0011345400003350

In Proceedings of the 5th International Scientiﬁc Congress Society of Ambient Intelligence (ISC SAI 2022) - Sustainable Development and Global Climate Change, pages 135-144

ISBN: 978-989-758-600-2

135

However, startup culture creates mixed opinions.

It seems like people are either ecstatic about startups

or can’t stand them. Startups are often a target for

unfounded arguments. The hype around them is easy

to perceive as wishful thinking or even lies. This has

resulted in many wrong assumptions regarding

startups. (Aalto University, 2021) Opinions about

start-ups differ sharply as they are not clearly defined

in the literature, so a theoretical rationale is needed to

confirm or deny the substance of the case.

In the early stages of a business, growth is

determined by the company's sales capacity, ability to

expand, entrepreneurial skills, adaptability, ability to

innovate, ability to absorb and ability to raise funds.

(Griva et al. 2021) A company must have different

abilities and skills in order to survive in the changing

market conditions. This is a big challenge for start-

ups in their daily work.

The start-up environment in Latvia is very

dynamic and the last two years have seen a rapid

development of the start-up movement: not only are

there around 320 start-ups in Latvia that have been

able to attract more than € 210 million in investment,

but the start-up ecosystem is improving. “Fast-

growing technology companies or start-ups play an

important role in promoting Latvia's economic

growth, added value and innovation. The Law on

Support for the Operation of New Enterprises is the

basis for promoting the development of such

enterprises, as a result of which we hope that every

year at least 30 such enterprises will be created in

Latvia, which will have attracted approximately 160

highly qualified employees. Our goal is to make

Latvia the No. 1 choice for start-up or fast-growing

technology companies in the Baltic States,

”emphasizes Raimonds Aleksejenko, Deputy State

Secretary of the Ministry of Economics. (Ministry of

Economics, 2020) The development of start-ups in

Latvia is recent, last years they have received

increased attention, therefore there is relatively little

theoretical explanation of the nature of start-ups in the

Latvian context.

Latvian ecosystem is small, yet vibrant, it consists

of highly motivated multilingual (often with at least 3

languages or more) talented people of various age and

backgrounds. The startup environment is dynamic

and rapidly growing. To nurture this growth, all

important stakeholders have joined hands together.

Latvian startup infrastructure consists of 400+

registered startups, a pool of institutional investors

and business angels, a diverse range of modern co-

working spaces, dozens of business

incubators fuelled by the government, academia and

private individuals, as well as full of exciting

gatherings, productive conferences, hackathons and

meetups. The capital city Riga hosts numerous annual

Tech & Innovation conferences: the iNovuss, Deep

Tech Atelier, Riga Tech Girls, TechChill and others.

Moreover, a unique Startup Law has been passed

and Startup Visa, officially - temporary residence

permit, has been created in order to make Latvian

startup ecosystem even more vibrant and productive.

(Investment and Development Agency of Latvia,

2020). Start-up ecosystem in Latvia creates a

favorable environment for the development and

improvement of start-ups.

Regardless of innovation and entrepreneur being

older terminology and yet still also being often mixed

or misunderstood with terms like inventions and

small business owners, those are still already much

established terms than "a startup" - a term that

originated from US. in late 70’s and became popular

in the late 1990’s as part of the technology and

internet hype and bubble that eventually bursted

around year 2000. Startup (ie. startup company

sometimes also known as upstart) term emerged to

describe and identify a new or early stage company

with higher than usual growth potential due

technology it was developing. This meant that for that

growth potential to be possible, it was relaying to new

technology and since 90’s also to internet as the high

growth enabling factor. These startups were known as

internet startups or more broadly technology startups,

and as such the term “startup” is still mainly referred

as “technology startup”. (Startup common, 2019).

Today, the concept of start-up is much more widely

used than just technology, it is now used in all areas

of business, so it has become vital for overall

economic growth. In Latvia, this term was officially

formulated in 2017 in Article 5 of the Law on Support

for the Operation of New Enterprises - a new

enterprise is a capital company with high growth

potential, whose core business is related to the

development, production or development of scalable

business models and innovative products. However,

the definition of a start-up has been interpreted

differently in the rest of the literature, so the study

was conducted to clarify and explore the theoretical

aspects in the literature.

Theory is the meaning that we assign to things that

we observe in order to make sense of them. Theory

can be defined as a general and more or less

comprehensive set of statements or propositions that

describe different aspects of some phenomenon

(Hagan, 2006; Silverman, 2006). In an applied

context, theories can be understood as interrelated

ideas about various patterns, concepts, processes,

relationships, or events. In a formal sense, social

scientists usually define theory as a system of logical

ISC SAI 2022 - V International Scientiﬁc Congress SOCIETY OF AMBIENT INTELLIGENCE

136

statements or propositions that explain the

relationship between two or more objects, concepts,

phenomena, or characteristics of humans—what are

sometimes called variables (Babbie, 2007; Denzin,

1978; Polit, Beck & Hungler, 2003). Theory might

also represent attempts to develop coherent narratives

about reality or ways to classify and organize events,

describe events, or even predict future events (Hagan,

2006). Theories are explanations. The theory of

gravity explains why things fall, as well as predicting

and explaining orbits and the physical stability of the

universe. Theories of inequality contribute to our

explanations for all kinds of economic behavior, from

consumption to crime to wedding receptions. In time,

we may find newer and more informative ways to

explain the things we experience as gravity, or the

ways in which we respond to inequality. These new

approaches may take on different names, but that will

not mean that the original theories were wrong, only

that explanations can be improved with more data.

(Lune and Berg, 2017). The study conducts direct

theoretical research, which is developed

systematically, details in Table 1.

The aim of the research is to study the main

theoretical aspects of start-ups in the literature. There

are a relatively large number of definitions of the term

“start-up” in publications, where each author offers

his or her own interpretation of the term. Tasks of the

research - 1. To analyze the key words of the

definition of the term “start-up” in literature and the

number of definitions in scientific databases. 2. To

create an author's definition of the term "start-up". 3.

Draw conclusions and make proposals. The object of

the research is the concept of “start-up”. Research

hypothesis - the term “start-up” is not defined united

in the scientific literature. Novelty of the research -

by analyzing the information available in the

literature, a definition of the term “start-up”

developed by the author has been created. Research

methods - method of analysis and synthesis; content

analysis and monographic method.

2 DEFINITION STUDY OF

START-UPS IN THE

LITERATURE

Innovative start-ups are an integrative part of today’s

global, fast changing world. Many of them operate

basing on their own sources, but a good support

system can facilitate their operations, provide

knowledge, networking or very needed financial

input. (Kuźmińska-Haberla and Bobowski, 2019)

Start-ups are important for economic and business

development and should therefore be addressed and

further researched.

Literature review is an essential feature of

academic research. In essence, the development of

knowledge should build on previous work. To push

the boundary of knowledge, we need to know where

the boundary is. By reviewing the relevant literature,

we understand the breadth and depth of existing work

and identify gaps that need to be explored. By

summarizing, analyzing, and synthesizing a group of

related literature, we can test a specific hypothesis

and / or develop new theories. We can also assess the

validity and quality of existing work based on criteria

to identify weaknesses, inconsistencies and

contradictions. (Paré et al., 2015) A review of the

start-up literature and a search for definitions is an

important precondition for achieving the goal of the

study. The study hypothesized that the term “start-up”

is not uniformly defined in the scientific literature, so

the literature sought definitions of start-ups in order

to summarize, analyze and draw conclusions.

There are a few things to keep in mind when

choosing the right keywords. First, researchers need

to find a balance between completeness and accuracy.

Broader keywords can lead to more comprehensive

and inclusive results, but more irrelevant articles are

identified. On the other hand, using more specific

keywords can improve your search accuracy, but your

records may be lost. At this early stage, it is much

more important to be exhaustive than accurate

(Wanden-Berghe & Sanz-Valero, 2012). The study

was conducted by formulating keywords that are

related to the concept of "start-up".

Qualitative research refers to the meanings,

concepts, definitions, properties, metaphors,

symbols, and descriptions of things (Lune, Berg,

2017). The definitions of “start-ups” or “start-ups” by

various authors were used in the study of the research

literature. The study summarized the definitions of 25

different sources - publications in journals and

Internet resources, scientific articles, books. Table 1

summarizes the short definitions of a start-up, lists the

authors and key words, and summarizes the

information and draws conclusions. The definitions

are listed in ascending order, starting with the oldest,

with a time lag of 1976 to 2021. The data collection

period of the research is December 2021.

Theoretical Aspects of the Concept Start-up in the Literature

137

Table 1: Explanation of start-up definitions in scientific and industry literature (Created by the author, December 2021).

Nr. Definition Author Key word

1. A startup is the creation of an entirely new enterprise which

did not formerl

exist as an or

anization.

Keebel (1976) Company

anization

2. A new firm which began production for the first time. Gudgin (1978) New

compan

3. Start-ups used to be recognized as an engine of economic

growth, source of jobs, wealth in economy in general, as well as,

innovation.

Storey, (1994);

Birch et al., (1995);

Kirchoff and

Newbert, (2007)

Growth

Innovation

4. Temporary organizations that create innovative products

and/or services using high technology1 , but this type of

companies are also known to be inserted in uncertain and risky

scenarios.

Cho and McLean

(2009)

Products

Services

Technology

5. A start-up, according to Ries (2011), is a human institution

designed to create new products and services under conditions of

extreme uncertainty. It may be also recognized as a company

that is confused about what its product is, who its customers are

and how to make money. Thus, start-ups may be understood as

business aimed at solving contemporary problems, satisfying

current demands, however, with no guarantee of success.

Ries, E. (2011) Institution

Products and

services

Customers

Business

Problems

6. Čalopa et al., (2014) defined start-ups as newly founded

companies or entrepreneurial ventures that are in the phase of

development and market research.

Čalopa et al.,

(2014)

New

company

Entrepreneuri

al Ventures

Development

7. A start-up is a newly created business project that aims to

find or create an unmet need, meet that need with appropriate

benefits, and prove its existence with a functioning business

model. Beginners should open up new markets and create high

value-added products.

Procházková, K.

(2014).

Business

project Needs

Business

model

New markets

Products

8. OECD defines start-ups as start-ups in the first three years of

operation (0-3 years)

Calvino, F.;

Criscuolo, C.;

Menon, C. (2015).

New

company

>3 years

9. The main difference between a startup and other types of

business is that a startup is a fast-growing and easily scalable

company. The goal of conquering a global market, technology

involvement and investment are just side effects and necessary

for rapid growth and expansion.

Petrāne, L. (2016) Fast-growing

Easily scalable

Market

Technology

Investment

Growth

ansion

10. Start-up company - a capital company with a high growth

potential the basic activity of which is related to the

development, production or improvement of scalable business

models and innovative products.

Legal acts of

Republic of Latvia

(2017).

Capital

company Growth

potential

Business

models Products

Innovations

11. A start-up can be defined as a certain type of innovation-

oriented company. Italian language

A startup that has been established for no more than 60

months has a political turnover of less than EUR 5 million, no

profit distribution and is not the result of any extraordinary

activity, such as mergers or divisions, as well as socially and

widely distributed innovative products and / or high

technological value services are considered "innovators".

Paoloni P.,

Modaffari, G.

(2018)

Innovations

>60 months

Products

Services

12. "Startup is a company that works to solve a problem where

the solution is not clear and there is no success in the company,"

/ Neil Blumenthal

Blumenthal, N.

(2019)

Problem

solution

ISC SAI 2022 - V International Scientiﬁc Congress SOCIETY OF AMBIENT INTELLIGENCE

138

13. The company must be under ten years old

for years. It must be an innovative product and / or service

and / or a business model. Start up must try to expand (with a

view to increasing the number of employees and / or turnover

and / or the markets in which they operate).

European Start up

Monitor (2019)

>10 years

Products

Services

Expand

14. "Startup is a state of mind," says Adora Ceungs, one of the

most successful CEOs and CEOs of U.S. Startu

in 2013.

Pasaulite.com

(

2019

)

State of mind

15. That's when people added to your business and still make a

clear decision, don't give up stability in exchange for a promise

of hu

rowth and a

assion for im

act.

Pasaulite.com

(2019).

Not stable

huge growth

act

16. According to Merriam-Webster, a start-up means an

"operation or start-up or movement event" or "start-up

company". The American Heritage Dictionary suggests that it is

a "start-up company." There's movement in it - to be Startup,

you need to have a newly created store.

Pasaulite.com

(2019).

Operation

Company

Movement

Newly

create

17. A start-up is a new company that is less than ten years old

and needs to create a repeatable and scalable business model

with high demand potential.

Blank, S., Dorf, B.

(2020).

New

company

Business model

>10

ears

18. There is no generally accepted official definition of the term

'startup', so researchers have used the following criteria. The

company must be under ten years old. It must be an innovative

product and / or service and / or business model. The start-up

must seek to expand (intention to increase the number of

employees and / or turnover and / or the market in which it

operates).

Bormans, J.,

Privitera, M.,

Bogen, E., Cooney,

T. (2020)

>10 years

Innovative

Product

Service

Business

model Expand

19. Start-up is a very small nascent enterprise that is expected to

discover or create a new need, an attractive and unusual product,

a scalable business model, and rapid significant growth. It

creates new jobs, brings solutions to current problems in the

economy, technology, ecology, communication, leisure, and

entertainment. Start-up is a relatively new and attractive

business form that is being explored in a broader economic and

industr

context.

Van Winden, W.;

Kör, B.; Sierhuis,

D.; Grijsbach, P.

(2020).

Enterprise

New needs

Product

Business

model New jobs

Business

form

20. A small business that has just been started. Cambridge

Dictionar

(

2021

)

Just started

21. Definition of start-up - the act or an instance of setting in

operation or motion.

Merriam-

Webster.com

(

2021

)

Operation or

motion

22. Startups are new company to develop a unique product or

service to market and make it irresistible and irreplaceable to

customers.

Start-ups are rooted in innovation, filling the gaps in existing

products or creating entirely new categories of goods and

services, thus disrupting entrenched ways of thinking and

entrepreneurship in entire industries.

Baldridge, R., Curr

y, B. (2021).

Unique

product Service

Customers

Innovation

Entrepreneurs

hip

23. Start up - a fledgling business enterprise. Merriam-

Webster.com

(2021)

Business

Enterprice

24. According to the European Startup Network, the start-up is

an independent organization less than five years old that aims to

create, improve and expand a scalable, innovative, technology-

enabled product with high and rapid growth.

European Startup

Network (2021).

Organization

Product

High growth

>5 years

25. A startup is a venture that is initiated by its founders around

an idea or a problem with a potential for significant business

opportunity and impact. Often the actual development starts

even before that with a search of an idea or a meaningful

problem worth solving and building a committed founding team

ali

ned with shared vision to make that vision into realit

Startup commons

(2021).

Idea

Problem

solving

opportunity

Development

Tea

Theoretical Aspects of the Concept Start-up in the Literature

139

The explanation of the definitions of start-ups in

the scientific and industry literature gives an idea of

the essence of the concept. As a result of the analysis,

the definitions of various authors were summarized in

Table 1, the authors were listed, as well as the main

keywords. Looking at the above definitions, it can be

concluded that the most frequently mentioned

keywords are products (9 times), new company (6

times), services (6 times), problems (3 times), growth

(3 times), innovation (4 times), business model (3

times), up to 10 years (4 times). Keywords such as

business, customers, development, needs,

entrepreneurship, expansion, market, operation,

movement, organization, technology were mentioned

twice, the other keywords were mentioned once.

While this defining progress is globally spreading,

ongoing and there are quite many views and opinions

about what is “a startup”, there are however already

enough collective and mutual “consensus” to define

what a Startup is and what it is not to make the term

useful. Compared to much older related definitions of

“innovation” and “entrepreneur”, startup is starting to

be equally well understood for the meaning of the

term as the other two. (Startup common, 2019) The

definition of the term start-up is based on an

understanding of the concept.

As a result of the qualitative research (Table 1), a

new definition of start up was created by the author.

Based on the analysis of the definitions, the concept

of a start-up author interpreted as follows: "A start-up

is a new company with a lifespan of up to 10 years

and whose business model offers products and/or

services that solve customer problems, innovate and

promote overall growth." Defining the concept of

"start-up" provides an understanding of the key

aspects of the concept and will help in future research.

3 LITERATURE RESEARCH IN

SCIENTIFIC DATABASES

Quantitative research concerns the number and size

of cases, the size and distribution of our subjects. the

question is: how big is the thing, how much is it, or

how likely is it that we will face it. (Luna, Bergs,

2017). The quantitative study is presented in Table 2,

which analyzes the keywords related to the concept

of “start-up”.

Research databases are organized collections of

computerized information or data such as periodical

articles, books, graphics and multimedia that can be

searched to retrieve information. Databases can be

general or subject oriented with bibliographic

citations, abstracts, and or full text. The sources

indexed may be written by scholars, professionals or

generalists. (Library & learning resources, 2020). In

the study of literature, several large multidisciplinary

research databases were systematically searched and

used - Scopus, Web of Science, Ebsco, Google

scholar, ScienceDirect. The search tool in the

databases was used to obtain the data, with the help

of which bibliographic citations were obtained.

Scopus uniquely combines a comprehensive,

expertly curated abstract and citation database with

enriched data and linked scholarly literature across a

wide variety of disciplines. Scopus quickly finds

relevant and authoritative research, identifies experts

and provides access to reliable data, metrics and

analytical tools. Be confident in progressing research,

teaching or research direction and priorities — all

from one database and with one subscription.

(Elsevier, 2020)

The Web of Science is the world’s most trusted

publisher-independent global citation database.

Guided by the legacy of Dr Eugene Garfield, inventor

of the world’s first citation index, the Web of Science

is the most powerful research engine, delivering your

library with best-in-class publication and citation data

for confident discovery, access and assessment.

(Clarivate, 2020)

EBSCO is the leading provider of research

databases, e-journals, magazine subscriptions, e-

books and discovery service to libraries of all kinds.

(Ebsco, 2021).

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly

search for scholarly literature. From one place, you

can search across many disciplines and sources:

articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions,

from academic publishers, professional societies,

online repositories, universities and other web sites.

Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across

the world of scholarly research. (Google Scholar,

2021)

ScienceDirect is a website which provides

subscription-based access to a large database of

scientific and medical research. ScienceDirect is an

important and essential source of information for

millions of specialists around the world.

ScienceDirect is a website which provides

subscription-based access to a large database of

scientific and medical research. It contains the

world’s largest electronic collection of full-text and

bibliographic information on science, technology and

medicine. ScienceDirect is one of the subsidiaries of

Elsevier, the world’s largest scientific publisher. It is

operated by the Anglo-Dutch publisher Elsevier. It

was launched in March 1997. It contains more than

15 million scientific articles. Over 900,000 articles on

ScienceDirect are open access. Articles published

open access are peer-reviewed and made freely

available for everyone to read, download and reuse.

Article abstracts are freely available, but access to

ISC SAI 2022 - V International Scientiﬁc Congress SOCIETY OF AMBIENT INTELLIGENCE

140

their full texts (in PDF and, for newer publications,

also HTML) generally requires a subscription or pay-

per-view purchase. Although the main focus of

Science Direct is on basic, technical and medical

sciences, there are also a large number of articles and

journals on the humanities and social sciences.

(Canadian institute for knowladge development,

2020).

The listed databases are one of the largest in the

world and it is easy to search for information in the

scientific literature on multidisciplinary topics. Based

on the fact that the definition analysis study (Table 1)

formulated the main keywords related to the concept

of “start-up”, the analysis in the databases was

performed directly after the keywords. The following

keywords were used in the research: "Start up", "Start

up business", "Start up model", "Business model",

"Entrepreneurship", which were placed in the search

engine to find research articles and analyze those

figures in Table 2. The number is the result of the

keywords and the number of instances of the phrases

formed from them in the literature sources of the

databases used. The results of the multidisciplinary

quantitative analysis for the databases are presented

in Table 2. The data collection period of the research

is December 2021.

Table 2: Analysis in databases by keywords (Created by the author, December 2021).

Key words Scopus Web of

Science

Ebsco Google

scholar

ScienceDirect

,,Start up’’ 120,298

354,650

134,459 6,940,000 3,832,254

,,Start up business’’ 7,906

8,283

7,510 5,110,000 368,848

,,Start up model’’ 24,974

67,651

646

6,760,000 2,518,641

,,Business model’’ 277,464

271,562

65,744 4,520,000 581,402

,,Entrepreneurship’’ 51,398

55,129

81,477 2,360,000 34,967

Quantitative results for the keywords “start up”,

“start up business”, “start up model”, “business

model”, “entrepreneurship” in the databases analyzed

in the multidisciplinary field showed that these

concepts have been widely studied in the scientific

literature. The Scopus database showed the lowest

result for the concept of "start up", but Science direct

showed the largest result. The concept of "start up" is

widely mentioned, researched and analyzed in

bibliographic sources. The term 'start up business' is

much less researched than 'start up', but research

shows that the Ebsco database has the least

information on the term. The most concept studied is

Google Scholar. The term 'start up model' is the least

studied in the Ebsco database, but the most can be

found in the Science direct and Google scholar

databases. The term "business model" is less studied

in the Ebsco database, but most of it can be read in

the Google scholar database. The concept of

"Entrepreneurship" is much less studied than

previous concepts. The least can be read in the

Science direct database, but the most can be searched

in the Google Scholar database. Summarizing the

numerical results in scientific databases, it can be

concluded that the concept of "Start up" is the most

studied.

4 CONCLUSIONS

"Startup" is a term that originated in the United States.

In the late 1970s and became popular in the late

1990s. (Startup commons, 2019). In Latvia, this term

was officially formulated in 2017 in Article 5 of the

Law on Support for the Operation of New Enterprises

- Start-up company - a capital company with a high

growth potential the basic activity of which is related

to the development, production or improvement of

scalable business models and innovative products.

(Legal acts of Republic of Latvia ,2017). Overall the

definition of the start-up concept has been interpreted

differently in the literature, so the study was

conducted to clarify and explore the theoretical

aspects of the concept start up in the literature.

Theoretical Aspects of the Concept Start-up in the Literature

141

In total, two studies were conducted in the article

- one qualitative and the other quantitative. The first

study (Table 1) summarized short definitions of a

start-up, listed the authors and key words, and

summarized the information. The definitions are

presented in ascending order, starting with the oldest,

with a time lag between 1976 and 2021. The second

study analyzes the numerical indicators of the

keywords “Start up”, “Start up business”, “Start up

model”, “Business model”, “Entrepreneurship”

(Table 2). The data collection period of the research

is December 2021.

Regardless of the terminology, the more there are

entrepreneurship and innovation, the more there are

startups. And the more there are startups, the more

there are great companies, scaleups and positive

development in the economy and society at large.

And that's why developing a healthy startup

ecosystem is a holistic exercise. (Startup commons,

2019). Trends in the positive impact of start-ups

contribute significantly to the development of the

global economy and business.

The hypothesis of the research has been

confirmed - the term “start-up” is not uniformly

defined in the scientific literature. A study of this

concept leads to the conclusion that the authors'

interpretation is different.

Based on the analysis of the definitions, the

concept of a start-up author interpreted as follows: "A

start-up is a new company with a lifespan of up to 10

years and whose business model offers products and

/ or services that solve customer problems, innovate

and promote overall growth." The author offer the

new definition as a proposal for the further

formulation of a start-up in literature.

Quantitative results for the keywords “start up”,

“start up business”, “start up model”, “business

model”, “entrepreneurship” in the databases analyzed

in the multidisciplinary field showed that these

concepts have been widely studied in the scientific

literature. Summarizing the numerical results in

scientific databases, it can be concluded that the

concept of "Start up" is the most popular termin.

Startups are a critical element for the economic

vitality of any country. They also are the pipeline for

SMEs and future high-growth firms. Across Europe,

startups contribute to make countries economically

and socially vibrant by redefining the technological

landscape and creating the markets of tomorrow.

(European Start up Monitor, 2019) Future start-ups

will probably be defined in a completely different

way, so the author's vision is to continue research on

the directions of start-ups and development.

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