Resource interdependence and successful exit: a configurational perspective on young technology firms

Research SummarySuccessful exits are important outcomes for young technology firms. Research has investigated how individual resources affect exit, but both foundational RBV scholarship and newer microfoundations work suggest the need to examine resource configurations in specific contexts. Using an abductive approach and fsQCA methodology, we explore how resource configurations affect exit in the U.S. minimally invasive medical device industry. We find no single resource is necessary or sufficient for exit. Instead, we find four unique equifinal configurations of resources that are sufficient to support exit in certain contexts. Further, these configurations are largely replicated when we distinguish specific exit modes (IPO vs. acquisition). This study advances growing conversations on the role of resource configurations in entrepreneurship with an emphasis on interdependence, complexity, and equifinality of exit.Managerial SummaryNew firms' early resource portfolios are powerful determinants of their future success. No theory exists, however, to predict if or how the combinations of these resources affect young technology ventures' abilities to achieve a successful exit—an outcome important to founders and early investors. In this study, we utilize fsQCA to explore this issue on a sample of startups in a segment of the U.S. medical device industry. We focus on configurations of technological, commercial, social, human, and financial capital as well as the external environment. Our results point to four unique paths that support successful exit. Each configuration includes multiple ingredients for success. This suggests that realizing successful exit is more complex than previously thought as several unique resource configurations support successful exit.