ABSTRACT

Entrepreneurial business startups have been the lifeblood of the private economy sector with varying degrees across countries (Acs et al. 2008). Some of the most entrepreneurial countries exist in the developing world. For instance, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) ranks the top three countries as Uganda, Thailand, and Brazil, with China ranked 11th and the U.S. ranked 37th (GEM 2014). A 2015 study by the Kauffman Foundation shows that approximately 530,000 new businesses were started in the U.S. each month (Kauffman Foundation 2015). According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses have provided 55% of all jobs and 66% of all net new jobs since the 1970s (USSBA 2015). Amidst high activity and heightened interest in business startups, these businesses face severe organizational and fiscal constraints causing the failure of most within five years of their starting up. However, some exceptional startups, referred to as unicorns (CB Insights 2015), have shown spectacular valuation growth. Unicorns are defined as firms reaching well over $1 billion in valuation in a short period of time and becoming major economic/social entrepreneurship successes.