The goal of this study is to discover why startups aremuch more likely than established firms to commercialize innovations. There arethree possible alternatives regarding the fate of an innovation: it can becommercialized by an incumbent firm as an internal venture, commercialized by astartup as...

Until its sales of a product materialize, a firm is a "pre-producer" in the market for that product. That firm may may be a new start-up, or it may already sell other products. Firms that do not succeed in generating sales eventually become discouraged and move on to other activities. When this...