A Survivability Model for Saudi ICT Start-ups

Innovation and entrepreneurship are critical elements in the transition to the knowledge-based economy and future competition. Unfortunately, innovation tends to be absent in Arab states for many reasons. To promote innovation in Saudi Arabia, for instance, it is necessary to support inventors' ideas to turn inventions into start-up companies, which are companies in their early stage. At the same time, it seems that there is a need for more academic research to study the success factors of Saudi information and communication technology (ICT) start-up companies. ICT start-ups are important to the economy because they are needed for the progress of all industries. Therefore, this study will identify the factors that lead to successful ICT start-up projects. Then, it will develop a model for the best practices in the interplay among the defined factors that will increase the opportunity to initiate successful start-ups. This research involves a factor analysis study based on a quantitative method to measure the interdependences among the success factors for ICT start-ups. The identified factors are verified using a sample of Saudi start-up companies. The study will contribute to enhancing the technological content to diversify the Saudi economy in order to prepare for the post-oil era.

The study result is a survivability model for Saudi-incubated ICT startups. The resulting model has two phases, as follows: (1) the incubation period, which includes the relationships among three factors leading to constant and successful updates and upgrades of the ICT startup business model; and (2) the postincubation period, which include relationships among the three factors that help to deal with the changing nature of the market and the emergence of competing products. This solution can be applied within startups with similar conditions.