IMPACT OF STRATEGY ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE OF START-UP

A start-up is an attractive business phenomenon that raises great expectations among founders and investors. The fulfillment of expectations is conditioned by the growth of business performance. The factors that influence the performance and growth of a start-up are mostly hypothetical, they are logically consistent, but there is a lack of quantitative research that would bring more exact scientific knowledge. The research aim is to identify the impact of the business strategy, which is described by a set of parameters, on the business performance of the start-up, which is measured by the growth and volume of sales. The research sample includes 147 start-ups. For the analysis of the research sample, there were used correlation analysis of the relationship between sales and profitability, quartile comparison of the most and least performing start-ups, simple and multiple regression to identify independent variables that significantly influence business performance, and principal component analysis to identify the types of business strategies of start-ups. The main results of the research are: the growth and volume of sales only minimally affect profit indicators; differences in the performance of better and worse start-ups are influenced by small differences in strategy parameters; quality people and their qualified and active action positively affect the performance of the start-up; low cost and excessive sensitivity to the external environment may not lead to higher performance; start-ups choose between five strategies, which are differentiation, low cost, adaptation, action, and resource strategy; the impact of strategy on start-up performance is small, simple and consistent strategies are more effective. The originality and novelty of the research results lie in confirming the existence of factors influencing the performance of start-ups and structuring the actions of start-ups into several types of business strategies.