Entrepreneurship & Organization Management

Abstract

John M York

The lean startup method, an extremely popular methodology designed to help ventures navigate uncertainty and improve their odds of success, embraces a hypothesis-driven process for developing successful new enterprises by identifying and validating scalable products and business models. This paper seeks to address relevant questions: (1) what is the current state of understanding of lean startup concerning its foundations; (2) what empiric literature describes the recent experience with the lean startup; (3) what does the literature reflect regarding the impact of lean startup outcomes and performance; and (4) what can we learn from the current academic contributions regarding lean startup and areas to explore further. This review identifies multiple antecedents and theoretical concepts, along with an examination of the scientific evidence that solidifies the underlying foundation for this methodology. While anecdotal pieces (e.g., books, periodicals, web) pervade much of the early experience, academics and practitioners provide a more robust mix of empiric evidence over the past five years. Such contributions highlight various lean startup experiences, offer insights from use in the educational setting, raise issues around the methodology and its use, and set forth boundary conditions for using the methodology. Empiric studies find mixed results concerning the influence of lean startup on performance and business outcomes, with only one study emphasizing the importance of a rigorous approach standing out as significant. The current academic conversation provides diverse perspectives and opinions. Contributions range from a severe review to papers identifying multiple avenues to explore and opportunities to bridge the existing divide between academics and scholars concerning the lean startup. This discussion leads to many further management questions about the setting, sector, startup stage, rigor, training, impact, and outcomes measurement. To this end, these areas indicate that both academic and practical questions do exist, and more work needs undertaking to solidify the understanding of the methodology's foundations and its practical impact on new ventures