Innovation is conceptualized in different ways from firm to firm. While some firms tend to accept a more conservative approach towards innovation, other firms approach innovation from a more entrepreneurial perspective. A conservative model of innovation and an entrepreneurial model of...

Many start-ups chose to compete with incumbent firms using one of two generic strategies: cost leadership or differentiation. Our study demonstrates how this choice depends on whether the startup was founded out of necessity. Our results, based on a representative data set of 4,568 German...