CHALLENGES FACED BY STARTUPS: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP LITERATURE

Abstract

Startups play a critical role in economic growth, innovation, and employment generation, yet young ventures face substantial challenges to survival, growth, and sustained performance. This article synthesizes the scholarly understanding of the challenges faced by startups through a bibliometric analysis of entrepreneurship research indexed in Scopus. Bibliographic data were analysed using the Bibliometrix R package and Biblioshiny, and the resulting knowledge structure was interpreted using the TCCM (Theory, Context, Characteristics, and Methodology) framework. The dataset comprised 268 English-language journal articles published during 2024 2026. The analysis identifies prominent themes related to entrepreneurship, startups, innovation, sustainability, finance, ecosystems, technology, uncertainty, and competition. The thematic analysis indicates that sustainability and sustainable development constitute prominent motor themes, while challenges, resilience, and strategy form a more specialized thematic cluster. The conceptual structure further connects uncertainty, effectuation, digital entrepreneurship, strategy, technology, investment, and performance. The TCCM synthesis shows that the literature draws on effectuation, resource-based, institutional, ecosystem, signaling, legitimacy, dynamic capabilities, knowledge-based, and social capital perspectives. Contextually, research is concentrated in several high-income economies while emerging-economy contributions are also represented. Methodologically, the literature includes case studies, thematic analyses, systematic review approaches, and bibliometric studies. Eight broad challenge domains are synthesized: resource and financial constraints; uncertainty and risk; entrepreneurial ecosystem and institutional dependencies; digital transformation and technological disruption; sustainability and grand societal challenges; exogenous shocks; competitive and growth pressures; and geographic and institutional variation. The findings provide a structured basis for future research on startup challenges across theoretical, contextual, characteristic, and methodological dimensions.