Comparison of Applicability of Startup Life Cycle Theories Based on Natural Language Processing

ABSTRACT In the economies of Eastern and Central Europe, startups are expected to become the engine of economic development. Based on interviews with the founders, we examine the extent to which startup life cycle theories (SLCT) can be synthesized and what different or identical narrative conceptual spaces can be drawn. Based on our natural language processing results, it can be concluded that SLCTs cannot be clearly synthesized in the case of semi-peripheral countries, as they draw different narrative spaces. SLCTs can adequately capture enterprises in the initial stages, but in the later stages, the practical applicability of the theories is reduced.