Original research

RESOURCES AS SUCCESS FACTORS OF UNICORN STARTUPS: A CROSS-COUNTRY COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA

Pages 159-168

10.61552/JIBI.2026.02.005

Artem Stafeev, Anja Tekic

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Abstract: Purpose – Unicorns, or privately held companies valued at over $1 billion, have gained significant attention in recent years due to their potential for high growth and disruptive impact on various industries. This research aims to understand how social, human and financial resources contribute to the success of unicorn startups in general and specifically between the two most producing unicorn countries: the United States and China.
Design/methodology/approach – Relying on the Resource-Based View (RBV), we conduct the analysis of 1665 unicorns located in the United States and China collected from Dealroom database to determine which resources (i.e., financial, human and/or social) represent success factors of unicorn startups.
Findings – Our results show that different entrepreneurial resources act as antecedents of success of unicorn startups in the United States and China. While financial resources are identified to be the most important for unicorns in China, the success of the U.S. unicorns is built upon the interconnectedness of financial, human and social resources.
Originality – This study contributes to embryonic entrepreneurship research focused specifically on the evolution of unicorn startups. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that looks into differences in success factors across two countries that produce most of the global unicorns – the United States and China. In our study we investigate the role of different resources as success factors for unicorn startups across these two countries.

Keywords: Unicorns, Entrepreneurship, Startups, Venture Capital, Resource-based View.

Recieved: 21.07.2025. Revised: 19.08.2025. Accepted: 25.08.2025.