Examining the key success factors for startups in the Kingdom of Bahrain

Abstract EN

With Bahrain Economic Vision 2030, aspiring the shift from an economy that depends on oil wealth to a diversified economy, including startup businesses.

A number of startups in Bahrain have been growing at a rapid pace in various industries.

This is a result of the excellent ecosystem, and support provided to startups by the government in Bahrain.

This study aims to examine the key success factors of startups in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The quantitative method was the adopted approach, whereby data was collected to examine the impact of four selected variables; fund-raising, experience, knowledge, and partnerships on the success of startups in Bahrain.

The quantitative findings outlined the importance of several factors that were perceived to have a significant influence on the success of Bahraini Startups, where the majority of respondents agreed/strongly that two of the examined factors are considered critical to succeed in startups in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

These factors are experience and knowledge, which proved to have an active role to maintain the success of startups.

However, the startups’ founders disagreed on the impact of fund-raising and partnerships which are considered to have no major effect on the success of startups.

Recommendations of this research include two segments; for founders is to seek more opportunities to enhance their knowledge and capitalize on their experiences, and for government entities to provide and improve training offerings, and facilitate founders’ communication and assist them in reaching out to the investors and the supporting entities, which will provide ease for new startup entry to the market, and establishment of a clear vision with framework prior to embarking the new venture.