Growth Trajectories of Digital Startups: Empirical Evidence and Directions for Digital Entrepreneurship Research

This thesis contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the growth trajectories of digital startups. It sheds light on the increasing diffusion of digital technologies in various areas of entrepreneurial activity and highlights challenges that emerge during rapid growth. To balance depth and breadth in theorizing, empirical insights from a longitudinal, in-depth investigation of a rapidly growing startup were complemented by a qualitative interview study with founders and C-suite managers of 30 high-growth digital startups in nine countries. While employing the action design research method provided a cross-hierarchical view of the phenomenon based on a single case, a grounded theory analysis of the additional semi-structured interviews revealed a more nuanced perspective through a managerial lens. Both were accompanied by literature reviews, which provided a solid theoretical foundation and ensured that the findings could be positioned within ongoing debates at the intersection of entrepreneurship and digital technologies. The individual contributions to this cumulative dissertation provide multiple implications for theory and practice in the emerging field of digital entrepreneurship.