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Purpose Startups play a significant role in improving societies. This paper concentrates on the concept of “startups” and attempts to present a more comprehensive view of this phenomenon. Also, the focus of this paper is on investigating enterprising communities and the startup ecosystem in Iran. Design/methodology/approach The existing literature is carefully reviewed, definition and views are explored and the story of this phenomenon is told from the formation to the exit stage. The author elaborates the existing stages and challenges of startups in Iran. To do so, 65 tech startup founders are interviewed. Semi-structured interviews (SI) were based on previous studies mentioning the lifecycle of the startups, and were fully recorded. Moreover, secondary sources of data (SS) were used to support the findings. Findings The paper classifies the extant theories of startups in two levels, i.e. macro level, and micro and meso levels. Also, it defines some steps for the formation of startups and studies the Iranian startup ecosystem. Last but not the least the paper contributes to the startup ecosystem of Iran which is changing disruptively, especially in the last couple of years. Research limitations/implications Findings of this research shed light on the existing ecosystem of startups in Iran, which is rarely studied in previous research. Lack of enough evidence in the existing literature of startup ecosystem in Iran was the most significant limitation of the research which increased the need for more investigation and elaboration. Originality/value The paper contributes to understanding the startup ecosystem in Iran, and the challenges.

The main objective of the underline study is to examine the influence of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on financial and non-financial performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the moderating role of access to finance. Because SMEs—due to fair reasons such as lack of resources and lack of managerial skill—are often unable to succeed in their mission, the managers look for much less risky and convenience factors to compete in the market. A variety of factors has been tested but the role of finance in this perspective has received minor attention. Hence, the underline study tested finance as a moderator between firm resources and their performance. To test the model, a structured questionnaire is used to collect data from 326 Pakistani SMEs. Structural equation modelling in AMOS is used to test the hypotheses. Our finding suggests that EO significantly enhances SME’s financial and non-financial performance in emerging economies. On the other hand, access to finance significantly moderates the relationship between EO and SME’s financial performance while it is not significantly moderating between EO and non-financial performance. This research recommends policymakers and practitioners to focus on accessing adequate finance while Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Development Authority encourages banks and financial institutions to facilitates SMEs. Furthermore, the possible implications have been discussed.

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