“Great Men’s” work or just an inevitable consequence? An international case study analysis on the origin of Internet start-ups

The drivers for innovation in entrepreneurship are widely studied but the event of Internet based companies has given rise to interesting questions and phenomena which are not guaranteed to be the same as in normal physical companies. This paper investigates the process of innovation of various international Internet start-ups. Two major innovation theories are considered, namely the Great Man and evolutionary theories, in the context of diffusion research in entrepreneurship. Numerous Internet start-ups across multiple countries are considered based on acceptance criteria for innovation and imitation. Of the considered start-ups, this paper poses a means of determining whether a start-up can be classified as an innovator or an imitator based on diffusion curves for a given business model. Of the considered start-ups, three
innovators are identified and contrasted to determine the alignment of innovation theory with the drivers for their inception and success. Finally, recommendations are made for implementation of findings made in this paper.