Acknowledgements: Both authors contributed equally to the writing of this paper and are listed alphabetically. The research design owes an intellectual debt to the Panel Study of Business Start-ups undertaken by the Entrepreneurial Research Consortium, a temporary voluntary association of 30+ U.S. and non-U.S. universities. The study was financed by

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We study the starting resources of start-ups, which develop and market new products or services based upon a proprietary technology or skill. We define these companies as researchbased start-ups (RBSUs). We look at how technological, financial and human resources at founding cluster together to form different starting resource configurations. Using a unique hand-collected dataset of RBSUs in Belgium, we find four different types of starting configurations: “Venture Capital-backed start-ups, ” “Prospectors, ” “Product start-ups ” and “Transitional start-ups”. This study shows that these different types of starting resource configurations are not only empirically distinct but can also be conceptually explained by internal factors such as the entrepreneurial orientation at start-up and external factors such as the origin of the firm and the characteristics of the industry in which the firm competes. 3

Operationeel beheer en Technologiebeleid)

The Business School of the Manchester Metropolitan University is one of the largest business schools in the UK comprising more than 150 academic staff organised into eleven thematic research groups. The Working Paper Series brings together research in progress from across the Business School for publication to a wider audience and to facilitate discussion. Working Papers are subject to a peer review process.

Leader for Organizational

This paper examines the impact of entry strategy on new venture performance. The contradictory nature of a simplistic view on the relationship between timing of entry and new venture performance is demonstrated. Contingent relationships between timing of entry and other entry strategy variables lead to a series of propositions.