Startup Ecosystem, Operational Viability, And Survival Determinants:Empirical Evidence From The State Of Odisha, India

ObjectivesThis paper is an empirical study to understand the factors affecting the operational status and challenges of long-term survival of registered start-ups in the state of Odisha, India. The study is based on primary survey data from 210 start-ups from 21 industries to gain insight into the combined effects of firm age, access to funding, government policy support, start-up fund utilisation, convenience of the operating environment and initial to current valuation multiplier on start-up viability and survival prospects in an emerging regional entrepreneurial ecosystem.Design/methodology/approach Stratified random sampling technique was used to select 10 start-ups out of 21 identified industries in Odisha. The primary data were gathered in 2020-2021 using structured field surveys, which included 210 start-up units as cross-sectional data. Analytical methods used are descriptive profiling, industry-level comparative analysis, chi-square cross-tabulation tests, principal component factor analysis (KMO = 0.767; Bartlett χ² = 95,595.81, p < 0.001), and two ordered logit regression models, one to predict current operational status and the other to predict survival challenge, with associated marginal effects and odds ratios. The main analytical software used was STATA.Findings Ordered logit regression for current status (Pseudo R² = 0.729; LR χ² = 4.78, p < 0.001) reveals that convenience of setup (OR = 1.115, p < 0.001), government policy support (OR = 1.179, p = 0.030), and start-up fund support (OR = 1.576, p = 0.041) significantly increase the probability of full operational activity, while funding difficulty (OR = 0.825, p = 0.002) and the growth multiplier (OR = 0.996, p = 0.051) reduce it. For survival challenge (Pseudo R² = 0.890; LR χ² = 7.32, p < 0.001), funding difficulty (OR = 1.292, p < 0.001), start-up fund support (OR = 1.284, p = 0.011), and policy support (OR = 1.671, p = 0.022) significantly predict elevated survival challenge perceptions. The analysis at the industry level shows that laundry services, mining-stevedoring-trading, and manufacturing are the most funded sectors, while environmental cleaning and doorstep food delivery are low-capital, but very active sectors. Approximately 56.67% of founders feel that the start-up journey in Odisha is risky and 33% of start-ups are interested in relocating to other states.Practical implicationsThe support architecture for start-ups in Odisha must be improved to reduce administrative bottlenecks, enhance the supply of collateral-free credit, and reach out to start-ups outside urban districts. There is a great need for sector specific incubation and mentoring protocols for high capital industries (manufacturing, mining) where funding stress is the most. Early-stage risk mitigation mechanisms including bridging finance, grant-in-aid for first-year operations, and simplified scheme documentation would substantially improve ecosystem retention rates.Originality/valueThis study makes three original contributions. First, it provides the most granular industry-level quantitative profile of Odisha's start-up ecosystem documented in the academic literature. Second, it applies ordered logit regression with full marginal effect decomposition to simultaneously model start-up operational viability and survival challenge as ordered categorical outcomes- a methodological approach not previously applied to Indian state-level start-up data. Third, it empirically identifies start-up fund support as the single most powerful positive determinant of full operational status, generating an odds ratio of 1.576, which has direct implications for the design of state-sponsored funding architecture across India's emerging start-up states.