Evaluating STUD-ENT: A Quantitative Study on the Differences Between Receivers and Non-Receivers of the Government Grant STUD-ENT
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Abstract
STUD-ENT does not enhance performance in startups other than boosting total sales income,this is what our findings suggest. Previous studies from a Norwegian context are split, whilein other contexts the literature suggests a more positive impact on firm performance. Thepurpose of this study is to evaluate the Norwegian government supported grant STUD-ENT.More specifically, our research question to be answered is: “Are there any differences inperformance between the receivers and non-receivers of STUD-ENT?". To determine if thereare any differences we are testing if there are any differences in status (active/inactive), totalemployees registered, total sales income, return on assets and asset growth between theapplicants, which is based on previous literature on startup performance.
We use non-parametric tests (Chi-Square Test for Independence, Mann-Whitney U Test andKruskal-Wallis Test) as our data is limited and skewed to test whether receivers of STUDENT outperform non-receivers based on the performance measures mentioned above. Theempirical study is based on data from 156 startups seeking STUD-ENT between 2016 and2021, through Research Council Norway. In addition, we are examining if there are anydifferences in performance between the firms based on the industry they are operating in andthe county they are registered in.
Our results indicate that there are minimal differences between receivers and non-receivers ofSTUD-ENT in performance. Total sales income is significantly larger for receivers than nonreceivers, however, none of the other performance measures are significant. This indicatesthat STUD-ENT should be further assessed in to determine whether STUD-ENT shouldcontinue to operate in the same manner, or change.