Enhancing new venture survival: The role of ESOs in Taiwan’s entrepreneurial landscape

Abstract

New venture survival is a central concern in entrepreneurship research, yet comparative evidence on how entrepreneurial support organization (ESO) ownership shapes long-term survival remains scarce, especially outside privately dominated Western ecosystems. This study examines public versus private ESO engagement in Taiwan, a government-intensive setting in which approximately 70% of ESOs are publicly managed. Using a mixed-methods design that combines qualitative insights with survival analysis, we study 548 ventures (281 events) affiliated with AppWorks and Garage+ (private) or FITI and TIEC (public), with follow-up through April 2025. Three findings emerge. First, broader ESO engagement does not confer a survival advantage. Multiple-ESO ventures exhibit significantly different event timing, and both ventures participating in three programs eventually disbanded. These findings suggest a potential “more is worse” pattern, in which strategic focus may be more beneficial than breadth of engagement. Second, the log-rank test does not detect a significant private–public difference. Five- and ten-year Kaplan–Meier estimates are 67.2% and 45.9% for the full sample; public point estimates are modestly higher than private ones, but confidence intervals overlap and the public risk set thins sharply after year 10. Third, founder social-network visibility is associated with a lower hazard, whereas education and experience are not significant standalone predictors; SN is also lower among FITI-supported ventures than among the other three ESOs. The study contributes longitudinal evidence from a non-Western, government-dominated ecosystem and shows that ownership type alone does not produce a durable survival advantage.