Understanding regional start-up success: A lily not yet guilded

This paper illustrates an evolutionary process that is consistent with the primary domains of evolutionary theorising, namely ecology and biology. In doing so, this paper presents an alternative explanation of how certain type of regional start-ups have managed to survive where others have failed. This account challenges the validity of many accepted ways of accounting for internal and external factors assumed to be responsible for success or failure. This paper goes beyond the current practice of accepting an interrelated process between environmental selection and firm adaptation. This is achieved through the importation of key ecological concepts such as niche construction, selective environmental neighbourhoods and kin selection. As a result, this paper challenges key terms used in organizational studies literature, specifically, selection and environment. The paper's empirical context is a case study of the Hobart Pizza Industry from 1969 till the present. Both quantitative and qualitative data is discussed from the perspective of preliminary findings. The quantitative data is analysed using SPSS Survival Analysis and the qualitative data is used to identify motives related to strategic change through the life history of each firm. This paper highlights the frequent unimportance of perceived fitness in regional pizza shops. Evidence is provided to demonstrate a process of survival dependent upon location, resource partitioning and kin selection. A general proposition that franchised pizza firms have altered the survivability of regional pizza shops through the transferring of demand for pizza. This proposition is discussed through the presentation of four testable postulates. Through a constant focus on Geoffrey Hodgson's Principle of Consistency, this paper unravels many arguments that continue to prevent the development of an evolutionary approach to entrepreneurship. It returns a focus to the minimal requirements of conducting research employing an evolutionary approach. In summary, this paper introduces a focus many old concepts that should not be ignored when conducting research employing an evolutionary approach.