The research thesis pertains to investigating the survival strategies employed by entrepreneurial ventures (EVs), particularly Innovative start-ups (ISs). ISs have a high failure rate, with nearly 90% of them failing during their first year since they encounter a high degree of uncertainty while pursuing new business opportunities. Thus, failure is a common outcome of entrepreneurial endeavours. Simultaneously, it is essential to sustain ISs since they create value for their nations. Therefore, investigating and identifying suitable survival strategies for ISs is important.

Four research objectives are identified, namely (1) To investigate the behaviour of EVs during crises, observe if any common patterns exist and develop crisis management strategies to improve their survival chances, (2) To characterize ISs in the context of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in India, (3) To investigate various failure causes of Indian ISs and propose appropriate survival strategies using Management Accounting Tools (MATs), and (4) To illustrate the survival strategies implemented by an Indian innovative lifestyle enterprise (ILE) by examining it during its founding, growth, and crisis stages (caused due to COVID-19 pandemic).

The main research findings and contributions are: (1) The common pattern in the behaviour of EVs during the crisis has been observed and understood, and presented as a Phenomenon Structure diagram (PSD), (2) EVs use entrepreneurial interventions (EIvs), which are combinations of entrepreneurial actions, and entrepreneurial orientations, with entrepreneurial supports, serving as survival strategies, (3) Indian ISs can be characterized and distinguished from conventional MSMEs (C-MSMEs), (4) MATs are effective in overcoming ISs’ failure causes, and (5) The survival strategies to overcome various risk events, uncertainties, and crises by an Indian ILE can be grouped under different Resilience enhancing techniques (RETs) including EIvs, some MATs, and Blue and Red Ocean strategies.

The main theoretical contributions of the thesis are (1) the development of (a) a conceptual model for Entrepreneurial Interventions (EIvs) to manage crises, identify, and characterize ISs among MSMEs, and (b) a conceptual framework relating failure causing factors and the typical MATs that can enhance the survivability of ISs, and (2) establishing the applicability of Contingency Theory for enhancing the survival of EVs.

The practical value of the research comprises (1) a list of EIvs that managers/founders/owners can use to improve their firms’ survival during crises, (2) identification of 30 different failure causes of Indian ISs, (3) identification of a list of 22 MATs that can be used to preempt or tackle failure and thereby enhance firms’ survival chances, (4) identification of the survival strategies employed by an ILE, and (5) identification, characterization and definition of ISs, which can help policymakers to understand them and C-MSMEs better for formulating appropriate policies for their survival and growth.