Purpose: The paper uses the construct of the liability of newness to identify how entrepreneurs of new and young companies use business advisory service in the start-up process of their micro-companies.
Design/methodology/approach:
Various statistical techniques were used to analyze aA sample of 2832 new and young companies were analysed. The empirical data derive from a survey of micro-companies in Sweden and their use of 20 kinds of business advisory services.
Findings: Despite some similarities in the use of business service areas, the paper finds that new companies use more and different business advisory service areas than young companies. The paper examines these similarities and differences in detail.
Practical implications: This research adds to our knowledge on how business service providers (public and private) can tailor their offerings to new and young companies. In particular, these findings may be of interest to government policy makers and other relevant stakeholders as they allocate funds to publicly funded organizations that provide business advisory service.
Originality/value: The paper analyzes a broad range of business service areas used by new and young companies. This paper, which takes a user-perspective, contributes to the rather sparse research in this field because it examines business advisory service from the demand side rather than the supply side.