Strategic Entrepreneurship in the Space Economy: A START Framework for Assessing Innovative Firms

Recent transformations in the space economy, driven by mounting technological accessibility, declining operational costs, and growing private-sector participation, have significantly increased entrepreneurial activity in a domain traditionally led by government entities. This evolving landscape produces distinctive conditions characterised by elevated complexity, technological uncertainty, substantial financial demands, and significant regulatory considerations. Although there are well-established strategic entrepreneurship frameworks, the extant literature calls for more specialised, multidimensional assessment frameworks tailored explicitly for space and technology-intensive firms. In response to this need, the present research introduces and empirically validates the START framework, which combines seven critical domains: strategy, technology, agility, resources, team, relationships, and transformation. The model has been empirically evaluated through exploratory factor and linear discriminant analyses on a sample of 206 active Italian technology-intensive firms during the 2016–2025 period. The findings emphasise the model's capability to distinguish between space economy ventures and those in other sectors, underscoring its predictive power and robustness. The present paper makes a theoretical and empirical contribution to the understanding of the strategic dimensions that are essential for entrepreneurial success in the contemporary space economy. It offers valuable implications for policymakers, investors, entrepreneurs and ecosystem stakeholders.