Start-up innovation and growth in health-related industries

Start-ups are recognised among the key contributors to the creation of patient-centric, digitalised and connected solutions leading to the so-called Healthcare 5.0. However, they have to tackle the intrinsic liabilities of newness. This study investigates the innovation strategy and growth patterns of start-ups that introduce new products, services or integrated solutions to meet social needs, whose main purpose is to improve health conditions and the well-being of people with advanced technologies and dedicated services. We conducted a multiple case study research by selecting four start-ups incubated in UPTEC, the science and technology park of the University of Porto in Portugal. Findings show that healthcare start-ups follow either "qualitative" (in terms of employees and mix of competences) or "quantitative" (in terms of financial resources, i.e. funds and revenues) growth patterns, and accordingly ways of leveraging the interconnections of the innovation ecosystem they belong to.