Commercialization of Startup Ideas under Stagflation: A Framework for Business Resilience and Adaptive Technology Complexity

Stagflation creates a particularly challenging environment for startups because increasing costs, declining purchasing power, restricted access to capital, and heightened market uncertainty occur simultaneously. Under such conditions, conventional commercialization strategies based on substantial upfront investment and high technological sophistication may increase the distance between an entrepreneurial idea and actual revenue. This conceptual study develops the Stagflation-Resilient Commercialization through Adaptive Technology Complexity (STC-ATC) framework to explain how startups can dynamically adjust their commercialization strategies to changing economic conditions. The study adopts an integrative conceptual approach by combining insights from lean startup, effectuation, dynamic capabilities, frugal innovation, entrepreneurial bricolage, and entrepreneurial resilience. The proposed framework introduces Adaptive Technology Complexity as its central contribution. It argues that the appropriate level of technological complexity should decrease as stagflationary pressure intensifies and increase progressively as economic stability and market capacity recover. Under severe stagflation, startups should prioritize minimum viable products, rapid market validation, frugal innovation, adaptive pricing, and early revenue generation. As revenues and economic conditions improve, reinvestment can support technology upgrading, automation, advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and research and development. The framework therefore proposes a cyclical commercialization logic: simplify under pressure, monetize early, reinvest, upgrade technology, and scale with recovery. The study provides theoretical propositions and managerial and policy implications for startups and innovation-support institutions operating in emerging and economically volatile markets.

کلیدواژه ها:

Stagflation ، Startup Commercialization ، Adaptive Technology Complexity ، Frugal Innovation ، Entrepreneurial Resilience ، Emerging Economies