How Lean Startup Practices Affect Corporate Innovation
Abstract
This research adopts data of A-share listed firms from 2012 to 2024 and applies fixed-effect regression models. The results show that core lean startup tools including minimum viable products, rapid iteration and customer feedback can greatly lift corporate innovation outcomes. Mechanism tests reveal two parallel working paths of this method. First, it raises the level of entrepreneurial bricolage measured by the asset structure change index, which drives creative rearrangement of existing resources. Second, it improves the sufficiency of internal cash flow, calculated as the ratio of net operating cash flow to total assets, so firms gain stable self-owned capital to support innovation. Heterogeneity tests prove this positive effect is stronger in eastern regions, high-tech industries and non-regulated industries. Robustness checks, such as adding city fixed effects, removing samples from municipalities and dropping observations collected during pandemic years, all support the core conclusions. This study identifies two mediating paths that boost innovation, expands the practical application scope of lean startup theories, and offers practical references for innovation management under resource shortages.