Israeli start-ups – especially in cyber security: Can a new model enhance their survival rate?

Sep 13, 2026

Start-up companies drive fast growth in Israel, yet half fail to survive beyond their fourth year. This paper examines why Israeli start-ups struggle to become successful and highlights a key cause: difficulties in understanding the competitive landscape, which reduces competitiveness. It proposes a competitive review model tailored to start-ups, particularly in cyber security, to strengthen preparedness for intense competition and complements existing analytical approaches, including the Lean start-up model.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryGeneral

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time4 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Keywords

1. Introduction

Journal of Intelligence Studies in Business Journal of Intelligence Studies in Business Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: [https://ojs.hh.se/index.php/JISIB/inde](https://ojs.hh.se/index.php/JISIB/index)[x](https://ojs.hh.se/index.php/JISIB/index) Israeli start-ups – especially in cyber security: Can a ne w mo d e l e n ha nc e their sur vi va l r a te ? Avner Barneaa* aNetanya Academic College, Netanya, Israel; *[avnerpro@netvision.net.il](avnerpro@netvision.net.il) To cite this article: Barnea, A. (2018) Israeli start-ups – especially in cyber security: Can a new model enhance their survival rate? Journal of Intelligence Studies in Business. 8 (1) 37-45. Article URL: [https://ojs.hh.se/index.php/JISIB/article/view/](https://ojs.hh.se/index.php/JISIB/article/view/285)[285](https://ojs.hh.se/index.php/JISIB/article/view/285) PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE This article is Open Access, in compliance with Strategy 2 of the 2002 Budapest Open Access Initiative, which states: Scholars need the means to launch a new generation of journals committed to open access, and to help existing journals that elect to make the transition to open access. Because journal articles should be disseminated as widely as possible, these new journals will no longer invoke copyright to restrict access to and use of the material they publish. Instead they will use copyright and other tools to ensure permanent open access to all the articles they publish. Because price is a barrier to access, these new journals will not charge subscription or access fees, and will turn to other methods for covering their expenses. There are many alternative sources of funds for this purpose, including the foundations and governments that fund research, the universities and laboratories that employ researchers, endowments set up by discipline or institution, friends of the cause of open access, profits from the sale of add-ons to the basic texts, funds freed up by the demise or cancellation of journals charging traditional subscription or access fees, or even contributions from the researchers themselves. There is no need to favor one of these solutions over the others for all disciplines or nations, and no need to stop looking for other, creative alternatives. Journal of Intelligence Studies in Business Vol. 8, No. 1 (2018) pp. 37-45 Open Access: Freely available at: [https://ojs.hh.se/](https://ojs.hh.se/) Israeli start-ups – especially in cyber security: Can a new model enhance their survival rate? Avner Barneaa* a Netanya Academic College, Netanya, Israel Corresponding author (*): [avnerpro@netvision.net.il](avnerpro@netvision.net.il) Accepted 21 March 2018 ABSTRACT Start-up companies are the fastest growing business in Israel. However, half of them do not last through their fourth year. This paper looks into the issue of the power of Israeli start-ups to survive and to become successful companies. The challenge is to seek new directions, which will help this sector to change this disappointing course. The start-up sector has a significant contribution to the strength of the Israeli economy which leans on its intellectual resources. Based on my continuing consulting in implementing competitive intelligence to local Israeli start-ups and further research that I have done by following closely the added value of developing capabilities, which enable better understanding of the external environment, I have found that one of the main causes of the high percentage of failures of Israeli start-ups is the difficulties in comprehending the competitive landscape, which has a significant contribution to making them less competitive. By using a new model, the competitive review model, which considers the special attributes of start-ups, especially in cyber security, this kind of small company can be better prepared for intense competition. This is in addition to the Lean start-up model, which i

FAQs

Why do many Israeli start-ups fail within their first four years?

The paper attributes a major cause to difficulties in comprehending the competitive landscape, which lowers competitiveness and survival chances.

What is the proposed solution to improve start-up survival?

It proposes a new competitive review model that considers start-up-specific attributes, especially for cyber security contexts.

How does the new model relate to the Lean start-up approach?

The paper positions the competitive review model as complementary to the Lean start-up model, noting that Lean is not effectively executed in this segment in Israel.

Sep 13, 2026

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