Abstract
The research interest in software startups has expanded a lot in the last years as shown by the increase in the published papers, and the organization of research workshops. However, two recent systematic mapping studies recognize an inconsistency in the characterization of software startups in the literature, even though they acknowledge that innovativeness and uncertainty are the common themes the literature uses to describe these companies. In the new product development lit- erature, even though not consolidated, innovativeness is usually related to technology and/or market discontinuities. These two different types of novelty could bring distinct consequences to software development ac- tivities in software startups. Using a case survey research approach, we analyzed 27 published papers from the period 2013-17. We identified and categorized the innovation in 18 software startups products or services from the perspective of discontinuities. We found that software engineer- ing literature did not differentiate software startups based on the innova- tions they develop. Nevertheless, most studied software startups work on products with a market discontinuity and without a technological one.