BRIDGING THE REGIONAL DISPARITIES IN STARTUP DEVELOPMENT UNDER THE INNOVATIVE STARTUP ACT

Abstract

This phenomenological study examined how startup founders and institutional actors across selected Philippine regions experienced and made meaning of their access to support under the Innovative Startup Act (Republic Act No. 11337). The study addressed policy, research, and management gaps concerning the concentration of program benefits in the National Capital Region (NCR).

Anchored in interpretivism and framed by Krugman's spatial inequality theory, the resource-based view, the entrepreneurial ecosystem model, and institutional theory, the study used a descriptive phenomenological design and the Modified Van Kaam method (Moustakas, 1994). The researcher conducted individual and key-informant interviews with twenty-four participants: twelve founders who received Startup Grant Fund (SGF) or Startup Venture Fund (SVF) financing, and twelve program officers, incubator managers, and policy actors, sampled for maximum regional and ecosystem variation.

Twenty themes emerged. Regional inequity was found to arise less from discriminatory program design than from the self-reinforcing concentration of ecosystem density, institutional capacity, and information flow in Metro Manila. Founders experienced formal inclusion alongside experiential distance: decisive barriers were compound and pre-application; the most durable program value — capability, networks, and legitimacy — was invisible to short-term evaluation metrics; and compliance costs fell hardest on the smallest ventures. Participants located genuine equity in sustained institutional presence rather than mere national availability of a program.

Correcting regional disparity requires transforming implementation rather than revising the enabling law. The study recommends financial-management interventions addressing allocation, entry cost, appraisal horizon, disbursement design, and post-grant sustainability.

Aligned with Sustainable Development Goals 8, 9, and 10, this study contributes an original founder-level, first-person account of regional access to Philippine startup policy, supporting the design of more inclusive innovation ecosystems.