Venture Exits: A Review and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

Exits are key events in the life cycles of entrepreneurial ventures. Venture exits have immense practical impacts on a variety of stakeholders, including founders, employees, organizations, resource providers, and broader ecosystems. As a result, the phenomenon of venture exits is of interest to a broad community of scholars across fields such as general management, entrepreneurship, finance and accounting, strategy, economics, organizational behavior, and psychology. We examine the multidisciplinary literature on venture exits, including initial public offerings, acquisitions, buy-outs, secondary sales, and related exit events, by analyzing 317 research articles published from 1991 to 2025. We integrate extant findings into a unified model describing the pre-exit, exit execution, and post-exit phases across multiple units of analysis: the individual, venture, resource provider, and environment. We identify common themes, predominant tensions, and important gaps, laying the foundation for a reinvigorated research agenda. Central to this agenda is embracing a process perspective that considers the fluidity of the actors, interests, and resources shaping venture exit decisions and outcomes. Grounded in our review, this perspective offers new insights into venture exits while creating opportunities to meaningfully challenge and advance existing approaches and theories.