Published Paper Details:

Why do some startups survive the critical three-year mark while others, even those with strong ideas and adequate funding, fail silently within 36 months? The systematic literature review addresses that question by exploring the relationship between motivational human resource management (HRM) practices and startup survival, but with a more specific geographic focus on the startup ecosystem in Mumbai, India - the most expensive, most competitive and most complex entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country. A total of 140 peer-reviewed articles found in Scopus, Web of Science, and EBSCO were reviewed, screened, and synthesized based on the guidelines of PRISMA 2020. The review confirms the 36-month demarcation point as a theoretically grounded and empirically established demarcation point between organizational precariousness and relative stability, anchored in Liability of Newness, Resource-Based View, Organizational Ecology, and Self-Determination Theory. Five thematic categories of motivational HR practices are identified, namely, equity-based compensation (ESOPs), career development, recognition culture, flexible work arrangements, and open communication, which are linked to different mechanisms of survival. The study proves that ventures that adopt systematic motivational HR practices in their incubation stage are more likely to survive beyond three years. The review highlights crucial areas for further research in the Mumbai context, such as the lack of research papers indexed in Scopus concerning the entrepreneurial ventures of MMR. The literature search will be confined to those articles published till October 2025.