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We model and estimate the impact of these rewards on startups\u2019 performances using original data on about 1000 startups that have participated in the leading Swiss venture competition. We find that winning in the competition improves startups\u2019 business success on average. However, it does not affect all startups equally. Certification has a long-term positive effect on startups whose quality can be reliably assessed by the competition\u2019s judges. The cash prize, however, only has a short-term impact on startups with low running costs.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s11187-026-01234-3","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]],"date-time":"2026-06-30T07:42:45Z","timestamp":1782805365000},"page":"1553-1589","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Certification or cash prize: the heterogeneous effect of venture competitions"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"67","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7862-0918","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ga\u00e9tan","family":"de\u00a0Rassenfosse","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Matthias","family":"van den Heuvel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]]},"reference":[{"issue":"10","key":"1234_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1233","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.36.10.1233","volume":"36","author":"R Amit","year":"1990","unstructured":"Amit, R., Glosten, L., & Muller, E. 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