Are entrepreneurial venture's innovation rates sensitive to investor complementary assets? Comparing biotech ventures backed by corporate and independent VCs

Entrepreneurial ventures are a key source of innovation. Nowadays, ventures are backed by a wide array of investors whose complementary asset profiles differ significantly. We therefore assert that entrepreneurial ventures can no longer be studied as a homogeneous group. Rather, we harness the inherent dichotomy in the profiles of independent VCs and corporate investors to study ventures' innovation outcomes. Our sample consists of 545 U.S. biotechnology ventures founded between 1990 and 2003 and backed by independent venture capitalists (VCs) or corporate VCs (CVC). We find CVCs' investees exhibit higher rates of innovation output, compared to independent VC‐backed peers. Moreover, the performance of CVC‐backed ventures is sensitive to their ability to leverage corporate assets, underscoring the role of CVC accessibility and FDA approval requirements as the mechanisms associated with CVC contribution. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

When does corporate venture capital add value for new ventures?

New ventures face a trade‐off when considering corporate venture capital (CVC) funding. Corporate investors can provide complementary assets that enhance the commercialization of new venture technologies. However, tight links with a particular corporate investor has drawbacks and may constrain new ventures from accessing complementary assets from diverse sources in an open market. Taking this trade‐off into account, we explore conditions under which CVC funding is beneficial to new ventures. Using a sample of computer, semiconductor, and wireless ventures, we find that CVC funding is particularly beneficial for new ventures when they require specialized complementary assets or operate in uncertain environments. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Acquiring knowledge by foreign partners from international joint ventures in a transition economy: learning‐by‐doing and learning myopia

This paper proposes and tests a model of how firms acquire knowledge from their international joint venturing experience. Based on survey responses from 73 Singapore and 89 Hong Kong firms with respect to their joint ventures set up in China, the results indicate that both overseeing effort and management involvement are significant channels of knowledge acquisition. The former channel is more important for firms with a great deal of operational experience in China and for parents of older joint ventures. This finding indicates that firms improve their skills of knowledge acquisition through learning‐by‐doing. Moreover, the strategic importance of the venture concerned, instead of the learning intent of the parent, is the driving force behind the allocation of resources to the two channels. This implies that firms mainly learn through managing their key joint ventures. Since a venture that provides novel and fruitful learning experience may not, and need not, be an operation of great strategic importance, this finding suggests the existence of learning myopia. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The three faces of corporate renewal: Institution,revolution, and evolution

We examine corporate renewal by taking a structural approach and focusing on the routines and rules that are part of large, established, bureaucratic organizations. We characterize approaches to the management of innovation in terms of three different themes–institutional, revolutional, and evolutional strategies. The first two approaches involve intentional efforts to encourage innovation, either within the current organizational paradigm (institutionalizing innovation) or moving away from it (revolutionary innovation), while the evolutional approach involves less conscious efforts to manage what is viewed as a random, probabilistic process. This paper uses simulation methodology to explore the effectiveness of these strategies on organizational innovation, performance, and resources. The behavior of the simulated organizational units is guided by assumptions of a learning model. Results indicate that innovation strategies sometimes have unintended effects that are both positive and negative in nature. Several lessons on managing innovation are offered.     

信息时代的企业组织变革研究

随着信息时代和全球经济一体化的到来,企业面临的竞争压力越来越大,企业要想更好地获得发展,就需要进行相应的组织变革,以适应环境的变化。文章首先从企业内外部环境的变化,分析信息时代企业组织变革的必要性,进而探讨了企业组织的变革方向,即扁平化、虚拟化、网络化、柔性化的发展趋势。     

企业社会责任、社会资本与组织竞争优势:一个战略互动视角——基于中国转型期经验的实证研究

本文融合社会资本理论,构建了转型经济中企业社会责任影响组织竞争优势的理论框架,并运用151家中国企业的调查数据进行了实证检验。结果发现:企业社会责任与经济绩效之间不存在相关性,但与组织声誉正向相关,社会资本会明显强化企业社会责任的声誉效应。具体而言,等级制社会资本会显著促进企业社会责任与组织声誉的相关关系,而市场社会资本则限制了企业社会责任对组织声誉的贡献。本文从研究方法的跨层次风险、资源依赖的动态性和整合能力等方面进行了应用性的讨论,建议中国企业用基于社会资本的战略性社会责任超越慈善导向的社会责任,通过这种战略转型积聚组织竞争优势。     

AN EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE ON DIVERSIFICATION AND CORPORATE RESTRUCTURING: ENTRY,EXIT, AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE DURING 1981–89

This study proposes a theoretical perspective that firms engage in continuous search and selection activities in order to improve their knowledge base and thereby improve their performance. This general framework is applied to the context of corporate evolution. Entry and exit activities are understood as search and selection undertaken by the firm to improve their performance. One of the compelling features of this framework is that firms learn from their past entry experience and approach the next entry in a more focused and directed manner over time. Also, firms acquire additional knowledge from each entry event while applying their existing knowledge base. With a longitudinal (1981–89) data base on entry and exit activities of all publicly traded manufacturing firms in the United States, this study shows that applicability of the firm's knowledge base plays an important role in predicting which businesses a firm enters or exits. Firms sequentially enter businesses of similar human resource profiles and firms are more likely to divest lines of business of different profiles. Corporate-level analysis shows that such well-directed entry and exit contribute to the improvement of a firm's profitability.     

Government corruption and foreign stakes in international joint ventures in emerging economies

This paper analyzes the relationship between government corruption and the changes in the equity stake of foreign partners in international joint ventures (IJVs) formed with local firms in emerging Asian economies. This relationship is defined according to transaction cost theory. This relationship is complemented by the introduction of a moderating variable derived from organizational learning theory: the country experience of foreign partners. This article is based on a sample of 171 European firms, which formed IJVs in emerging Asian economies during the year 1996. Using an event history analysis, the evolution of each European equity stake was followed-up from year 1996 to the end of the period at risk on January 2007. From the empirical results presented in this article, some findings have been drawn on the attitudes of foreign firms toward government corruption in emerging Asian economies. First, we showed that the government corruption is significantly related to the likelihood of foreign partners to terminate the IJV. However, the nature of this relationship is differentiated according to the score used to measure government corruption. The relationship is positive when using the Transparency International score and negative with the Political Risk Services score. Second, we put into evidence that the country experience of foreign partners moderates the relationship between government corruption and the changes in the equity stake of foreign partners in IJVs in emerging Asian economies.

外部社会资本对新创企业绩效的影响研究--知识获取的中介作用

基于企业知识理论的观点认为知识资源已成为企业最为重要的战略性资源。外部社会资本作为新创企业社会关系网络在创业活动中的嵌入,是企业知识获取的重要手段。该文以社会资本理论为基础,通过对湖北省内116家新创企业的有效问卷调查及结构方程分析,研究表明,新创企业外部社会资本的结构维度、关系维度、认知维度对知识获取、新创企业绩效有显著影响,知识获取在新创企业外部社会资本与新创企业绩效的关系中起到部分中介作用。因此新创企业应加强外部社会资本构建和管理能力,促进知识获取,从而实现企业绩效的提升。