Growth diversity amongst innovative and technology–based new and small firms: an interpretation

Innovative and technology-based new and small firms have been the focus of rapid growth expectations, but the empirical evidence shows modest growth is the norm amongst such firms. This article provides an interpretation of the development of these firms which is intended to highlight some of the diversity which exists within this population of firms.     

Knowledge management in technology-focused firms in emerging economies: Caveats on capabilities,networks, and real options

In mature economies, technology-focused industries and the management of knowledge are widely viewed as critical to success. Increasingly, in emerging economies technology-focused industries and the management of knowledge are also viewed as important. To date, however, little is known about such activities in emerging economies. Particularly, it is not understood how knowledge management can impact efforts for corporate renewal in such environments. The literatures of the resource-based view of the firm, social capital/network theory, and real options theory are vital to providing insights for technology-focused industries and the management of knowledge in mature economies. In this paper we focus on the caveats when applying such theoretical foundations to emerging economies. To illustrate these issues we will draw on the largest emergent economy in the world, China.

Types of entrepreneurs and firms: The case of new Spanish firms

The main purpose of this paper is to present an empirical analysis of the sequence relating the performance of the firm to its behavior, which in turn depends upon the origin and personal characteristics of the entrepreneurs. The data are drawn from new Spanish firms. A typology of new entrepreneurs is constructed, based on their basic work aspirations. Each type of entrepreneur is then examined, in terms of the origin and personal characteristics of the members of the class. The results of the study show that significant differences exist among the entrepreneurs and firms of each type, especially in terms of the size of the firm (number of employees) and its evolution over time. The implications of these results, for the theory of entrepreneurship and for the design of policies towards the creation of new firms, are then derived.     

New technology based firms and the emergence of new industries: a reply

The article by Claire Shearman and Gibson Burrell which was published in this journal, Autumn 1988 (Vol. 3 No. 2) provoked an immediate response. Here Ray Oakey and Roy Rothwell exercise their right of reply. This is followed by a response from the authors who defend their original article.     

The role of market and entrepreneurship orientation and internal control in the new product development activities of Chinese firms

In this study, we build a systemic conceptual model to describe the relationship among firm orientation, internal control systems and new product development, and to test empirically how market and entrepreneurship orientations affect the degree of improvement in new product development through personal control and/or output control in the Chinese transitional economy. Our research findings provide some valuable insights into new product development. Entrepreneurship orientation not only has a direct positive effect on the degree of improvement in new product development, but also indirectly has a positive effect on it through personal control. At the same time, market orientation, through output control, has a negative indirect influence.     

New technology based firms and the emergence of new industries: some employment implications

This article challenges conventional theories on the role of NTBFs in the growth of new industries. Its'community dynamics'approach is an alternative to the SPRU model of'dynamic complementaries'and argues that while NTBFs are crucial, their capacity for employment generation is low.     

Organizational knowledge networks and local search: The role of intra‐organizational inventor networks

Research summary : While firms tend to build on their own knowledge, we distinguish between depth and breadth of local search to investigate the drivers of these behaviors. Given that inventors in a firm carry out the knowledge creation activities, we strive to identify inventors responsible for these behaviors by employing the notion of an intra‐firm inventor network. A longitudinal examination of 14,575 inventors from four large semiconductor firms using patent data supports our hypotheses that the reach of inventors in the intra‐firm network and their span of structural holes have independent and interactive effects on these two types of local search behaviors. These findings have implications for research on exploitation and exploration, organizational knowledge, knowledge networks, and micro‐foundations. Managerial summary : Large amounts of knowledge may reside within firm boundaries, and managers are interested in understanding who may leverage this knowledge to generate novel ideas. We focus on collaborations among knowledge workers to address this question. Using the collaborations among all knowledge workers in a firm, we show that those who have higher reach to all others and those who form bridges to connect unconnected groups of workers tend to leverage not only more organizational knowledge, but also knowledge that is more dispersed in the organization. Managers could use these insights to shape the use of organizational knowledge by firm inventors, and also to make decisions about granting or withholding access to internal knowledge platforms for knowledge workers. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Innovation support for new technology-based firms: the Swedish Teknopol approach

Small and medium sized firms in general and new technology-based firms in particular, serve as promoters of future economical growth. Therefore, it is of crucial importance to understand and satisfy their needs for innovation support services in regard to both the type of service and quality of delivery (e.g. confidentiality, speed).¹ Drawing upon a database of 259 new technology-based firms (NTBF) and 106 researchers, we have identified four needs bundles: marketing, technology, financing and soft service support. We have evaluated the effectiveness of the Swedish Teknopol scheme to meet these needs based upon 35 in-depth interviews with NTBFs. The conclusions of the evaluation are presented both for policy makers and NTBF managers.     

The extent and nature of heterogeneity of venture capital selection behaviour in new technology‐based firms

The success of technology transfer depends in part on new technology‐based firms (NTBFs) accessing venture capital (VC). Yet, little is known about venture capitalists' selection processes in this context. We examine the heterogeneity in the selection behaviour of VCs using a unique hand‐collected dataset comprising 68 European early‐stage high‐tech VC investors. We follow an inductive research design and use a conjoint analysis to decompose the investment decisions of VC investors. We identify three different clusters of VC investors: those who focus on technology (technology investors), those who focus on finance (financial investors) and those who focus on human capital (people investors). Technology investors attach more importance to the appropriability of the technology and contact with the entrepreneur than the other groups of VCs. For people investors, the human factors such as leadership capacities of the entrepreneur and the quality of the team are most important. Financial investors make their investment decision based on a limited set of factors such as ROI, growth and team completeness. Our results have important implications for NTBFs, venture capitalists and universities involved in technology transfer through spin‐off companies.     

The international strategy of state-owned firms: An organizational process and politics perspective

This paper focuses on European government-controlled enterprises (GCEs) which are normal commercial undertakings (e.g. Renault, ENI, British Leyland, Salzgitter) as opposed to public monopolies (e.g. electric or telephone companies). It asks why such companies do or do not go international and what is distinctive about their international strategy and why.     

The survival of new domestic and foreign‐owned firms

We compare the survival of new domestic and foreign‐owned firms. We analyze the determinants of the survival of new firms and investigate whether foreignness accounts for significant differences in the survival of new foreign and new domestic firms. We find survival to be determined by ownership advantages, size and growth strategies, the internal organization of firms, and by industry characteristics such as economies of scale, and industry entry and growth. After controlling for these characteristics, we find that domestic and foreign firms do not exhibit different chances of survival, that they respond in similar fashions to the determinants of survival and display identical time patterns of exit. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Idea-generation for industrial firms—report on an international investigation

In Germany a general interest in creativity and methods of idea-generation for industrial use arose in the late '60s, although initially knowledge was largely confined to catchwords; additionally insufficient experience hampered the appropriate diffusion of idea-generation techniques. For these reasons the Battelle-lnstitut e. V. at Frankfurt in 1971 initiated an extensive experimental research project in the field of creative idea-generation in industry. The most essential results from the research can be summarized as follows: 1. Synopses of methods of idea-generation in worldwide use enabled these methods to be grouped into six categories: Brainstorming methods (1), Brainwriting methods (2), Methods of creative orientation (3), Creative confrontation (4), Systematical structuring (5) and Systematical problem specification (6). 2. Investigations enabled the optimum conditions to be specified for applying Brainstorming, Brainwriting, Synectics and Morphological Analysis (which have to be considered as key methods) in respect to e. g. group size, group structure, leadership style. 3. Proposals were suggested for classifying problems into five different problem types (search, analysis, constellation, selection and consequence problems) together with recommendations on which problem type can be treated most efficiently with the available methods. 4. Recommendations were made on how the various methods of idea-generation can be integrated into complex problem-solving processes. 5. Original developments were reported of twelve alternative methods of idea-generation by the Battelle research team, e.g. TILMAG (reported in this paper), Sequential Morphology, Visual Synectics and Hypotheses Matrix. The investigations also led to the conclusions that further research was particularly needed in problem classification, processes of analysing problems, procedures of evaluating ideas, and different techniques for prompting ideas.     

A new perspective on open innovation: established and new technology firms in UK bio‐pharmaceuticals

The aim of this paper is to explore open innovation (OI) implementation and its impact on firm innovation performance in sectors experiencing technological discontinuities. The paper employs the framework of inbound, outbound and coupled OI to identify processes reflecting sourcing, externalising and exchanging knowledge across organisational boundaries on upstream and downstream innovation activities and explores their impact on the innovation performance of new and established technology firms. The empirical setting is the UK bio‐pharmaceuticals sector during 1991 and 2001, a paradigmatic era of discontinous change and intensified OI implementation. First, our findings show that new technology firms (NTFs) and established technology firms (ETFs) differ in their extent and patterns of inbound, outbound and coupled OI, reflecting that they implement OI to manage their competences in light of technological change. Second, we identify a complex and multifaceted relationship between OI and patenting performance, with NTFs experiencing enhanced performance from some OI processes while ETFs experiencing challenges. The paper suggests that delineating OI into inbound, outbound and coupled, along upstream and downstream activities, offers a deeper understanding of the role of OI in innovation, guiding selective implementation in pursuing enhanced innovation performance during periods of discontinuous technological change.     

Synergy,environmental context,and new product performance: A review based on manufacturing firms

This study adopts a meta-analytic approach to review the effects of technology synergy, marketing synergy and environmental context on new product performance by aggregating the empirical evidence documented in studies published from 1979 to 2011. Based on this aggregation, the results from a structural equation analysis show that (a) increasing technology and marketing synergies improves new product performance and the performance effect of marketing synergy is stronger than that of technology synergy; (b) increasing technology synergy enhances product advantage, which increases new product performance, whereas increasing marketing synergy does not; (c) increasing technology and marketing synergies may hinder product innovativeness; and (d) improving product innovativeness increases new product performance through product advantage. These findings suggest that ignoring the intermediary roles of product advantage and innovativeness may lead to an incomplete understanding of the relationships among technology and marketing synergies, environmental context, and new product performance. The results also demonstrate that technological turbulence affects new product performance through product innovativeness and advantage; in contrast, market intensity has a direct effect on new product performance. Future studies can examine the relationships among synergy, product effectiveness, and new product performance by constructing a mediated moderation or moderated mediation framework based on the environmental context.     

Patterns of international R&D cooperation for new product development: the Olivetti multimedia product

Abstract
The aim of the paper is to identify a number of different patterns of international R&D cooperation during the initial phases of the product development process. This is a case-study of new product development based on the work of the Olivetti Multimedia Laboratory in Pisa, how it set up its own pattern of multinational collaboration in the idea generation and pre-competitive phase; how, in turn, this collaboration led to new R&D collaboration agreements to satisfy specific problem-solving requirements connected with the confirmation of a dominant design, though limited to a certain extent by previous agreements between Olivetti and other firms; the role played by marketing in the choice of alternative solutions. Finally, in the product implementation phase, the emergence of a defined technological paradigm leads to a highly competitive environment, where R&D collaboration is increasingly directed towards multifunctional requirements (R&D, manufacturing, marketing) within a strategic network of alliances that involves large sized companies, start-up firms, industrial and university research units.     

Market value effects of acquisitions involving internet firms: a resource‐based analysis

While most prior research suggests that the average change in market value of acquiring firms varies closely around zero, recent research grounded in the resource‐based view and organizational learning theory identify positive returns to acquirers. We contribute to this literature by focusing on acquisitions of Internet firms and the potential for the transfer of scarce resources. We hypothesize that acquisitions made by offline firms of Internet firms and by Internet firms of other Internet firms lead to positive market valuation for the acquirer. Results of an event study of 798 acquisitions of Internet firms provided support for these predictions. We also find that prior alliances with online firms do not reduce the gains from such acquisitions to offline firms. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Beating competitors to international markets: The value of geographically balanced networks for innovation

Being able to launch new products internationally is critical for technology‐based ventures to recoup the high costs of R&D and to exploit their innovations fully. Despite the widely recognized importance of networks within the innovation development process, there appear to be contrasting viewpoints as to whether local or foreign network partners contribute more in the race to internationalize. Drawing on the theoretical underpinnings of comparative advantage, we propose and empirically confirm that ventures pursuing a balance of local and foreign network connections for the development of an innovation are able to bring the product more rapidly into the international marketplace. Furthermore, both innovation complexity and industry clockspeed heighten the importance of geographic network balance to the speed of product internationalization. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Research needs for technology education: an international perspective

These authors report the findings of a study that sought to determine the most relevant research issues needed to be studied by the technology education profession. It used an international panel of experts to develop a list of important research issues for the school subject of technology education and for the preparation of teachers to better teach it to pupils.