Internationalization, innovation and entrepreneurship: business models for new technology-based firms

New technology-based firms, particularly those that develop their business around a new technological platform, are likely to be impacted by globalization, in terms of both pace of innovation and pressure of competition. For these firms, strategic decisions and growth processes are characterized by a deep inter-relationship amongst the processes of internationalization, innovation and entrepreneurship; processes which have tended to be examined independently in distinct bodies of literature. In practice strategic decisions concern each of these processes and address issues such as organizational boundaries, location of the operational activities, what activities to focus on and selection of value partners. The business model by which firms operate needs also to accommodate the spatial dimensions indicated by globalization; and the emergence of global technology markets. Little is known to date about the extent to which business models accommodate or are adapted to internationalization, innovation and entrepreneurship. This paper presents a review of the business model literature from which a generic business model framework is derived, identifying and introducing the main elements of these processes as the firms?? focus, modus and locus. This contribution makes a clear distinction between the business model and the strategy concepts and highlights the relevance of location decisions??not considered by extant business model literature to date. While our discussion draws on the high technology new venture as our primary example, we believe our business model conceptualization has general applicability.     

专业化知识搜寻、管理创新与企业绩效：认知评价的调节作用

本研究基于探索/利用双元分析框架,将管理创新划分为利用式管理创新和探索式管理创新两个维度,并将知识搜寻和认知评价的理论观点整合到现有管理创新采纳与实施过程理论模型中,构建了一个研究模型,以考察双元管理创新的采纳过程及其实施对企业绩效的影响。本文以我国华南地区468家制造型企业为问卷调查对象,对上述研究模型进行实证检验,结果表明:(1)科学型知识搜寻主要促进探索式管理创新;市场型知识搜寻对利用式和探索式管理创新均有正向影响;供应链型知识搜寻主要促进利用式管理创新;(2)科学型知识搜寻与探索式管理创新间的关系同时受到风险性认知(负向)、匹配性认知(正向)和复杂性认知(负向)的调节效应影响;市场型知识搜寻与利用式管理创新间的关系仅受到复杂性认知的负向调节效应影响;供应链型知识搜寻与利用式管理创新间的关系同时受到风险性认知(负向)、匹配性认知(正向)和复杂性认知(正向)的调节效应影响,但其与探索式管理创新间的关系仅受到匹配性认知的负向调节效应影响;(3)利用式管理创新与企业绩效呈倒U型关系;探索式管理创新与企业绩效呈正U型关系。研究结论对于厘清管理创新的复杂采纳过程及其实施机理有一定的理论贡献,同时对企业顺利开展管理创新具有一定的实践启示意义。     

From Fragmentation to Comprehensiveness in Network Governance

Public networks are increasingly implemented at different government levels and across policy areas to increase coordination of services, decision-making and services delivery. Network governance is one promising theoretical perspective through which networks have been studied by different scholars and schools of thought. However, the literature on network governance is still fragmented, sectorial and issues-based. An overarching framework for the comprehensive analysis of the accumulate knowledge is missing. To address this limitation, we propose a comprehensive framework for analyzing the development of the findings in the field. The framework includes four building blocks that reflect the main issues debated in literature: the conditions affecting the choice of a mode of network governance, the modes of network governance, the dimensions of meta-governance and the outcome evaluation. The framework would support academics and policy makers who deal with network governance in different policy domains. The article concludes with a discussion of the proposed framework and its applications in future research.     

Managing Knowledge for Innovation

This paper describes a technique for identifying knowledge gaps in innovative firms. Gaps occur between existing knowledge and knowledge requirements and particularly occur when a firm is trying to introduce new processes or products. The authors were involved in a knowledge management project in a UK telecoms company and report on a framework that they developed that assists in examining the dimensions of knowledge gaps so that they may be bridged. This technique also allows the firm to measure the vulnerability of its knowledge bases.     

The Bind that Ties: Socioemotional Wealth Preservation in Family Firms

A growing body of research shows that family firms are different from other organizations in significant ways. In this paper we review this literature by examining how family firms differ from nonfamily firms along five broad categories of managerial decisions. These categories encompass a set of key organizational choices concerning management processes, firm strategies, corporate governance, stakeholder relations and business venturing. We argue that socioemotional wealth or affective endowment of family owners explain many of these choices. We also examine some contingency factors (namely family stage, firm size, firm hazard, and the presence of nonfamily shareholders) that moderate the influence of socioemotional wealth preservation as a point of reference when making managerial decisions in family firms. Lastly, we explore the firm performance consequences of family ownership.     

The Role of Non‐structural and Informal Mechanisms of Integration and Coordination as Forces in Knowledge Creation

This study focuses on the analysis of the influence of organizational design variables on the creation of knowledge within the firm. The impact that enablers have on knowledge creation has been widely demonstrated and established by the relevant literature. Using this assumption as a starting point, this study will consider and explore the role that mechanisms of integration and coordination play in the creation of knowledge, considering enablers as intermediate variables. In this way, we can create a model of the relationships between these variables and contrast them with an empirical investigation of a quantitative nature, using a sample of 167 large Spanish firms. Despite the fact that the theoretical framework in question is characterized by a direct and positive connection between the standardization of work processes and knowledge creation, the results suggest that the relation is not significant. All the other coordination mechanisms, however, do have a significant influence on the creation of knowledge: standardization of skills through the autonomy enabler; standardization of outputs through intention; interventions for socialization through intention and trust and commitment; and, lastly, mutual adjustment whose influence is found in redundancy and variety.     

Software firm evolution and innovation–orientation

The software industry is experiencing dramatic growth worldwide. This paper offers a theoretical framework to examine the growth and evolution of software firms from an innovation–orientation perspective. While it is apparent that the attitudes and perceptions of a firm’s key stakeholders towards innovative product development hold valuable insights on its future growth and evolution, such a perspective has received limited theoretical attention in studies on firm evolution. In this paper, we define a software firm growth stage model that reflects the changes in a firm’s process and product portfolios. We offer a set of research propositions that link the innovation-related attitudes and perceptions of a firm’s internal stakeholders to firm evolution. The research model has several important implications for both research and practice and can be extended to other high technology contexts.     

Temporary Employment in France: A Decade Statement

One of the more important aspects of French labour market changes since the mid-1970s is the growth of temporary work; fixed-term contracts and interim contracts. With a survey of French literature since the early 1980s, this article analyses explanatory factors of temporary work: macroeconomic factors: institutional framework, workforce supply to user firms, economic fluctuations; microeconomic factors: firm/ plant characteristics, economic and social firm strategies. Models of firms supplying temporary jobs are presented.     

知识管理战略、组织能力与绩效的关系实证研究

本文在文献研究的基础上归纳出描述和测量知识管理战略的六个主要维度:外部导向、内部导向、显性导向、隐性导向、探索导向和利用导向.基于397家中国企业的问卷调查所得数据,本文检验了知识管理战略、组织能力和企业绩效三者的关系,发现知识管理战略能显著地提升组织能力,而组织能力对企业绩效有显著的促进作用,组织能力在知识管理战略与企业绩效的关系中起完全中介作用.     

Inter‐organizational Cooperation and Environmental Change: Moderating Effects between Flexibility and Innovation Performance

The paper investigates the moderator effect of inter‐organizational cooperation in the relationship between workplace flexibility and innovation performance. This research question is important because innovation is dependent on the strategic integration of technological knowledge, requiring organizations to acquire new capabilities rapidly or to ensure the presence of knowledge that may be beyond existing internal capabilities. Inter‐organizational cooperation constitutes a relevant mechanism for a firm to increase its knowledge base concerning new products and processes. High‐cooperation firms may have more opportunities to take advantage of flexibility for innovation performance because it facilitates the access and dispersion of knowledge within the firm. We test the research hypotheses in a sample of manufacturing and service firms. The results contribute to the literature on flexibility and innovation because they demonstrate that inter‐organizational cooperation moderates the relationship between flexibility and innovation performance. We discuss the implications of these results for future research and managerial practice.     

Identifying Technology Spillovers and Product Market Rivalry

The impact of R&D on growth through spillovers has been a major topic of economic research over the last thirty years. A central problem in the literature is that firm performance is affected by two countervailing “spillovers” : a positive effect from technology (knowledge) spillovers and a negative business stealing effects from product market rivals. We develop a general framework incorporating these two types of spillovers and implement this model using measures of a firm's position in technology space and productmarket space. Using panel data on U.S. firms, we show that technology spillovers quantitatively dominate, so that the gross social returns to R&D are at least twice as high as the private returns. We identify the causal effect of R&D spillovers by using changes in federal and state tax incentives for R&D. We also find that smaller firms generate lower social returns to R&D because they operate more in technological niches. Finally, we detail the desirable properties of an ideal spillover measure and how existing approaches, including our new Mahalanobis measure, compare to these criteria.     

Towards an adaptive framework of low-end innovation capability – A systematic review and multiple case study analysis

Low-end innovations, defined as new products or services that expand a market by addressing consumers with a low willingness or ability to pay, have a dual purpose – they can be a prerequisite for firm survival and growth and a major driver of societal change. To overcome the scattered nature of existing low-end innovation research and its lack of an explicit capability conceptualization, which limits academia's ability to move extant knowledge about the domain forward and limits firms' abilities to reliably produce successful low-end innovations, we present the results of a systematic review of the literature (99 journal articles) and a multiple case study analysis (7 cases). The resulting framework helps understand what constitutes a low-end innovation capability. The findings show that firms need a specific and interdependent capability set consisting of internal dimensions (low-end culture and commitment, integrated cost-reducing innovation, high volume scaling), interface dimensions (distant customer needs acquisition, iteration, total solution development) and external dimensions (access creation, low-end support networking) to cope with low-end markets' unique characteristics. The study also identifies market- and firm-specific contingencies for each capability dimension and analyzes the relationship between low-end and “regular” innovation capability.     

Research on Markets for Inventions and Implications for R&D Allocation Strategies

Several streams of literature have examined the phenomenon of “markets for inventions”, that is, the trade of elements of knowledge which are “disembodied” from individuals, organizations, and products. The aims of this paper are to bring together the various streams of research in this area and discuss their major assumptions and limitations, in order to provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the phenomenon, and identify promising paths for future research. We start our review by identifying the object of market exchange—that is, an invention whose knowledge has been codified and disembodied from individuals, organizations, or artifacts. We then identify those factors that enable firms to trade inventions, distinguishing between institutional-, firm-, and industry-level factors. We close our analysis of the extant literature by discussing the implications of markets for inventions for firm behavior and performance. Against this background, we highlight an important avenue for future research. A neglected implication of the development of invention markets is that firms are confronted with a wide variety of technological paths from which to choose, because the opportunity to acquire technologies on the market offers them a greater variety that can their internal R&D departments. However, the streams of research on markets for inventions and on R&D allocation strategies have been surprisingly disconnected so far. Hence, in the final section, we start to establish and explore the link between these literatures, and to identify a research agenda in this domain.     

An empirical investigation of technology strategy in computer software initial public offering firms

Strategic management of technological resources plays a significant role in the success of firms in computer-related industries. To expand the literature on technology management in growing organizations, this paper presents a study of the relationships among select technology strategy dimensions and perceived performance of initial public offering (IPOs) computer software firms. Using content analysis, technology strategy data were collected from the prospectus of 31 computer software firms who committed IPOs in 1996. Empirical analysis shows support for propositions that a firm's technology posture and executive level technology experience influence investor reactions to IPOs.     

Exploring the effects of creative CEO leadership on innovation in high-technology firms

This study introduces two dimensions of strategic leadership, termed operational and creative specifically developed for top executives of high-technology firms. Creative leadership reflects a CEO's emphasis on developing social and human capital and investing in the firm's internal knowledge development. We contrast this with operational leadership which reflects a CEO's ability to explore new paths of growth as well as exploit existing ones by redefining and extending the boundaries of the firm to new product and market domains. Hypotheses relating these two dimensions of leadership with innovation quantity, innovation resonance and novelty are tested using a sample of 77 high-technology firms.     

Understanding knowledge transfer in M&As: An integration of resource orchestration and social capital theories and evidence from UK acquiring firms

Whileknowledge transfer is one of the key components in determining Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) success, the current M&A literature has produced inconsistent findings regarding its antecedents and consequences. To address this research gap, this study explores the roles of functional integration and shared goals in facilitating knowledge transfer, which will in turn determine M&A success. To provide a more nuanced understanding of knowledge transfer, this study examines bilateral knowledge flows (e.g., knowledge transfer to a target firm from the UK acquiring firm and knowledge transfer from a target firm to the UK acquiring firm). Our research framework is built upon two different theoretical perspectives, namely resource orchestration and social capital theories. Our propositions were tested empirically across a sample of 131 UK cross-border M&A firms. Our results reveal that the affirmative roles of functional integration and shared goals in increasing knowledge transfer both to and from a target firm are confirmed and that knowledge transfer to the target firm is deemed decisive for M&A success. Based on the findings, we discuss theoretical and practical implications, followed by limitations and future study consideration.     

A ‘No Blame’ Approach to Organizational Learning

In high‐reliability organizations (HROs) even minor errors can seriously hinder the very existence of the firm and the safety of employees and customers. Field studies have shown that HROs encourage the reporting of errors and near misses, exploiting these incidents to improve their operative processes. In this paper, we describe this practice as a ‘no blame’ approach to error management, and link it to learning theory, showing how no blame practices can enhance organizational learning. By taking a cognitive perspective of organizations, we draw on existing contributions and on a set of empirical case studies to discuss the characteristics of no blame practices, and their applicability in traditional, non‐HROs. Our findings show that, in exploiting information from error‐reporting, no blame practices are beneficial in environments where learning and reliability issues are particularly relevant. Empirical evidence suggests that a no blame approach can be extremely constructive for organizations that want to enhance their learning processes. We conclude that a no blame approach is a valuable way to achieve an organization that has flexibility and variability. However, no blame practices imply a set of organizational issues and costs that pose significant challenges to firms operating in non‐high‐reliability settings. The findings from our study contribute to the literature on HROs and organizational learning.     

Workforce/Population,Economy, Infrastructure,Geography, Hierarchy,and Time (WEIGHT): Reflections on the Plural Dimensions of Disaster Resilience

The concept of resilience and its relevance to disaster risk management has increasingly gained attention in recent years. It is common for risk and resilience studies to model system recovery by analyzing a single or aggregated measure of performance, such as economic output or system functionality. However, the history of past disasters and recent risk literature suggest that a single-dimension view of relevant systems is not only insufficient, but can compromise the ability to manage risk for these systems. In this article, we explore how multiple dimensions influence the ability for complex systems to function and effectively recover after a disaster. In particular, we compile evidence from the many competing resilience perspectives to identify the most critical resilience dimensions across several academic disciplines, applications, and disaster events. The findings demonstrate the need for a conceptual framework that decomposes resilience into six primary dimensions: workforce/population, economy, infrastructure, geography, hierarchy, and time (WEIGHT). These dimensions are not typically addressed holistically in the literature; often they are either modeled independently or in piecemeal combinations. The current research is the first to provide a comprehensive discussion of each resilience dimension and discuss how these dimensions can be integrated into a cohesive framework, suggesting that no single dimension is sufficient for a holistic analysis of a disaster risk management. Through this article, we also aim to spark discussions among researchers and policymakers to develop a multicriteria decision framework for evaluating the efficacy of resilience strategies. Furthermore, the WEIGHT dimensions may also be used to motivate the generation of new approaches for data analytics of resilience-related knowledge bases.     

The institutionalization of knowledge transfer activities within industry–university collaborative ventures

Due to the changing competitive landscape, organizations must increasingly focus on acquiring external knowledge to advance new technologies. This study examines the institutionalization of knowledge transfer activities between industrial firms and university research centers. Data were collected from 189 firms collaborating with 21 university research centers in the US. Results show that knowledge transfer activities are facilitated when industrial firms have more mechanistic structures, cultures that are more stable and direction-oriented, and when the firm is more trusting of its university research center partner. Implications for both industry and universities, including their effect on firm performance, are discussed.     

The globalization of smaller agri-food firms: a decision-making framework tested through case research

Anecdotal evidence suggests that smaller firms are responding in various ways to market trends towards globalization. A fundamental question arises as to why some smaller firms are including global markets in their strategies and business operations while other firms with similar size and product mix are not. This paper hypothesizes necessary and sufficient conditions for a smaller agri-food firm to become actively global in perspective and practice. An hypothesized decision framework is articulated and results are reported from eight cases used to test this framework. The paper concludes that perceptions about competitive advantages and effective demand, and operative decision rules employed by the firm will determine if and when a firm can globalize its scope of operations.