NTBFs
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Recent papers in NTBFs
Software startup companies develop innovative, software-intensive products within limited time frames and with few resources, searching for sustainable and scalable business models. Software startups are quite distinct from traditional... more
Software startup companies develop innovative, software-intensive products within limited time frames and with few resources, searching for sustainable and scalable business models. Software startups are quite distinct from traditional mature software companies, but also from micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises, introducing new challenges relevant for software engineering research. This paper's research agenda focuses on software engineering in startups, identifying, in particular, 70+ research questions in the areas of supporting startup engineering activities, startup evolution models and patterns, ecosystems and innovation hubs, human aspects in software startups, applying startup concepts in non-startup environments, and methodologies and theories for startup research. We connect and motivate this research agenda with past studies in software startup research, while pointing out possible future directions. While all authors of this research agenda have their main background in Software Engineering or Computer Science, their interest in software startups broadens the perspective to the challenges, but also to the opportunities that emerge from multidisciplinary research. Our audience is therefore primarily software engineering researchers, even though we aim at stimulating collaborations and research that crosses disciplinary boundaries. We believe that with this research agenda we cover a wide spectrum of the software startup industry current needs.
— We examine to what extent a transaction relation-based value network maturity status of New Technology-Based Firms (NTBFs) is related to their survival. A specific challenge of NTBFs is their lack of market-orientation, which is why the... more
— We examine to what extent a transaction relation-based value network maturity status of New Technology-Based Firms (NTBFs) is related to their survival. A specific challenge of NTBFs is their lack of market-orientation, which is why the maturity of the ties they form towards the market in terms of customers, financiers, personnel and partners is supposed to be a strong indicator for survival. We analyze a sample of 170 NTBFs by capturing their value network status from business plans and defining their survival status using secondary research. Simple statistical tests and regressions suggest that the official registration of the business is a pre-step for survival that requires industry-specific value network dimension strengths. A sub-sample survival analysis shows that for all NTBFs that have reached registration, regardless of their industry, a stronger customer value network maturity dimension prevents from failure and is thus a significant predictor for survival. Moreover, the analyses partly support the idea that NTBFs from the IT sector are less dependent on a strong value network in the financier dimension to survive. The results are of relevance for both practitioners and researchers in the innovation system: a better understanding of the factors impacting on NTBF survival can help to provide more tailored support services for young firms, increase the effectiveness of resource allocations, and provide a basis for further research.
- by Christina Ungerer and +2
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- Entrepreneurship, Business Plan, NTBFs
—Validity of the business model is a key indicator for buying into ventures in the early-stage. Business models of early-stage ventures decrease in validity when developing the business over the progressing stages of the business... more
—Validity of the business model is a key indicator for buying into ventures in the early-stage. Business models of early-stage ventures decrease in validity when developing the business over the progressing stages of the business life-cycle. By doing so, the ventures are validating their business model when building transaction relationships to the surrounding value network. In prior research, we developed a research design based on existing business innovation proposals (onepager, pitch decks, business plans) that is assumed to evaluate the status of business model validation. The core hypothesis of the research design is that transaction relations represent a strong anchor between the business model and the business reality, thus providing information on the business model validity. In this research, we test this hypothesis by designing and analyzing a survey that was directed to founders taking part in a business plan competition. We compared the relationships described in the submitted business plans to the relations explicitely stated in the follow-up questionnaire. We identified that the described relations to customers, investors, and people (human resources) match the relationships expressed in questionnaires quite well. A significant disagreement, however, exists in the relationships to suppliers. We conclude that there is still a theoretical and empirical gap that leads to disagreement between business plans and reality in the group of suppliers. (Abstract)
- by Christina Ungerer and +1
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- Business Plan, NTBFs, Entrepreneruship
In this study we seek to better understand how the configuration of relationships immediately around a firm may impact its performance in context of its activities and industry. We use Q-analysis to reveal specific configurations of how... more
In this study we seek to better understand how the configuration of relationships immediately around a firm may impact its performance in context of its activities and industry. We use Q-analysis to reveal specific configurations of how actors are organized and involved in activities in relation to firm performance. This is an exploratory study, that employs Q-Analysis techniques, which “avoid the use of data transformations and summary measures,” and are considered “best suited for exploratory research and hypothesis generation” (Jacobson & Yan, 1998). This study uses interview transcripts in which questions regarding the involvement of actors towards the development or access of specific resources are analyzed as proposed in Hakansson’s network model (Hakansson, 1987, 1989) as source data.
The interviews analyzed were conducted as part of the 2001-2003 ISRN Innovation Survey in the new media and biotech industries in Vancouver. Subsets of firms are formed for comparison, by splitting the sample based on compound annual growth rate and industry. Conclusions are drawn in an attempt to link the performance of the new venture with the activities pursued through and the configuration of networks.
The interviews analyzed were conducted as part of the 2001-2003 ISRN Innovation Survey in the new media and biotech industries in Vancouver. Subsets of firms are formed for comparison, by splitting the sample based on compound annual growth rate and industry. Conclusions are drawn in an attempt to link the performance of the new venture with the activities pursued through and the configuration of networks.
The logic of network embeddedness has been widely used in the technology entrepreneurship literature in recent years, yet its operationalisation and use are neither well understood nor agreed upon. This paper reviews the logic of network... more
The logic of network embeddedness has been widely used in the technology entrepreneurship literature in recent years, yet its operationalisation and use are neither well understood nor agreed upon. This paper reviews the logic of network embeddedness as it has been invoked and operationalised to predict the performance of New Technology-Based Firms (NTBFs). We find network embeddedness to be a useful predictor for NTBF performance when operationalised at both the dyad and network levels and when interaction effects or contingency factors that account for environmental conditions and firm constraints are included.
Growth is a key indicator of the prosperity of an economy. In today's Germany the " Gründerzeit " still describes a period of enormous economic growth. Factors that lead to growth haven't been investigated in the context of the different... more
Growth is a key indicator of the prosperity of an economy. In today's Germany the " Gründerzeit " still describes a period of enormous economic growth. Factors that lead to growth haven't been investigated in the context of the different life cycle stages of early-stage technology ventures so far. This paper proposes a model of early-stage ventures' growth based on factors. From a theoretical angle, we look at the business from the market-based view (MBV) and the resource-based view (RBV) on strategy in the longitudinal perspective of the business life cycle. With this view we get to know what are the stage specific needs and processes of new technology based ventures in order to provide appropriate support. We tested different potential growth indicators for the model with a questionnaire-based survey which was answered by 68 high-tech entrepreneurs. The results suggest that growth factors are stage specific in their relevance. While leading to growth in one stage, certain factors evince no or even negative influence on growth in other stages. Moreover, RBV factors as seen more relevant for the growth than the MBV factors. Further research requires a large and representative population to validate the results.
- by Lisa Hornberger and +2
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- Entrepreneurship, Business Plan, NTBFs
The business plan is one of the most frequently available artifacts to innovation intermediaries of technology-based ventures’ presentations in their early stages. Agreement on the evaluations of venturing projects based on the business... more
The business plan is one of the most frequently available artifacts to innovation intermediaries of technology-based ventures’ presentations in their early stages. Agreement on the evaluations of venturing projects based on the business plans highly depends on the individual perspective of the readers. One reason is that little empirical proof exists for descriptions in business plans that suggest survival of early-stage technology ventures. We identified descriptions of transaction relations as an anchor of the snapshot model business plan to business reality. In the early-stage, surviving ventures are building transaction relations to human resources, financial resources, and suppliers on the input side, and customers on the output side of the business towards a stronger ego-centric value network. We conceptualized a multidimensional measurement instrument that evaluates the maturity of ego-centric value networks based on the transaction relations of different strength categories that are described in business plans of early-stage technology ventures. In this paper, the research design and the instrument are purified to achieve high agreement in the evaluation of a business plan. As a result, we present an overall research design that can reach acceptable quality. The paper so contributes to the literature on business analysis in the early-stage of technology-based ventures and the research technique of content analysis.
Survival and growth of firms depends on their relationships to other organisations, including key suppliers, customers, supporters and competitors. This study compares geographic aspects of the networks of biotechnology firms (DBFs) and... more
Survival and growth of firms depends on their relationships to other organisations, including key suppliers, customers, supporters and competitors. This study compares geographic aspects of the networks of biotechnology firms (DBFs) and contract research organisations and service firms (CROs) in Vancouver, Canada. We find that for DBFs the key actors (organisations and individuals) that they network with are globally located (ie not local), despite the DBFs having originated from a local university. In contrast, CROs are more likely to network with local actors, and with actors on the same continent. Of the DBFs providing performance data, the distribution of their performance is consistent with recent developments in structural embeddedness theory (ie network coupling theory). This suggests that their performance may be inhibited if they are under- or over-embedded in their network, with the greatest opportunity for success in a medium range of coupling.