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CONTEXT Driven by a changing business environment and by the constantly altering guises of change, established firms increasingly feel compelled to evoke the entrepreneurial spirit that characterizes their young entrepreneurial counterparts. Firms think of corporate entrepreneurship because their value creation rate or their change coping vigor lags behind. It is thought of as an antidote for fossilization, allowing established firms to rejuvenate and revitalize. It is brought into practice as a tool for business development, revenue growth, profitability enhancement and pioneering the development of new business, products and services. However, its utility as an occasional drug administered to promptly boost the firm’s competitive power is limited. Rather, it demands an architectural approach, building entrepreneurial firms by concentrating on internalizing some of the capabilities and competences of entrepreneurially performing companies. APPROACH Given the promising nature of corporate entrepreneurship for established firms, researchers are eager to identify those capabilities, competences, resources or practices that can support firms in their efforts to accomplish their entrepreneurial rebirth. However, existing research on this topic is burdened by two major flaws. Theoretically, it is built on unstable (patches of) conceptual ground. And empirically, it is dominated by research favoring opinion-like and intention-directed measures, diverting the attention away from measures reflecting true entrepreneurial successes (which is what the firms long to accomplish after all). In an attempt to get corporate entrepreneurship research deliverables more in line with the surging enthusiasm for the practice, this dissertation tries to delineate an appropriate theoretical base for understanding and describing the multi-facet corporate entrepreneurship phenomenon. This has lead to the so-called nexus model of corporate entrepreneurship, including the creator, the creating process and new value created (innovation, venturing and renewal). Subsequently, the dissertation develops and tests a resource-based model in an integrative way. All of this with the intent of detecting resources or capabilities that prove to make a difference in scoring corporate entrepreneurial successes. In order to explore and assess elements’ contribution to new value created, we have focused on three major objectives that have been covered in five research themes: (1) the relatedness of innovation, venturing and renewal, (2) the relatedness of the resources and capabilities studied and (3) the contribution of the resources and capabilities studied to innovation, venturing and renewal. The analyses built on a realized sample of over 200 Flemish firms of diverse sectors. Based on our findings it is possible to suggest to management and policy a series of resources (stocks) and capabilities (flows) they should focus on in their efforts to increase firm new value creation. There are stocks and flows that can simultaneously stimulate innovation, venturing and renewal (e.g. R&D investment, networking, etc.). Correctly estimating the contribution of the resources and capabilities, however, demands that their relatedness is taken into account. If not, their contribution to the NVC drivers can be seriously underestimated. In addition, the relatedness of the elements is also important to be considered when firms make this resource investment decisions and determine their (temporal) priorities. It points to the need for firms to manage their resources very considerately, both in time as at a given moment of time. General introduction Chapter 1. The corporate entrepreneurship construct Chapter 2. Building a resource-based model of corporate entrepreneurship Chapter 3. Sample and methods Chapter 4. Corporate entrepreneurship: integrative analyses General conclusions Epilogue status: published

The study presented here explores innovation as a corporate entrepreneurial outcome in recently established small firms. More precisely, we explore the role of upper echelon and employee human capital and human resources management as determinants of innovation. Our approach builds on a 'human resource'-based view, stressing the importance of (1) entrepreneur/entrepreneurial team ('upper echelon') human resources and (2) employee human resources and their management in determining the innovation performance of start-ups. As innovation is one of the three possible outcomes of corporate entrepreneurship (innovation, venturing and renewal), we take a corporate entrepreneurship research approach in examining innovation in start-ups. The analyses are based on a sample of 294 start-ups covering a wide range of economic activities, having 1 to 49 employees and being in their second year of life in 2003. The results indicate that both types of human capital do matter in the context of start-up innovation. First of all, employee human capital and HRM have a strong positive effect on innovation. Second, while we could not trace direct effects of entrepreneur/entrepreneurial team human capital on innovation, indirect effects (via HRM or employee human capital) of for instance education level and business advice are indisputably present. All things considered, the study teaches us that valuing human capital in start-ups can contribute to a considerable extent to preserving their innovation performance, thus stimulating their chances of building a viable business model and safeguarding future growth and further development. ispartof: DTEW Research Report 0504 pages:1-29 status: published

In a free market economy the importance of small business as a major job supplier, innovatorand source of growth is widely recognized. Given the importance of small business for aneconomy, the survival, success and performance of these firms is an issue of continuousconcern. Research that can lead to the identification of those factors associated with smallbusiness performance is of great interest to policy makers, owner-managers and their advisors.This article aims at detecting predictors of small business profitability. Our objective is todistinguish internal factors of small construction companies that enhance firm profitability.Based on the data of an empirical survey in the construction industry to which certifiedfinancial data has been added, this paper investigates the influence of owner-manager humancapital characteristics and selected management practices on the profitability of smallconstruction companies. For this purpose, we develop and test a structural model. Resultsindicate that industry experience and level of education of the owner-manager andmanagement practices such as avoidance of cash credit and the use of actual costing systemscontribute to higher profitability. Furthermore, owner-manager human capital characteristicsinfluence profitability both directly and indirectly. ispartof: Working Paper Series 2004/07 pages:1-38 status: published

The contribution of this study, which assesses the influence of HRM on financial performance, is fourfold. (1) We assess the relative contribution of different HR domains to organizational performance. By controlling for the overall HRM intensity in all analyses we try to meet one of the most striking shortcomings of 'single HR practice research', namely the neglect of the potential simultaneity that might exist with other HR practices. (2) By studying small Belgian companies, we focus on the importance of HRM for small business management. (3) Relying on bankruptcy prediction models, we optimize the conceptualization of financial performance. (4) Using structural equation modeling, we try to capture the mediating effect of operational performance on the relationship between HRM and financial performance. The analyses indicate mixed results for different HR domains with regard to their impact on operational and financial performance. ispartof: DTEW Research Report 0331 pages:1-34 status: published