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PurposeThe purpose of this article is to obtain an in-depth insight into the nature and impact of customers´ cocreation experiences in online communities and the effects of customer cocreation on innovation processes.Design/methodology/approachThis study is focused on an online cocreation community created by a market research company on behalf of a company. By means of a case study approach and through in-depth interviews, the authors identify the actual customer experiences and measure (or assess) the degree of involvement of customer creativity and experience in new idea generation.FindingsCocreation experience can be enhanced through evoking pragmatic, sociability, usability and hedonic experiences and more positive experiences and therefore, outcomes of collaborative innovation in online communities can be achieved. Findings show a classification of each role the community moderator/community manager and peer online community members perform as antecedents of cocreation experience, highlight the value of group feeling/sense of community/sense of belonging and homophily/communality in achieving that, the nature of a supportive online platform and give an overview of positive and negative outcomes of cocreation experience.Originality/valueThis case study provides with valuable insights in the phenomenon of customer cocreation and how to enhance participation of community members in collaborative innovation in online communities through positive experience, which is important for businesses involved in innovation trajectories and product and service improvement efforts.

International-entrepreneurship researchers use a capability-based perspective to analyze the international performance of early-internationalizing firms. More than 300 papers seem to address the role of capabilities in international performance. The purpose of this study is to structure this literature and provide an orientation for researchers. First, we develop a capability-categorization model. Second, we use this model in conjunction with our systematic literature review to identify which capabilities dominate the literature and which may have been overlooked. Third, we find that, in a significant share of the papers, “capability” is defined rather loosely, which impedes theory development at the interface of the capability-based perspective and international entrepreneurship. We conclude with a research agenda for future capabilities-based international-entrepreneurship research.

We examine sensebreaking, a meaning void, that entrepreneurs experience due to critical feedback from early stakeholders using the socially situated cognition perspective. We show that sensebreaking aids novel sensemaking via three mechanisms-redirecting, reframing, and questioning-through longitudinal analysis of weekly diary reports that we collected from 30 entrepreneurs for one year. We describe the cognitive changes due to novel sensemaking. We derive a process model that illustrates how sensebreaking-sensemaking iterations over time effect changes to the shared cognition between entrepreneurs and their stakeholders while driving opportunity development. We advance the opportunity coconstruction literature by adding microlevel understanding of stakeholder interactions and explicating their effects on entrepreneurial cognition.

It has been over 15 years since the world's centers of research excellence in the management of technology and innovation (MOT) have been acknowledged. We have updated this area of interest through a new study on the current centers of excellence, furthering our investigation in the sub-field of technology entrepreneurship (TE). We based our study on the boundary conditions utilized in previous research, adding new metrics while retaining several of the old. We limited our data sample to peer-reviewed journal articles in recognized base journals. The centers’ research nature and quality were assessed via a series of 37 metrics. We found 809 schools with publications in MOT-recognized base journals and identified 77 non-U.S. centers in Asia, Australia, Europe, South and North America and 21 U.S. centers that meet our criteria for research excellence. Further, a detailed analysis was conducted for the 21 U.S.-based schools, considering metrics such as the number of publications by researchers during the study period, the MOT publication history, editorships of the professors of the centers in the base journals, and number of articles. Similarly, we identified 17 International centers of TE excellence out of the 348 schools that published in TE. We provide tiered results of the top schools excelling in selected areas.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the early development stages of International New Ventures (INVs). Specifically, the authors explore how INVs acquire and leverage four kinds of capital – strategic, managerial, financial and social – to recognise a foreign opportunity, begin the pre-foreign entry activities, and finally start the INV.Design/methodology/approachA stage-based, multidimensional framework was used to investigate how INVs acquire and use the four capitals throughout the internationalisation process. Drawing on four case studies of high-tech INVs, this study tracks their development in three stages: foreign opportunity, pre-foreign operation and post-foreign operation.FindingsResults indicate INVs build advantages and internationalisation activities occur before formal operations begin. INVs deliberately orchestrate certain kinds of capital contingent to the specific internationalisation stage. Further, the authors find that not all types of capital are equally important throughout the internationalisation process: INVs identify foreign opportunities when endowed with managerial and social capital; INVs source a majority of their managerial and financial capitals externally before internationalising; and INVs only contribute all four capitals simultaneously after internationalising.Research limitations/implicationsFindings contribute to knowledge about the development of INVs pre-internationalisation and pre-founding. The study is limited to a comparative sample of INVs, which impacts the generalisability. However, the findings provide a starting point for investigating similar effects using more representative samples.Practical implicationsEntrepreneurs can be proactive in networking activities to allow them greater opportunity to interact with potential resource providers dependent on the stage of internationalisation.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the international entrepreneurship literature with qualitative evidence of the micro-level processes of internationalisation. Very few studies investigate the early, pre-internationalisation and pre-foundation, development stages of INVs.

In the research reported here, we compared how future-oriented cognitive processes underpin differences in the quality of new venture ideas (NVIs) generated by respondents. We primed the use of future-oriented cognitive processes in two experiments. The first experiment shows that prospective thinking leads to NVIs of higher quality in comparison to counterfactual thinking, perspective taking and a control group. The second experiment shows that prospective thinking and perspective taking result in NVIs of higher quality compared to counterfactual thinking and the control group. We also find that prior knowledge of technology strengthens these effects. Post-hoc analyses show that these effects are present when respondents are prompted to generate NVIs, but not when they spontaneously generate NVIs, and that respondents with more prior business experience are more likely to spontaneously generate NVIs. Finally, we discuss contributions our research makes to the literature on entrepreneurial cognition and opportunity recognition, and to practice.

The entrepreneurial mindset (EMS) is an emerging concept within entrepreneurship research, but has yet to reveal its full potential. Its current understanding is still fragmented and intertwined with other concepts. The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretically informed definition of EMS that is descriptively robust and conceptually distinct from other concepts. By analysing definitions and comparing EMS to other established entrepreneurship concepts we argue that EMS captures both the developmental (ability) and the volitional (willingness) aspects that allow an individual to sense and seize an opportunity. It is the combination of these two aspects that makes EMS unique and distinct from other concepts. We ultimately propose future research steps to advance the understanding of this important phenomenon across multiple contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to integrate the seemingly disparate entrepreneurship and mindset literatures and extant work to conceptualize the entrepreneurial mindset and its embeddedness in an organizational context. Furthermore, we theorize about the entrepreneurial mindset as expressed through entrepreneurial spikes. We develop the entrepreneurial mindset concept as an ability and willingness combined phenomenon driving individuals, specifically in a corporate environment, in their entrepreneurial behavior, moving research forward from ‘what it is’ into understanding ‘how and when it works’. We detail the implications and insights and propose a future research agenda, focusing on the context beyond the content of the entrepreneurial mindset.

Orphan diseases pose both a challenge to the global medical community and an opportunity for it to focus on global peace engineering and innovation. Where, any single orphan disease is rare, when taken as a whole they affect more than 250 million people throughout the world. This number by comparison is larger than the global number of cancer and AIDS patients. We add to the literature by mapping the available knowledge in the orphan drug development field and exploring the tensions at play for innovation and entrepreneurship in this field. We further add to the literature by providing a framework to review this field based on social systems theory. Our review highlights the gaps in research and proposes a path forward in understanding of and learning from the orphan drug development field.

The authors seek to advance the understanding of social capital in the acquisition of other types of capital in the early stages of international new ventures (INVs). International technology-based new ventures are important for the growth of an abundant economy, yet little is known about how these firms utilise social capital to develop the resources required to initiate these firms. Here, we add to the literature by first defining INVs as firms that establish foreign operations, not just foreign sales. We then empirically demonstrate that social capital acquisition and use affects the development of the resources (capital) needed for the INV development - strategic, financial and managerial. Our results demonstrate that the development of social capital precedes other forms of capital acquisition for INVs.

The paper describes the case of the European entrepreneurship summer school (EESS) supported by a consortium of universities from different countries. The paper develops a set of theoretical propositions and practical recommendations for creating a learning community and space around a summer school activity in the context of a larger ecosystem encouraging students to choose a career in the respective area. The core elements building the innovativeness of the concept of this educational initiative are analyzed. First, it is the complementarity of expertise which shapes a teachers’ learning community’. Second, it is the active involvement of students achieved through preselection of motivated participants, coaching, and an individual and group work. Third, it is a creation of a safety feeling among participants to increase the mutual trust and intensive interactions among students. Forth, it is the co-opetition among students collaborating but also competing with the group-project presentations. Fifth, it is the pre-school preparation of students to achieve a minimal level of common knowledge of related concepts and techniques. The limitations of the EESS model are: (1) the international team of teachers, (2) the geographical dispersion which negatively contributes to the students’ pre-school learning community, (3) the volunteering activity of the organizers and teaching staff, which is limited by their main workload, (4) the financial model which does not allow to become sustainable without a support of the participating universities.

Our knowledge regarding the entrepreneurial mindset (EMS) in an organizational context continues to be fragmented, especially regarding what organizations can do in terms of conditions to stimulate employees’ EMS. EMS became a subject of interest because of its beneficial influence on organizational entrepreneurship. EMS is theorized to be active amongst managers, increasing the entrepreneurialness and competitiveness of organizations, by influencing their organizational members. The next step is to understand how the EMS of employees can be influenced by organizations. This chapter explores to what extent organizational conditions stimulate EMS. Based on the results from a small sample, the authors propose an investigation of EMS in an organizational context, to further understand its interaction with organizational conditions. The results, based on a survey analysis and interviews, indicate that organizational conditions stimulate EMS, implying that organizations can undertake action to influence employees’ EMS, for which propositions are formulated.

In this paper we tackle the question how entrepreneurs without initial industry-specific knowledge develop market-entry capabilities in knowledge intensive industries. To do so, we study how the yesterday’s parents without prior experience in this field, become entrepreneurs in order to find a cure to the disease of their children. We find that several parameters of the cases in focus make them “extreme” and, as several organizational theorists have recently emphasized, interesting from a theory construction perspective. With this research, we contribute to the emergence of dynamic capabilities literature by investigating the micro- foundations that generate organizational level market-entry capability, To do so, we extend our understanding of the dynamic capabilities by building on social system view applied to entrepreneurship. Our contribution is threefold. First, introduce the concept of “readiness to act entrepreneurially” and thus discuss the processes and capabilities that need to be built up in order to successfully develop a capability to sense and seize opportunities in the market. Second, we contribute to the literature by systematically addressing the social processes behind the emergence of dynamic capabilities. Prior research underscores the complexity in explaining routines and capabilities and could, therefore, benefit from a systemic approach to analysis. Third, our findings could provide a practical basis for training entrepreneurs in rare disease field.

Firms’ open strategies are tied to their innovation protection mechanisms. Extant theoretical and empirical research provides valuable insights, which generally conclude that stronger intellectual property protection is likely to be associated with increased openness. However, current research still has a limited understanding of the relationship between the choice of protection mechanisms and the mode of openness. We propose that firms adopt different modes of open activities when they choose corresponding effective protection mechanisms. We further investigate how these open activities affect innovation output and whether the impact of open activities on innovation output is contingent on innovation types. The empirical results from 1,202 firms in the IRC Open Innovation Survey show that firms pursue formal open activities when they incorporate legal methods to protect innovation. In contrast, firms pursue informal open activities when they incorporate strategic methods to protect innovation. We further find that formal open activities favor incremental innovation, while informal open activities favor radical one.

Purpose The paper aims to understand how individuals differ in individual absorptive capacity – their ability to recognize, assimilate, transform and exploit external knowledge. These individual absorptive capacities are a key knowledge management building block for an organization’s open innovation practices. The study examines individual antecedents – human capital, social capital and cognition – and innovation outcomes of individual absorptive capacity. Design/methodology/approach This is a quantitative study of 147 employees in a single medium-sized Dutch industrial firm. Based on a survey and structural equation modeling, the antecedents’ prior knowledge diversity, network diversity and cognitive style are examined in relation to individual absorptive capacity. Further, the mediating effects of individual absorptive capacity on its antecedents and innovation outcome are investigated. Findings The main findings are that prior knowledge diversity, external network diversity and a bisociative cognitive style explain differences in individual absorptive capacity. A bisociative cognitive style appears to be the most important factor. Also, this study finds that individual absorptive capacity mediates between its antecedents and individual innovation performance and is therefore a relevant factor to capture value from external knowledge sources. Research limitations/implications The study extends open innovation theory by exploring individual-level factors that explain the ability to capture value from external knowledge. It suggests that differences in open innovation practices are explained by heterogeneity at the individual level. Further, it explains how individuals’ potentials for open innovation are mediated by their absorptive capacities. These insights enable future researchers to further examine individual-level factors in knowledge management practices and to explore cross-level individual-organizational interactions for open innovation. Practical implications This paper highlights that individuals’ engagements in open innovation practices are explained not only by individuals’ motivations but also by their abilities to absorb external knowledge. Further, it helps managers to design knowledge management practices to promote employees’ absorptive capacities, to improve open innovation processes. Originality/value This study investigates the neglected individual-level factors of open innovation practices from a micro-foundational and knowledge management perspective. To our best knowledge, this is the first study to examine individual-level antecedents and outcomes of individual absorptive capacity.

Standard financial and economic theories suggest that the stock value of RD and a more dynamic component with high volatility reflecting bursts of large and rapid changes associated with Schumpeterian outcomes of explorative processes. A mixture of two normal distributions provides an overall function that is more reflective of the empirical evidence and provides a quantitative measure for the theory that firms engage in concurrent exploration/exploitation activities. A linear relationship between the two components of the mixture distribution that describe the stock value of these firms also emerges. By understanding this dual nature and its impact on stock value, firms can better manage resources and prepare for the increase in variability that are associated with exploration activities. A more accurate financial description of HTSF that reduces or that anticipates uncertainty may lead to financial tools and option pricing methods that put a premium on the value of HTSF markets, incentivizing investors to invest more in such firms.

This special issue links "National Systems of Innovation" with "Social Entrepreneurship" to showcase how social entrepreneurship enables the diffusion of new technologies to make a social impact and engender "creative destruction" through the value generating activities of economic actors ranging from individuals, micro-enterprises to large organizations. The special issue calls attention to the importance of social entrepreneurship in the national system of innovation and the need for analysis at multiple levels ranging from micro to macro. It also calls for research on new actors and models for the diffusion of new technologies in sectors where markets do not exist and where the lack of immediate returns inhibits investment by for-profit organizations. While highlighting the growing prominence of social entrepreneurship at the micro level, the special issue also notes the paucity of measures to account for the impact of social entrepreneurship organizations and the need for more research in this area.

Our research investigates the interplay of the conditions producing either a dominant social, economic, or hybrid mission type. We examine how the mission of 133 (nascent) social entrepreneurs is a...

Emerging market economies rarely lead the commercialization of emerging technologies. This was understandable when emerging hnologies were based on costly physical product technologies that produced products like airplanes, automobiles and more recently semiconductors and MEMS devices. Yet we are now in the information-or knowledge economy-based Schumpeterian cycle where exceptional infrastructure cost no longer apply. Emerging markets today have in many cases both the technological expertise and the infrastructure capital to embrace at least the IoT emerging service product technology base. If this is so, then what are the business models that are appropriate for emerging markets? Our research focuses on adding to the literature by investigating the differences between physical product-based and service product-based emerging technology adoption in emerging markets. We construct and demonstrate a comprehensive policy-based tool for the review of IoT-based (i.e., Software as a Service-based) opportunities.

Power plays a key role in the relationships between startups and established organisations. Yet researchers have devoted little attention to the startup's perspective on power in such relationships. To study startups' view on power, a useful starting point is their structural power, but this also requires an investigation of their power behaviour. We explore how structural and behavioural power interrelate in a startup's relationships with its established partners in the medical device business. Our longitudinal, embedded case study reveals nine interaction episodes in which power plays a decisive role. The power episodes show that the case startup often uses hostile power use tactics because it overestimates its structural power. Since its established partners recognise its lack of power, they usually do not accept such behaviour. Thus, the case startup could not extract the intended benefits. Nonetheless, we find that the case startup could benefit from its relationships if it employs conciliatory power use tactics or power change tactics. With these insights, we contribute to the startup business relationship literature by providing a better understanding of startups' experience with power. We also extend the power literature by showing that it is the perception of power that determines power behaviour rather than the de facto structural potential.

The level of entrepreneurship between countries differs consistently. A source of this variance lies in national culture differences. Recently, the cultural dimension “tightness” has been introduced in the literature. Tightness refers to the degree to which a nation has strong norms and a low tolerance for deviant behavior. Tightness can have a direct effect on national entrepreneurial activity. It can also moderate the strength and/or direction of the relationship between other cultural characteristics and entrepreneurship. Such moderation might explain previous studies' inconclusive findings. This study analyzes tightness's impact on new business ownership, high-growth entrepreneurship, and social entrepreneurship, using recent secondary data from 29 countries. The results show that tightness has neither a direct nor a moderating effect on entrepreneurship. Other cultural dimensions, such as individualism and uncertainty avoidance, have an impact on new business ownership, but not on high-growth entrepreneurship or social entrepreneurship. This suggests that policy makers can use formal institutions to foster high-growth entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship – even in nations whose cultural conditions do not seem to be supportive

This paper provides an improved model, based on historical data, that describes the returns on assets that result from R&D efforts to assist managers of public and private R&D activities. Such a model may lead to better decision support tools to monetize the value that may be extracted from R&D, which is otherwise often undervalued. Real option pricing models are used to gauge appropriate funding levels for assets such as R&D projects that contain large time-dependent uncertainties. However, this study finds that assuming the Gaussian distribution describes fluctuations in value is not appropriate for assets whose value is derived from R&D activities. This conclusion is based on a study of 43 military R&D projects and 100 technology-intensive small firms. A power law, such as the Cauchy distribution, is shown to be more accurate in describing fluctuations in returns from R&D investments. Copyright The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.

A firm's market orientation is an important factor influencing its ability to successfully develop and introduce new products. To measure market orientation, Narver and Slater's MKTOR scale has been accepted in the literature as a valid and reliable scale. In fact, it can be considered state of the art. This study, though, challenges the validity of that scale in high-tech industries and transition economies. As part of a larger study, the scale was used to measure the market orientation of 10 Russian high-tech small- and medium-sized enterprises, next to other measures of market orientation. These were the respondent's perceptions of their market orientation; the firm's philosophy on selling goods/services or solving customer problems; and in-depth interview questions on goals, strategies, network ties, targeted market segments, and competitive advantage. It was found that the firms obtained high scores on the MKTOR scale but that these scores were accompanied by ideas and behaviors reflecting a low or even lacking market orientation. On a scale from 1 to 7, the firms average 6.2 on customer orientation, but at the same time, they are not aware that they do not have customer-focused strategies and do not fully understand the chain in which they operate. Further, the average on competitor orientation is 5.4. Some firms have competitor-oriented characteristics, but others are ignorant of their competition and believe in their technological superiority as a source of competitive advantage. Analyzing these anomalies, it is concluded that the scale requires a minimum level of marketing knowledge of respondents. Without such knowledge, the MKTOR scale is susceptible to the respondent's unconscious incapability, thereby producing invalid results. In the 10 Russian cases, the respondents did not have much experience or education in marketing, which explains why they were incapable of adequately answering the items of the MKTOR scale. The results of this study help to explain the ambivalent findings in the literature about the effect of market orientation on innovation and new product development in high-tech sectors and transition economies. The paper concludes with suggestions on how market orientation could be better measured in such contexts. It is suggested to replace the Likert-scale by a semantic differential scale, where statements reflecting product, production, and sales orientations are confronted with statements reflecting a market orientation. Given the importance of experience and education in marketing as positive antecedents, measures of these factors should be included in the scale as well. With these adaptations, measures of market orientation will be more factual, will require less knowledge of marketing terminology, will reduce bias caused by respondents' perceptions, and will prevent ambiguity in terminology.

Many see emerging technologies as a solution vector for the global challenges of the twenty-first century. Today's emerging technologies include: computational sciences; nanotechnology; micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS); bio-fuels; mobile technologies and a host of others. Yet an adequate understanding of their commercial, policy, environmental, ethical and societal implications lags far behind the development of their science and technology. The authors in this issue discuss the challenges presented by the commercial considerations of emerging technologies. If emerging technologies are critical to solving the largest problems facing the world, then better techniques are needed: for their management, to create policy and educate professionals to commercialize and govern them. This special issue presents the work of a number of researchers that helps to fill this gap. Some initial solutions such as radically improving current techniques and generating new ones are presented, and each author provides future research pathways.

Physicians' interests substantially influence intra-organizational dynamics in hospitals, though little is known about the actual content and structure of these interests. The objective of this study was to both identify and build a structured model of physicians' interests. Based on literature and 27 semi-structured interviews with physicians, a questionnaire containing 10 interests was developed. Next, 1475 physicians in the Netherlands filled out an online survey. Analyses of the data revealed a distinction between the primary interest of ‘helping patients as well as possible’ and nine secondary interests. Factor analysis identified the main secondary interest dimensions as work-related, setting-related, and life-related. Value attached to interests differs between specialties and types of hospitals. The influence of hospital type on the value attached to interests is stronger than the influence of specialty group on the value attached to interests. Insight in the relative importance of different interests may help policy-makers make decisions that foster shared interests.

During the past decade, entrepreneurship in the healthcare sector has become increasingly important. The aging society, the continuous stream of innovative technologies and the growth of chronic illnesses are jeopardizing the sustainability of healthcare systems. In response, many European governments started to reform healthcare during the 1990s, replacing the traditional logic of medical professionalism with business-like logics. This trend is expected to continue as many governments will have to reduce their healthcare spending in response to the current growing budget deficits. In the process, entrepreneurship is being stimulated, yet little is known about intra-hospital dynamics leading to entrepreneurial behavior. The purpose of this article is to review existing literature concerning the influence of intra-organizational dynamics on entrepreneurship among physicians and managers in hospitals of Western countries. Therefore, we conducted a theory-led, systematic review of how intra-organizational dynamics among hospital managers and physicians can influence entrepreneurship. We designed our review using the neo-institutional framework of Greenwood and Hinings (1996) . We analyze these dynamics in terms of power dependencies, interest dissatisfaction and value commitments. Our search revealed that physicians' dependence on hospital management has increased along with healthcare reforms and the resulting emphasis on business logics. This has induced various types of responses by physicians. Physicians can be pushed to adopt an entrepreneurial attitude as part of a defensive value commitment toward the business-like healthcare logic, to defend their traditionally dominant position and professional autonomy. In contrast, physicians holding a transformative attitude toward traditional medical professionalism seem more prone to adopt the entrepreneurial elements of business-like healthcare, encouraged by the prospect of increased autonomy and income. Interest dissatisfaction and competing value commitments can also stimulate physicians' entrepreneurship and, depending on their relative importance, determine whether it is necessity-based or opportunity-driven.

Cooperation with other organizations increases the innovation performance of organization, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as they encounter liabilities of “smallness” (e.g., limited financial resources, and manpower). In the medical devices sector, collaboration with external partners for NPD becomes increasingly important due to the complexity of the products and the development process. About 80% of companies in this sector are SMEs. These companies operate in a highly regulated sector, which affects the organization of the external network required for the new product development (NPD) process. SMEs are practicing extensively open innovation activities, but in practice face a number of barriers in trying to apply open innovation. This paper examines multiple network characteristics simultaneously in relation to innovation performance and thereby aligns with and builds further on configuration theory. Configuration theory posits that for each set of network characteristics, there exists an ideal set of organizational characteristics that yields superior performance. In this research, the systems approach to fit is used. Fit is high to the extent that an organization is similar to an ideal profile along multiple dimensions. This ideal profile represents the network profile that the 15% highest performing companies use. It is argued that the smaller the distance between the ideal profile and the network profile that is used, the higher the performance. The objective of this research is (1) to examine the relation between the ideal profile and innovation performance and (2) to examine which organization of the network profile is related to high innovation performance. Quantitative survey data (n = 60, response rate 61.9%) form the core of this research. The quantitative results are clarified and have been triangulated with qualitative interview data (n = 50). Our findings suggest the presence of an “ideal” NPD network profile (in terms of goal complementarity, resource complementarity, fairness trust, reliability trust, and network position strength): the more a company's NPD network profile differs from this ideal profile, the lower the innovation performance. In addition, the results of our study indicate that the NPD network profiles of successful and less successful SMEs in the medical devices sector significantly differ in terms of “goal complementarity,” while this is less the case for trust and resource complementarity labeled distinctive by previous research. Finally, results show that a relatively closed, focused, and consistent “business-like” NPD networking approach, which is characterized by result orientation and professionalism, is related to high innovation performance. It is recommended that SMEs in the medical devices sector aiming to distinguish themselves from competitors in terms of innovation performance focus on goal complementarity while adopting such a business-like attitude toward their NPD network partners

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must on the one hand innovate for company survival with the appropriate degree of product innovativeness, and on the other they need to collaborate and focus on core competences for efficiency matters. This research examines the relation of network characteristics and product innovativeness on innovation performance in SMEs. We tested hypotheses on the relationship between these three variables via data gathered from 60 SMEs, active in the medical devices sector. In this context we aim to offer consensus on the theoretical and empirical question of whether or not network characteristics and product innovativeness have a direct effect on innovation performance of SMEs. Results show no significant direct effect of product innovativeness on innovation performance. A positive interaction effect of multiple network characteristics on innovation performance was found, which confirms the significant importance of network configuration on innovation performance for SMEs. It indicates that, for SMEs in a highly regulated sector like the medical devices sector, the interaction of network characteristics is of crucial importance for high innovation performance. It is the combination of network characteristics that counts

While extant literature assumes an inverted U-shaped relationship between tie-strength and new knowledge acquisition, our study suggests a positive, curvilinear relationship. Our multiple case study shows that firms use specific relational capabilities—which we define “bridging capabilities”—to acquire new knowledge. These bridging capabilities mitigate the risk of overembeddedness in strong ties through increasing multiplexity, that is, through establishing and leveraging multiple relations within a single tie. Our findings suggest that small firms should invest more in the exploration of strong ties instead of increasing their weak tie network. Doing so helps them to reduce alliance complexity, thereby increasing alliance management efficiency and alliance ambidexterity.

PurposeTwenty first century problems are increasingly being addressed by multi technology solutions developed by regional entrepreneurial and intreprepreneurial innovators. However, they require an expensive new type of fabrication facility. Multiple technology production facilities (MTPF) have become the essential incubators for these innovations. This paper aims to focus on the issues.Design/methodology/approachThe authors address the lack of managerial understanding of how to express the value and operationally manage MTPF centers through the use of investigative case study methods for multiple firms in the study.FindingsOwing to the MTPF centers' novelty and outward similarity to high volume semiconductor fabrication (HVF) facilities, they are laden with ineffective operation and strategic management practices. Metrics are the standard for both operational and strategic management of HVF facilities, yet their application to this new type of center is proving ineffectual.Research limitations/implicationsThese new types of regional economic resources may be at risk. A new approach is needed.Practical implicationsThe authors develop an operational and strategic metrics management approach for MTPFs that are based on these facilities' unique nature and leverages both the HVF and R&D metrics knowledge base.Social implicationsInnovations at the interface of micro technology, nanotechnology and semiconductor micro fabrication are poised to solve many of these problems and become a basis for job creation and prosperity. If a new management technique is not developed, then these harbingers of regional economic development will be closed.Originality/valueWhile there is an abundance of research on metrics for HVF, this is the first attempt to develop metrics for MTPFs.

The focus of this study is on the role of networks in both identifying and accessing financial resource providers by technology-based ventures. We explore the role of networks by taking into account several specifications. We (1) acknowledge that new ventures can access financial resource providers both directly and through referral, (2) make an analytical distinction between the identification of financial opportunities and the access to financial resource providers, and (3) study the contingencies that influence the effectiveness of certain network positions and relationships in the new venture financing process. In order to explore the role of networks in financing, we conducted case studies in four technology-based ventures. Our findings show that for identifying financial opportunities and resource providers, a positional network that is rich in structural holes is favourable for new ventures. In a relational sense, for new ventures that directly access financial resource providers, having weak network ties are most effective. When new ventures use a referral to access a financial resource provider, referrals from referral sources that are strongly tied to the venture are the most effective. Furthermore, our results show that the effectiveness of certain network positions and relations largely depends on contingencies. Based on our findings, we shape several propositions that provide new directions for future research. The current study makes several contributions to theory and provides several interesting guidelines for start-up entrepreneurs.

This paper provides an overview of this special issue on human, social and cultural capital effects on the SME. After providing initial definitions for these three concepts, it provides an overview of the other seven papers in the special issue, including research questions, methods used and key findings. As concluded in the other papers, each of these aspects can have an influence on SME performance.

An International Equity Placement Strategic Alliance (IEPSA) is a strategic alliance of shared ownership between partners of different nationalities. In 1998, the Indonesian government initiated the IEPSA to privatize its State-Owned Enterprises (SOE). Problems arose due to the lack of stakeholders’ support, although it was able to improve the performance of the SOE. Variables within the stakeholders’ support and the relationship among stakeholders were the keys to bring the IEPSA into prevalence; they comprised of its transparency, share price, the degree of the internal relationship, fulfilment of the budget deficit, company restructuring, unprecedented moment, restricted shares in the market, the existence of the floor price, and the plan for the IEPSA. The research reveals that the dimensions of the share price and the degree of the internal relations are the required bases for the government to formulate and implement a strategy to secure the stakeholders’ support (involvement) using the matrix of a general strategy to secure their support.

Entrepreneurial firms are recognized for their posture of innovativeness and experimentation, risk taking, and pro-active pioneering of new markets, which may lead to more frequent innovation failu...

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) struggle with the paradox of developing new products and technologies on the one hand and minimizing costs on the other. These SMEs must be innovative to survive and grow. However, compared to large firms, SMEs have several problems in their innovation process, which negatively influence their overall innovation performance. This research explores successful patterns of internal SME characteristics that lead to high overall innovation performance. Cluster analyses were conducted to find patterns in the internal characteristics of SMEs with high overall innovation performance. We find that companies that focus on incremental innovation and that achieve high overall innovation performance indeed share a pattern in their internal organization, when controlling for innovation type. The paper adds to the current body of knowledge by comparing high- and low-performing companies based on competence differences. Because real-life organizations consist of multiple organizational characteristics, we also contribute to management practice by simultaneously addressing multiple organizational characteristics for the successful organization of innovation.

Answering the question of how enabling technology-based firms manage tensions in their development process, we focus on tensions related to balancing the need to explore new developments for future performance, with the need to exploit existing capabilities to generate sufficient value in the short term. Based on social system theory, we suggest that entrepreneurs use four types of functions to develop their business: goal attainment, pattern maintenance, social networking and economic optimization. Building sustainable firms requires the development of all four functions and the related types of capital (strategic, cultural, economic and social) up to a certain minimum; they must then be balanced in such a way that the exploration—exploitation tension can be dealt with adequately.Through a case study of the development of a sound measuring sensor, we illustrate the four types of functions and the accumulation of capitals by exploring a set of three propositions.

Purpose The paper aims to understand how knowledge-intensive teams can develop and enhance their team absorptive capacity (ACAP) level, by exploring whether individual and organizational factors are complements or substitutes for team ACAP. Design/methodology/approach The study applies a configurational approach using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to identify combinations of individual and team factors that are associated with team ACAP. Data were gathered through a survey among 297 employees of four medium-sized Dutch firms, working in 48 functional teams. Findings The primary finding is that knowledge-intensive team ACAP depends on a triad of complementary factors: team members’ individual ACAP, factors that enable knowledge integration and factors that motivate knowledge integration. Underdevelopment of one or more factors leads to lower team ACAP. Research limitations/implications The study contributes to the discussion on the locus of knowledge-creation and enhances understandings of why knowledge-intensive teams differ in knowledge processing capabilities. It suggests future research on cross-functional teams in new ventures and large firms. Practical implications The paper informs managers and team leaders about the factors that determine knowledge-intensive teams’ ACAP, enabling them to develop team-specific strategies to increase their teams’ performance. Originality/value The study takes a holistic perspective on knowledge-intensive team ACAP by using a configurational approach. It also highlights the potential of team-level research in the knowledge management literature for both researchers and practitioners.

Designing information systems (ISs) requires a thorough understanding of the organizational knowledge processes in which these systems are used. Although much is known about internal organizational knowledge processes, the understanding of external knowledge processes is less developed. Hence, this paper reflects an attempt to operationalize and test a model of the process of external knowledge integration (EKI), consisting of an identification, acquisition, and utilization stage. We utilize high-technology based firms from a variety of high-tech categories including nanotechnology based firms since these firms have critical knowledge integration needs. The results of an international survey, with responses of 317 high-tech companies, suggest that not these three EKI-stages, but four organizational effectiveness functions (goal attainment, pattern maintenance, adaptation, and integration) account for most variation in responses. These findings seem to imply that ISs that are to support the EKI-process should be designed according to organizational effectiveness functions rather than to EKI-stages. It is proposed that each organizational effectiveness function imposes different requirements on ISs because users interact differently with IS in each function

International audience; Oil and gas exploration and production firms have return profiles that are not easily explained by current financial theory – the variation in their market returns is non-Gaussian. In this paper, the nature and underlying reason for these significant deviations from expected behavior are considered. Understanding these differences in financial market behavior is important for a wide range of reasons, including: assessing investments, investor relations, decisions to raise capital, assessment of firm and management performance. We show that using a “thicker tailed” mixture of two normal distributions offers a significantly more accurate model than the traditionally Gaussian approach in describing the behavior of the value of oil and gas firms. This mixture of normal distribution is also more effective in bridging the gap between management theory and practice without the need to introduce complex time-sensitive GARCH and/or jump diffusion dynamics. The mixture distribution is consistent with ambidexterity theory that suggests firms operate in two distinct states driven by the primary focus of the firm: an exploration state with high uncertainty and, an exploitation (or production) state with lower uncertainty. The findings have direct implications on improving the accuracy of real option pricing techniques and futures analysis of risk management. Traditional options pricing models assume that commercial returns from these assets are described by a normal random walk. However, a normal random walk model discounts the possibility of large changes to the marketplace from events such as the discovery of important reserves or the introduction of new technology. The mixture distribution proves to be well suited to inherently describe the unusually large risks and opportunities associated with oil and gas production and exploration. A significance testing study of 554 oil and gas exploration and production firms empirically supports using a mixture distribution grounded in ambidexterity theory to describe the value fluctuations for these firms.

New technology based firms (NTBFs) play a major role in the development and commercialisation of new technologies and the development of national economies. Using an entrepreneurship-in-networks approach, this paper examines the early stages of the development of these companies, i.e. from opportunity recognition through opportunity exploration. Case study data was collected on 22 NTBFs from six European universities. The findings highlight specific needs related to five functional areas of importance to NTBFs, namely: R&D, market development and sales, organisation and governance, finance and administration, and production/operation. These needs are reported for both the pre- and post-foundation phases and can thus be utilised by both entrepreneurs and support agencies to guide the development of NTBFs.

University-based incubators guide entrepreneurs through the start-up and growth process. They also create and provide many opportunities for new firms to develop their network with the business environment, get coaching assistance, and perhaps most importantly develop their business models and business plans. Within incubators, the progress of participants is often monitored by letting the participants pitch before an expert business panel. The feedback from these business panels can provide valuable input for the further development of the new ventures. However, little is known about the predictive power that business panel assessments have in predicting venture survival and growth. In this paper, we will explore the predictive ability of business panel assessments of business planning and business pitches and start-up firm survival in a university-based incubator context. We used business panelists’ assessments of 216 high tech start-ups business plans and pitches. We found that the most important predictor of success by business panel expert evaluations was the quality of the team. The attractiveness of the industry was a negative predictor of start-up firm survival.

This special section is the result of a call for papers sponsored by the Technology Forecasting andSocial change. It combined efforts from The University of New Mexico's Anderson School ofManagement, The Mesa+ institute and the Nikos Center of Knowledge Based Entrepreneurship at theUniversity of Twente and Sandia National Laboratories. The section is comprised of seven papers whichfocus on many differing elements of National and Regional Nanotechnology Policy. The initial paperexamines national and regional nanotechnology policy differences between developed and developingcountries. The second effort reviews follow on effort of a national initiative. The third work reviewsnanotechnology patenting on a country basis giving one indication of the effectiveness of a countriesnational policy. The authors of the fourth paper focus on de-facto regional cluster as a policy fornanotechnology firms. The fifth piece sheds light on an early aspect of national policy which is theinitiation of national centers of excellence and the sixth paper provides a regional disruptive technologyforecasting model for policymakers built on nanotechnology and small technology data.. Finally the lastpaper is provided by a US national research group demonstrating the use of technology intelligence andtext mining in assisting national nanotechnology tactical and policy formation.The papers in this section provide advances in the state of the art, as well as a review of currentknowledge in nanotechnology policy based and are based on previous relevant research. Majorcontributions to the field are offered through an integration of disruptive technology, technologyintelligence, economic development literature, technology forecasting techniques and knowledge basedentrepreneurial efforts. We offer papers that must embrace multiple conceptual schemes, address the

The problems facing the 21st century world are creating opportunities that challenge the traditional manner in which enterprises create value. The number of newer and traditional industries undergoing radical change is unprecedented. These industries are being affected by the interconnectivity of the global problems as well as the emerging technology (such as nanotechnology) based innovations being developed to meet their challenge. Novel forms of business, creative enterprises, are being generated to meet this opportunity. Yet academic and practitioner understanding of how to best assist these enterprises is limited. If one compares the plethora of scientific knowledge being generated by any one of the emerging technologies to that of those authors providing managerial acumen in any form there is a great disparity. Here, the authors help define the field of creative enterprise based on emerging technologies like nanotechnology and provide a basis for further study. The authors provide some initial knowledge of the new roles required of technology entrepreneurs, researchers and other innovation professionals. Further they provide or extend management tools and new business models required by these creative enterprises.