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We exploit a unique programmatic shift in the U.S. Small Business Administration's small business technology seed funding programs to investigate whether shorter time periods between proof-of concept and seed stages in public venture capital (VC) allow firms to achieve greater technology and financial milestones. Our paper is motivated by an observation made by founders that federal funding is too slow. Through a series of two-way fixed effects regression models the sample of National Institutes of Health (NIH) recipient firms, we find that faster public VC leaders to greater technology outcomes on some metrics, but not all. Next, by exploiting exogenous variation in state match programs, we show that these results also are magnified by windfall state funding. Our findings have practical implications for policymakers and for entrepreneurial strategy. We contribute to the literatures on innovation policy, the federal SBIR/STTR programs, and provide new understanding of the role of timing in public venture finance and entrepreneurial strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The TIM Division and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) co-sponsored a workshop on "Emergence: Organizations, Markets, Platforms, and Regions" in August 2021. This symposium advances the important conversation on the topic of "emergence" begun at this successful workshop that sparked many vibrant conversations and debates. The workshop brought together over 50 leading interdisciplinary researchers in person, and dozens more virtually, who conduct research related to these four emergence themes in order to develop a community of scholars interested in understanding innovation and the dynamics of technological change. The objective of our proposed AOM 2022 symposium is to carry on this conversation with a focus on two sub-themes of emergence: markets and regions. This symposium brings together senior and junior scholars to discuss market and regional emergence at multiple levels of analysis and with varied methodological approaches. These diverse approaches will deepen our understanding of emergence processes in different aspects. Importantly, they include an international view. Specifically, the papers include intensive case study analysis to unpack the detailed process of emergence, rigorous quantitative empirical analysis to discover the antecedents of emergence, and theoretical modeling to address ambiguity and skepticism about existing concepts associated with emergence. Ultimately, by providing a forum for research on emergence and by continuing to foster a community of scholars around this topic, the symposium will advance understanding technology and market development, innovation management, and regional dynamics. * Cluster Rebooting: The Role of Co-Localized Ecosystems in Adapting to Technological Shifts * Presenter: Paolo Aversa; City U. London * Presenter: Mauro Capestro; U. of Padova * Presenter: Marco Bettiol; U. of Padova * Presenter: Eleonora Di Maria; Department of Economics and Management, U. of Padova * Which start-ups benefit most from local organizational sponsorship? * Presenter: Paige Clayton; Georgia Institute of Technology * Endogenous Shaping in the Photovoltaic Cell Industry: The Emergence of New Markets for Solar Energy * Presenter: Charlotte Jacobs; Louisiana State U. * Presenter: Gwendolyn Kuo-fang Lee; U. of Florida * Disruptive Timing * Presenter: Leon Chu; Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business * Presenter: Andy Wu; Harvard Business School * Presenter: Guang Li; Smith School of Business, Queen's U. * Presenter: Brian Wu; U. of Michigan [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge diffusion drives both technical progress and economic growth. Underlying much diffusion scholarship is an assumption that organizational origin - that is, whether knowledge stems from a university or commercial firm - plays an important role. Universities are motivated to share and may thus catalyze diffusion, while profit-driven firms seek to protect private gains from new knowledge and thus may limit diffusion. However, very little work has directly compared diffusion patterns between these two origins. We present a unique comparative case study design that examines the diffusion of two comparable, foundational biotechnology inventions - recombinant DNA (rDNA) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) - that originated in university and firm settings. Using a variety of metrics, we find robust evidence contrary to existing assumptions; the diffusion of PCR significantly outperforms rDNA along a range of metrics. Examining the historical record, we consider how early social networks and complementary assets may play an outsized role in shaping knowledge diffusion - and one that overwhelms the role of organization origin. We show that reliance on the university-firm dichotomy is insufficient in explaining knowledge diffusion; we argue for the exploration of underlying mechanisms in diffusion studies; and we highlight the utility of employing multiple complementary measures in diffusion research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs), such as incubators, accelerators, and maker spaces, have become ubiquitous. Despite their broad appeal and adoption, academic research on ESOs remains disjointed and questions of their efficacy remain unanswered. This panel symposium brings together a diverse group of scholars that have published in the area of ESOs to engage them in an interactive discussion on the nature and role of ESOs. Specifically, the panel, discussant, and audience will consider key aspects of the entrepreneurial support process, theoretical explanations of ESO structure and behavior, the measurement opportunities and challenges of ESOs, and new methodological approaches for understanding their actions and impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper finds a positive association between participation with entrepreneurial support organizations (ESO) and start-ups' receipt of funding and survival. Findings suggest start-ups most benefited by participation are those that do not have redundant university support, have female co-founders, and already occupy network brokerage positions. The paper matches on pre-startup observables to create a control group with the universe of start-ups from the Research Triangle's life science industry, which holds constant regional variation and the ESO choice set. Support organizations help start-ups by brokering networks to finance and other resources and endowing them with institutional capital that .helps them overcome information barriers and navigate the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. ESOs simultaneously contribute to, and embed, institutional logics into regional entrepreneurial ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories seeking to explain phenomenon of agglomeration and regional development are abundant. Additional work seeks to understand processes impacting performance and growth, specifically the importance of policy at subnational geographies (AlcÃ'cer et al., 2017; Conti, 2018). A large literature considers regional innovation systems, clustering, spin-off heritage, and agglomeration (see Feldman & Kogler, 2010, for a review), but does not adequately link location and performance. Entrepreneurial ecosystems, a new and popular model of regional agglomeration, posit a set of organizations, actors, policies, and intangibles interact to support entrepreneurs (Auerswald, 2015; Autio et al., 2018; Spigel, 2017; Stam, 2015). Ecosystems place entrepreneurs and links between system members centrally. Importantly, this conceptualization implies regional factors must cohere and relate to achieve the greatest outcome. Missing from existing theories is an understanding of underlying dynamic processes that create ecosystem dynamism. Prior research highlights the importance of institutions, firms, and entrepreneurs to economic growth, yet overlooks causal mechanisms behind actors' interactions (BjÃ'rnskov & Foss, 2016). The objective of this symposia is therefore to begin to address this fundamental gap by bringing together scholars studying varying inputs to ecosystem emergence and development, as well including the outcomes associated with such ecosystems. Taken as a whole, the papers will demonstrate that ecosystem emergence and development is best understood when institutions, including networks, policy, and communal organizations (Storper et al. 2015), as well as individuals, supporting organizations, and industries in a geography are considered. With this inclusive framing of region development, a holistic picture of the antecedents and effects of the interactions bringing about coherent entrepreneurial regions will be developed. Funding Emerging Ecosystems Presenter: Paige Clayton; U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Presenter: Benjamin Montmartin; SKEMA Business School Presenter: Maryann P. Feldman; U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill A New Categorization of the U.S. Economy: The Role of Supply Chain Industries Presenter: Mercedes Delgado; CBS Presenter: Karen Mills; Harvard Business School Local Policies and Scientific Research: Evidence from State-Level Legalization of Marijuana Presenter: Eunhee Sohn; Georgia Institute of Technology Presenter: Kyle Roy Myers; Harvard Business School Fostering the Growth of Student Start-Ups from University Accelerators Presenter: Shiri Breznitz; U. of Toronto Presenter: Qiantao Zhang; U. of Toronto [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurial support organizations devote increasing efforts to create a context and opportunities for interaction among start-up firms. The basic assumption behind these efforts is that networks facilitate access to knowledge and resources and increase the chances of success for start-ups. However, the mechanisms that facilitate the creation of business ties with other members of the same community are yet to be identified and empirically tested. This paper leverages the social network and firm incubator literatures to hypothesize and test mechanisms that create the context and opportunity for business interaction among member firms within one university-based entrepreneurial support organization. The study uses the empirical setting of a large, university based support organization and the sample includes firms with different levels of membership-support. This empirical context allows us to compare different levels of membership-support and identify the dimensions that have greater impacts on a firm's opportunity to establish ties with other members. The results reveal that geographical proximity, ad-hoc service support including shared space, and a larger community of member and graduate firms to which network ties may be formed increases the chance of connecting with other past or current member firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]