scholarly journals Collaborative production networks among unequal actors

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Manuel Muñoz-Herrera ◽  
Jacob Dijkstra ◽  
Andreas Flache ◽  
Rafael Wittek

Abstract We develop a model of strategic network formation of collaborations to analyze the consequences of an understudied but consequential form of heterogeneity: differences between actors in the form of their production functions. We also address how this interacts with resource heterogeneity, as a way to measure the impact actors have as potential partners on a collaborative project. Some actors (e.g., start-up firms) may exhibit increasing returns to their investment into collaboration projects, while others (e.g., established firms) may face decreasing returns. Our model provides insights into how actor heterogeneity can help explain well-observed collaboration patterns. We show that if there is a direct relation between increasing returns and resources, start-ups exclude mature firms and networks become segregated by types of production function, portraying dominant group architectures. On the other hand, if there is an inverse relation between increasing returns and resources, networks portray core-periphery architectures, where the mature firms form a core and start-ups with low-resources link to them.

2009 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 1291-1321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Fulghieri ◽  
Merih Sevilir

AbstractThis paper examines the impact of competition on the optimal organization and financing structures in innovation-intensive industries. We show that as an optimal response to competition, firms may choose external organization structures established in collaboration with specialized start-ups where they provide start-up financing from their own resources. As the intensity of the competition to innovate increases, firms move from internal to external organization of projects to increase the speed of product innovation and to obtain a competitive advantage with respect to rival firms in their industry. We also show that as the level of competition increases, firms provide a higher level of financing for externally organized projects in the form of corporate venture capital (CVC). Our results help explain the emergence of organization and financing arrangements such as CVC and strategic alliances, where large established firms organize their projects in collaboration with external specialized firms and provide financing for externally organized projects from their own internal resources.


2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Maritz ◽  
Quan Nguyen ◽  
Sergey Ivanov

PurposeDespite the significance, university student start-ups and student entrepreneurship ecosystems (SEEs) have been subject to little research. This study aims to apply a qualitative emergent enquiry approach to explore best practice SEEs in Australia, complimented by narratives from leading scholars in higher education institutions with the aim of delineating the integrative components of SEEs.Design/methodology/approachAdopting the entrepreneurial ecosystem framework and aligned to the social cognitive theory, this paper explores the components and dynamics of SEEs, contributing to an understanding of how such components can better support the growth, sustainability and success of student start-ups. The authors extend entrepreneurship research on social construction using narrative research.FindingsThe findings provide guidelines for researchers, entrepreneurship scholars and educators, entrepreneurship students, policymakers and practitioners to enhance the impact and success of university student start-ups by adopting a student ecosystem approach.Research limitations/implicationsThe narratives represent a limited number of universities with an opportunity for further research to empirically measure the impact and outcomes of SEEs. The research is exploratory, inherently conceptual and emergent, providing an opportunity for validation of narrative frameworks in future studies.Practical implicationsThe findings may assist university managers to be more aware of their own subconscious preferences to student entrepreneurship and start-up initiatives, which may be useful in refining their impact and offerings regarding a quest toward the entrepreneurial university.Social implicationsFrom social perspectives, the alignment of the components of SEE has the ability to enhance and shift the entrepreneurial mindset of entrepreneurship students, notwithstanding enhancement of intentionality and self-efficacy.Originality/valueThis is the first study of SEEs in Australia, highlighting the importance of the integration of entrepreneurship education programs, entrepreneurship education ecosystems, the entrepreneurial university and specific start-up initiatives such as university accelerators. Furthermore, students may enhance their entrepreneurial mindset by actively engaging in such ecosystems.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Štefan Slávik

A start-up already at its origin has to solve the crucial existential condition that is a viable business model. The purpose of the research is to deepen and expand the knowledge about the structure of the start-up business model and its impact on entrepreneurial performance. Field research was carried out in three stages over one and a half years. The source of knowledge about the studied start-ups has been the personal experience recorded in the questionnaire. Start-ups are small closed communities that do not sufficiently shape external partnerships, cannot reach the customers, although they can identify them well enough, try to improve the business model blocks but they do not pay attention to their coordination and perceive the monetization in a simplified way. The impact of the business model on start-up performance has been confirmed but the internal blocks affect business performance unambiguously over the three stages of the research. The best conversion of users to customers and subsequently to revenues are distinctive for the start-ups with their own simple distribution channel and partners who are experienced distributors. The lessons learned can directly improve the results of start-ups when their incompleteness and imperfection will be substituted by appropriate partners. Start-ups provide a space for the new jobs and the self-realization of ambitious people with a sense of service for society. Empirical research on start-ups identifies their weaknesses and possibilities to increase their entrepreneurial performance.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tahseen Anwer Arshi ◽  
Venkoba Rao ◽  
Sardar Islam ◽  
Swapnil Morande

Purpose Existing business model frameworks show weak conceptual unification, a paucity of measurement focus and limitations when applied in emerging economies. The study proposes a new business model framework – “Start-up Evaluation Calculus Using Research Evidence” (SECURE). The purpose of this study is to allow the measurement of the impact of business model design on start-up performance in emerging economies. Design/methodology/approach Data collected from 713 entrepreneurs in select cities of India, Oman and the United Arab Emirates is analyzed through structural equation modeling. The study uses measurement and structural models to examine the validity of measures and additionally tests the five hypothesized relationships proposed in the study. Findings The SECURE’s components comprising desirability, marketability, feasibility, scalability and viability showed validity and reliability. They synergistically demonstrated a statistically significant effect on a mix of financial and non-financial start-up performance outcomes. An alternative structural relationship that examined the impact of SECURE on only financial performance outcomes showed a weaker model fit. The findings indicate that a business model framework is useful when its ex ante measures show a positive causal effect on the desired performance outcomes. Practical implications The scores obtained by the SECURE framework serve as an evaluative tool that informs entrepreneurs and start-ups on the readiness of their proposed, incubated or existing start-ups. Originality/value Replacing subjective judgments with objective assessment criteria, SECURE is one of the first quantitative and performance-driven business model frameworks that contain measures from all functional domains of a start-up business. Start-ups can evaluate their business models against the SECURE model’s research-driven quantitative criteria and assess their impact on start-up performance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-440
Author(s):  
Onkar Nath Mishra ◽  
Saurabh Gupta

Newly created ventures face many challenges, of which, successfully competing with rivals is a daunting task. In order to grow, and turn profitable, start-up firms must extensively search for strategies that create and sustain competitive advantage. Adoption of e-commerce is considered as a very potent strategy to beat competitors and generate profits. Taking tourism and hospitality, an information-intensive industry, this study set two primary objectives regarding e-commerce adoption. First, to investigate the antecedents of e-commerce adoption and second, to gather empirical evidences about the impact of e-commerce adoption on such firms. The study was motivated by the paucity of literature on adoption of e-commerce by start-up firms, especially in the tourism and hospitality industry. The empirical results showed that market- and organization-related factors were prime determinants of e-commerce adoption by start-up firms. The study also confirmed the improved performance of tourism and hospitality start-ups as a result of e-commerce adoption.


Author(s):  
Anne Wiggins

This chapter not only presents an overview of the theoretical awareness and understanding of innovation, but also identifies and discusses existing EU innovation policy initiatives for SMEs, deliberating on the impact such policy initiatives have on their specific considerations. This chapter examines the strategic implications of the adoption and implementation of e-commerce by two successful start-up SMEs in the UK presented against a backdrop of relevant EU policy initiatives. SMEs, and start-ups particularly, find themselves having to operate without role models and tested business plans within an increasingly complex and competitive environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mário Franco ◽  
Diogo Neves ◽  
Heiko Haase ◽  
Margarida Rodrigues

Purpose This study aims to analyse the importance of intellectual capital (IC) in networks formed by start-ups, with a view to obtaining resources that individually they would be unable to acquire. Design/methodology/approach To achieve this aim, a qualitative approach was adopted, and within this, the case study method was used. The data-collecting instrument was the semi-structured interview, held with the business-people/managers of five start-ups present in an incubator (Startup Rém) based in Portugal, and with the person in charge of this incubator, together with observation and documentary analysis. Findings From content analysis, the results suggest that the business people recognise the presence of IC at the moment of creating their business and that this is a means to attain sustainability and, consequently, business survival. The results also show that in the absence of network formation, the relation between the incubator and the incubated firms can be affected and limited, interfering directly with firms’ use of IC. Practical implications This research aimed to highlight the importance of IC as an essential resource for business survival and sustainability and to encourage start-ups to regard networks as a way to share and convey knowledge. This study also intends to help firms understand the role of cooperation and mutual assistance in seeking sustainability and economic growth. Originality/value This study is innovative because it has filled the gaps identified in the literature, particularly the absence of studies on the importance of IC in networks formed by start-ups, and the study of the impact of IC on firms focussing on cooperation networks.


Author(s):  
Arzu Çakar Girişken

As the academic interest about start-ups grows, researchers explore reasons behind start-up failures or success stories, and they aim to develop guides for entrepreneurs to succeed. Literature suggests that marketing is one of the crucial fields for successful start-up companies, among many others. Meanwhile, marketing researchers have recently been paying growing attention to applying neuroscience techniques into the marketing field. Even with the rising popularity of neuromarketing research, start-up companies still fall short of using new era marketing tools due to high costs, although they compete with established firms that massively employ neuromarketing techniques in their marketing mix. In this chapter, it is discussed how helpful neuromarketing techniques could be for entrepreneurs as the success of start-up companies depend on efficient allocation of their severely scarce economic resources, and it is argued that publicly supported start-up hubs, in coordination with universities, shall help develop collective neuromarketing researches for the sake of cost cutting.


Author(s):  
Andre Mostert ◽  
Abdulbasit Shaikh

Youth unemployment is growing throughout the world due to a collection of conditions including but not exclusively: economic restrictions, anachronistic teaching and learning methodologies, and inadequate career guidance structures and support. These factors are the usual suspects and offer all stakeholders an easy way out in terms of the challenges associated with business start-ups and business initiations. That the contemporary educational environment is not effectively geared to support the emerging entrepreneur and is severely constrained by the limits of teacher training and curriculum flexibility is well recognised. With the growing demand for graduates to embrace an entrepreneurial ethos, the impact of support structures on the development of students is becoming more central to the required discourse in higher education, more especially, in developing countries without effective welfare structures. Central to this debate is the role of student attitudes towards the entrepreneurial route as a viable and achievable alternative to the conventional career pathways. Demands to generate a return from their education, familial expectations, and the need to develop as an individual can act as a further encumbrance to the embrace and exploration of business start-up opportunities. This study has generated a dataset of the dominant student attitudes to enterprise as a career pathway and general perspectives on enterprise and entrepreneurial activities. Through a number of partners, a cross section of students were invited to take an online survey addressing questions pertaining to entrepreneurship.


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