Start-up Inertia versus Flexibility: The Role of Founder Identity in a Nascent Industry

2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 395-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiona Zuzul ◽  
Mary Tripsas
Keyword(s):  
Firm Performance ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Adaptive Changes ◽  
Start Up ◽  
The Face ◽  
Taxi Market ◽  
Start Ups ◽  
Performance Comparisons

Through an inductive, comparative study of four early entrants in the nascent air taxi market, we examine why start-ups, generally characterized as flexible, malleable entities, might instead exhibit inertial behavior. While two of the firms engaged in ongoing experimentation and adaptation, two firms actively reinforced their original venture concepts, even in the face of environmental shifts and declining firm performance. Comparisons of the firms revealed the importance of founders’ identities. Two founders saw themselves as “revolutionaries” building novel ventures to drive radical change. In contrast, two sets of founders saw themselves as “discoverers” identifying new opportunities and exploiting them to build successful businesses. We propose that these identities contributed to the firms’ inertia and flexibility primarily through the mechanism of identity affirmation. Acting in a manner consistent with their self-views, revolutionary founders committed to and actively reinvested in radical venture concepts, rejecting potentially adaptive changes that they felt compromised novelty. In contrast, discoverer founders prioritized experimentation and change in reaction to shifting conditions. We propose an emergent framework exploring how, in a nascent industry, a founder’s identity can set off self-reinforcing cycles of firm inertia or flexibility.

scholarly journals Innovation Capabilities and the Performance of Start-Ups in Korea: The Role of Government Support Policies

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6009
Author(s):  
Se-Kyoung Choi ◽  
Sangyun Han ◽  
Kyu-Tae Kwak
Keyword(s):  
Firm Performance ◽  
Financial Support ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Start Ups

What kind of capacity is needed to improve the performance of start-ups? How effective are government support policies in improving start-up performance? Start-ups are critical firm group for ensuring the prospective and sustainable growth of an economy, and thus many countries’ governments have established support policies and they are likely to engage more widely in forward-looking political support activities to ensure further growth and expansion. In this paper, the effect of innovation capabilities and government support policies on start-up performance is examined. We used an unbalanced panel data analysis with a random effect generalized least squares. We investigated the effect of government support policies on 4368 Korean start-ups. The findings indicated that technology and knowledge capabilities had positive effects on the sales performance of start-ups, and government financial support positively affected the relationship between knowledge capability and firm performance. However, when government financial support increased, marketing capability was negatively associated with firm performance. These results demonstrate the significant role of government financial support, including its crowding in but also its crowding out effect. Practical implications: To be more effective, governments should employ innovation-driven entrepreneurship policy approaches to support start-ups. To improve their performance, start-ups need to increase their technology and knowledge capabilities. This study extends recent efforts to understand more fully the effect of government support policies on start-ups differing in their technology, knowledge, and marketing capabilities.

Exploring the role of business relationships in start-ups’ life cycles

IMP Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-543
Author(s):  
Chiara Cantù ◽  
Sepe Giorgia ◽  
Alessandra Tzannis
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Business Relationships ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Strategic Resources ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Start Ups

Purpose Differently from previous works that focused on the entrepreneur and on his ability to manage social relationships, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of business relationships in the different stages of the life cycle of a start-up. Design/methodology/approach Since the paper aims to explore startups’ evolutionary phenomenon, it adopts a qualitative abductive methodology, presenting an in-depth study of two innovative Italian start-ups. The research is based on two steps. In the first one, the authors collected secondary data from start-ups’ reports and documents, financial indicators (when available) and processed them to understand their background. In the second one, the authors conducted ten semi-structured interviews, including face-to-face interviews, phone interviews and video conferences. Findings The paper presents a relationship-based life cycle model composed of four different stages, depending on the number and role of relationships developed. Indeed, since the beginning, start-ups adopt a relational approach and their evolution involves the shift from the focus on the entrepreneur to the centrality of a network approach based on interconnected relationships. The entering into a new stage of life cycle depends on relationships, mainly based on connected actors and resources shared and combined. Even if a key role is assumed by technology, the main resource is identified in the knowledge concerning the customer/user’s needs that require marketing competencies, human resources, relational capabilities. Thus, the shift from one stage to the next in the start-up’s life cycle is possible thanks to a parallel shift from a focus on the activities to a focus on those strategic and heterogeneous actors that ensure activities. Originality/value In a traditional perspective, the start-up’s life cycle depends on activities, financial resources and revenues, as stated by previous life cycle models. In a different perspective, as depicted in our analysis, the evolution of a start-up depends on the portfolio of their business relationships. The role of business relationships is hence to facilitate the interconnections within specialized key actors, which allow start-ups to access strategic resources. These resources are essential in order to develop the activities that characterize the specific stage of the life cycle.

scholarly journals "Start-Up" in E-Learning Mode as a Basic Project of the Final Year of Entrepreneurship Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (04) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Zhi-Jiang Liu ◽  
Marina Galichkina ◽  
Anastasia Kurilova ◽  
Svetlana Vlasova
Keyword(s):  
Entrepreneurship Education ◽  
Start Up ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Online Business ◽  
Domestic Practices ◽  
Main Components ◽  
Work Done ◽  
Start Ups ◽  
Foreign Universities

The study discusses the main positive aspects of the implementation of start-up projects at universities. In the context of the migration of most of the businesses to the network, the most important skill of an entrepreneur is the ability to build an online business from the very first steps. The basis for this is the creation a start-up in e-learning mode. A sample of domestic and foreign universities has been designed to compare new domestic practices with foreign experience of e-learning in entrepreneurship. It has been confirmed that the introduction of start-ups in e-learning mode in the final year of entrepreneurship education positively affects the development of professional qualities of students both in online and off-line business and helps to better consolidate the material. In addition, based on the work done, a final year model of entrepreneurship education with e-learning has been proposed; it is based on 3 main components (the student as a generator of ideas; the mentor as necessary support, and information online channels as the main source of information) and is aimed at solidifying knowledge through the start-up project defense. The importance of the role of universities in this process has been proved and the idea of involving a business mentor in e-learning process to achieve a synergistic effect has been considered.

Authentic Leadership Fostering Creativity in Start-ups: Mediating Role of Work Engagement and Employee Task Proactivity

2020 ◽  
pp. 227853372096429
Author(s):  
Santoshi Sengupta ◽  
Swati Sharma ◽  
Aishwarya Singh
Keyword(s):  
Work Engagement ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Authentic Leadership ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Positive Leadership ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Start Ups

This study investigates the effect of authentic leadership (AL) on employee creativity and the mediating role of work engagement (WE) and employee task proactivity (ETP) in the context of start-ups. Data collected from 300 leaders and 300 employees of Indian start-ups were analysed using structural equation modelling. The findings suggest that AL has direct and significant effects on creativity and the same is mediated by WE and ETP. For a start-up, it is essential that employees perceive their founders or leaders to have high moral perspective, clear sense of self-awareness and exhibit transparency in their behaviours with their followers. Such behaviours motivate the followers to invest soulfully in their work and do things in a proactive manner, which then leads to creativity. For any start-up to succeed, both a strong form of positive leadership and high levels of creativity from employees are required.

Entrepreneurial Orientation and Start-Up Performance: A Configurational Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucio Fuentelsaz ◽  
Consuelo González ◽  
Jackson Andre da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Firm Performance ◽  
Entrepreneurial Orientation ◽  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
Configurational Approach ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Start Ups ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Environmental Hostility ◽  
True Relationship

Abstract The relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance has been the object of a number of studies, but the literature has not yet reached a consensus about the true relationship between the two variables. Previous research attributes this lack of consensus to the moderating effect of numerous variables, including those related to the firm’s environment. While the literature evaluates the direct and moderating effects of uncertainty and hostility on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance, no one has investigated how these environmental variables simultaneously affect this relationship. To fill this gap, we use a configurational approach to clarify the nature of the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance and investigate how hostility and uncertainty jointly moderate this relationship. Our arguments are tested using a sample of 140 Brazilian start-ups, and we conclude that there is a positive relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. Nevertheless, this relationship is jointly conditioned by the level of environmental hostility and uncertainty.

Discovering the collective entrepreneurial opportunities through spatial relationships

IMP Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Cantù
Keyword(s):  
Digital Fabrication ◽  
Business Relationships ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Business Partners ◽  
Entrepreneurial Opportunities ◽  
Start Up ◽  
New Business ◽  
Start Ups

Purpose Even if in a traditional perspective the discovery and the exploitation of opportunities are associated to the entrepreneur’s capabilities, a relational perspective is required to better analyze the phenomenon of starting up a new venture. The growing attention to interaction with the external environment has been emerging as a precondition of the entrepreneurial processes as it creates the knowledge and the experience necessary to perceive the opportunity. The entrepreneurial opportunities are created through joint acts with others through social relationships. Shifting the attention from social to business relationships, the main aim of this paper is to investigate the discovery and the exploitation of collective entrepreneurial opportunities in starting up new business. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of relational proximity in the entrepreneurial journey considered as an emergent process of transforming potentiality into actuality. Design/methodology/approach The paper applied a qualitative methodology (Dubois and Araujo, 2004) and a case study approach (Barrat et al., 2011). The case concerns the dyadic spin-off relationship between the innovative start up, ShapeMode (the generated firm), and the Milan FabLab (the generating firm) located in Lombardy Region (Italy). Findings The emerging of collective entrepreneurial opportunities could be analyzed at two levels: the first one concerns the dyadic spin-off relationship, while the second one is founded on the business relationships that the start-up can activate with the business partners of the generating firm. The collective entrepreneurial opportunities are positive influenced by jointness of the actors and their co-evolution, founded on the shared values and goals. Research limitations/implications Although the case study approach allowed the researcher to gain detailed information about the spin-off relationship, this effort does not measure the performance outcomes of the relationships and actions that were taken to improve the competitiveness of the start-up. Future studies would benefit from a large-scale questionnaire given to the members of the start-up and to the actors of its Entrepreneurial Network, so to analyze all of its performance implications for the start-up and the network as a whole. In addition, it could be of interest for future research to investigate the effects of collective entrepreneurial opportunities in order to examine this topic more deeply. Practical implications From a managerial point of view, even if the growing number of start-ups has been associated to a temporary phenomenon, the development of new ventures is now consolidated. A new managerial approach is required to promote the birth and the growth of the start-ups. The development of a new venture requires to shift the attention from the collection of financial resources to the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities generated by interconnected business relationships. In this way a relevant attention should be recognized to the new role of organizations that can be considered as facilitators of business relationships, such as the FabLab. This paper sheds light on the relevance of the strategic networking that sustains the generation of collective entrepreneurial opportunities. The networking involves actors that belong to different geographic area and different countries but that are focused on the same business dream related to the exploitation of potentialities of digital fabrication. The policymakers should recognize the role of the FabLab as facilitator of knowledge diffusion concerning digital fabrication. Originality/value The entrepreneurial opportunities such as the starting up of a new business and its evolution, are enacted, discovered and exploited through interconnected business relationships. In particular the main entrepreneurial opportunities are generated by the activation of business relationships with new business actors. Focusing on the dyadic spin-off relationship, the exploitation of collective entrepreneurial opportunities depends on the sharing of third actors. The business partners of the generating actor (FabLab) became business partners of the generated actor (start-up). The evolution of the generating firm (FabLab) influenced the birth and the evolution of the generated firms (start-up). The dyadic relationship allows the generated firm to discover entrepreneurial opportunities and to exploit them, accessing to the business partners of the generating firm. The effectiveness of the spin-off relationship sustains the replication of the model of new firm generation, that could benefit from the relationships of the two actors of the dyad. Moreover the strong relationships are founded on relational proximity that is characterized by the sharing of values, vision and business dreams.

Achieving and Sustaining New Knowledge Development in High-Expectation Start-ups

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-53
Author(s):  
Diego Matricano
Keyword(s):  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
High Growth ◽  
Knowledge Development ◽  
High Expectation ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Start Up ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
Start Ups

In markets characterized by strong competition, new knowledge and new knowledge development are generally recognized as the key means for an enterprise to gain competitive advantage. This knowledge-based competitive advantage is critical for all commercial ventures, but is especially so for high-expectation start-ups (technology-based ventures anticipating high growth rates). Even though the organizational processes of a start-up are still under development, the success of new knowledge development is affected by three critical factors – the structure of the enterprise, the organizational technology and the knowledge promoters. An analysis of these factors suggests that the role of the knowledge promoter is the key determinant of knowledge development success in the case of early-stage high-expectation start-ups.

Entrepreneurial ecosystem for tech start-ups in Bangalore: an exploration of structure and gap

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (7) ◽  
pp. 1167-1185
Author(s):  
Bala Subrahmanya Mungila Hillemane
Keyword(s):  
Gap Analysis ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Ecosystem Structure ◽  
Entrepreneurial Ecosystem ◽  
Component Level ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Start Ups

PurposeBangalore has gained international recognition as a technology start-up hub for its vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. Against this backdrop, this paper attempts to explore the structure and gap that exist with respect to the entrepreneurial ecosystem for tech start-ups in Bangalore.Design/methodology/approachA Delphi technique based four stage interaction with the experts/stakeholders belonging to different components of the entrepreneurial ecosystem (as identified from the literature) in the context of Bangalore is conducted, to gather primary data. This enabled us to define the structure of entrepreneurial ecosystem and analyse the gap that exists between an ideal ecosystem feasible in the Indian context and that one that prevailed in Bangalore.FindingsThe prevailing entrepreneurial ecosystem for tech start-ups in Bangalore is significantly different (lower) relative to an ideal ecosystem feasible in the Indian economic environment, as prescribed by the Delphi experts, both at the aggregate level and at an individual component level. The step-wise (backward) logistic regression analysis revealed that Bangalore ecosystem is primarily lacking in terms of one of the Triple Helices, namely, role of education and research institutions, and two of the five indispensable components, namely, market maturity and mentorship.Research limitations/implicationsIt is essential to strengthen and promote the Triple Helix base and the five indispensable components in an entrepreneurial ecosystem, to accelerate the emergence and growth of tech start-ups.Practical implicationsIt brings out the nature of entrepreneurial ecosystem structure and the gap between what can be considered an ideal ecosystem and what prevails in Bangalore currently.Originality/valueThis is a primary data based study, which has value for regional policy makers in strategizing to promote Bangalore ecosystem, and for researchers in undertaking “ecosystem gap analysis”.

scholarly journals Belbin team roles in a start-up team

2020 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 01002
Author(s):  
Richard Bednár ◽  
Ivana Ljudvigová
Keyword(s):  
Research Paper ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
The Third ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Product Service ◽  
Successful Entrepreneurs ◽  
Start Ups ◽  
A Company ◽  
High Uncertainty

Leadership in start-ups has its specific features, which are connected to a high uncertainty, moving of current boundaries, outstanding adaptability and perseverance of the founder. The main goal of this research paper was to identify the role of founders in successful start-ups. The purpose of this research is to determine whether there are certain common characteristics of successful entrepreneurs- start-up founders. In our analysis, we used the questionnaire- Belbin Full Individual Report. This questionnaire analyses and compares self-evaluation of an examined individual with 360-degree analysis of four members of his team. As a successful start-up we defined a company which fulfilled all of the following conditions: creates a unique scalable product/service, exists on the market 4 to 6 years and is achieving revenues in the amount of the third quartile (Q3) in its industry. To make the analysis comparable, analysed figures are only men. In our research we analysed nine founders and CEOs of start-ups base on a 360-degree evaluation- self-evaluation and evaluation of four members of the team. To view cumulative results, we have used the function boxplot.

scholarly journals From the Idea of Start-Up to Setting-Up Unicorn-Company

2021 ◽  
pp. 201-206
Author(s):  
E. Yu. Kulakova ◽  
G. M. Magomedova ◽  
A. A. Ivanov
Keyword(s):  
Business Activity ◽  
Start Up ◽  
History Of ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
On Line ◽  
Start Ups ◽  
State Restrictions

The article investigates history of establishment and development of start-up unicorn-companies with capitalization over $ 1bn. The authors analyzed key types of unicorn-companies (unicorns, decacorns quinquagintacorns, gectacorns), identified their principle characteristics, showed criteria and factors of their success. The role of venture funds was studied, as they are major investors into promising business-projects. The article described trends of the 1-st half of 2020, the time of state restrictions and pandemic, such as distant work, IT entertainments, could services, on-line delivery, marketplaces, drop in business activity, which require clients' presence. It also showed the process of business-projects' passing from start-ups to companies with high capitalization. The authors pointed out that to create a successful company with capitalization of $ 1bn you do not need any special conditions, but there is certain logic concerning how the start-up can become unicorn-company. Basic points of this logic were provided. The authors substantiated the necessity of venture fund promotion among entrepreneurs and investors in order to speed up the start of start-ups and development of business-projects to the level of big companies.

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