scholarly journals Scaling Technology Ventures in Africa: New Opportunities for Research

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Weiss ◽  
Markus Perkmann ◽  
Nelson Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Environment ◽  
New Ventures ◽  
New Venture ◽  
Regulatory Change ◽  
Venture Creation ◽  
Technology Firms ◽  
Entrepreneurial Strategies ◽  
Research Stream ◽  
Founding Team ◽  
Technology Ventures

Research on new venture creation in Africa is growing rapidly. This increasing interest reflects both the potential for entrepreneurship to contribute to the economic and social development of Africa, as well as the potential for this research to provide new insights that challenge and extend theories developed primarily from studies of North American and European new ventures. In this editorial essay, we argue for an expansion of this important research stream to include a focus on how technology ventures scale in Africa. We identify seven topics that offer interesting opportunities for research on scaling in Africa: (1) the effect of venture location on scaling; (2) the effect of founding team diversity on scaling; (3) the effect of entrepreneurial strategies on scaling; (4) the effect of nascent ecosystems on scaling; (5) the effect of the institutional environment on scaling; (6) the effect of nascent financial markets on scaling; and (7) the societal effects of scaling. We discuss each of these topics, their potential to contribute to the existing literature, and provide examples of African technology firms that have scaled to illustrate each topic. We conclude with a discussion of how African social, political, and regulatory change, combined with rapidly developing entrepreneurial ecosystems, are creating a context where the successful scaling of technology ventures is becoming increasingly common, and research is therefore increasingly valuable.

scholarly journals Creating New Ventures: A Review and Research Agenda

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean A. Shepherd ◽  
Vangelis Souitaris ◽  
Marc Gruber
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
New Ventures ◽  
New Venture ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Road Map ◽  
Organizational Emergence ◽  
Founding Team

Creating new ventures is one of the most central topics to entrepreneurship and is a critical step from which many theories of management, organizational behavior, and strategic management build. Therefore, this review and proposed research agenda are relevant to not only entrepreneurship scholars but also other management scholars who wish to challenge some of the implicit assumptions of their current streams of research and extend the boundaries of their current theories to earlier in the organization’s life. Given that the last systematic review of the topic was published 16 years ago, and that the topic has evolved rapidly over this time, an overview and research outlook are long overdue. From our review, we inductively generated 10 subtopics: (a) lead founder, (b) founding team, (c) social relationships, (d) cognitions, (e) emergent organizing, (f) new-venture strategy, (g) organizational emergence, (h) new-venture legitimacy, (i) founder exit, and (j) entrepreneurial environment. These subtopics are then organized into three major stages of the entrepreneurial process: co-creating, organizing, and performing. Together, the framework provides a cohesive story of the past and a road map for future research on creating new ventures, focusing on the links connecting these subtopics.

The heavy cost of kumbaya–understanding the survival implications of nascent venture ownership structure

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Noack ◽  
Douglas R. Miller ◽  
Rebecca Guidice
Keyword(s):  
Ownership Structure ◽  
Critical Time ◽  
Psychological Ownership ◽  
New Venture ◽  
New Venture Creation ◽  
Venture Creation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Founding Team ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis paper brings in relevant entrepreneurial behavior theory to understand the ownership decisions founders make during the nascent stage of new venture creation, and how such decisions impact the viability of the firm.Design/methodology/approachThe authors examine the behavior and decision making of 137 lead founders during the nascent stage of new venture creation. Psychological ownership and environmental uncertainty are measured of lead founders when dividing up firm ownership among the founding team. Using a longitudinal approach, these nascent-stage decisions are then analyzed to understand the impact on the new venture one year later.FindingsCounter to prior research suggesting teams are better off with identical wages and ownership, the authors find such harmony (i.e. “kumbaya”) pursuit to be a detriment to new venture emergence. Specifically, this study finds that nascent ventures are better off with an unequal ownership split among the founding team members. These findings suggest that nascent firms with an unequal split are more likely to move beyond the nascent stage and launch a functional business.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the results of this study offer a valuable contribution to lead founders and new businesses, the study looked at each startup independent of another and is therefore not able to draw any conclusions related to competitiveness.Practical implicationsLead founders and founding teams frequently divide ownership evenly among the founders. This paper shows that, while convenient, the decision to divide ownership equally can hamper a nascent firm as it moves toward the launch phase of the startup process. These results should motivate founders to think deeply regarding the ownership structure decision and, at the very least, consider the possible negative costs associated with the pursuit of founding team unity.Originality/valueWhile scholars have brought attention to the nascent stage, few have identified and analyzed the decisions that take place during this critical time of the new venture development process. Furthermore, even is less is known of the impact nascent decisions have on startup launch. This study sheds light on these areas.

Industry Gender Imprinting and New Venture Creation: The Liabilities of Women’s Leagues in the Sports Industry

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyn Micelotta ◽  
Marvin Washington ◽  
Iva Docekalova
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
New Ventures ◽  
New Venture ◽  
New Venture Creation ◽  
Venture Creation ◽  
Sports Industry ◽  
Male Dominated ◽  
Entrepreneurial Efforts ◽  
Shed Light

This paper examines how industry gender imprinting—the persistence of cultural values, beliefs, norms, and orientations associated with masculinity or femininity—influences new ventures. Our investigation of women’s leagues in the male-dominated sports industry reveals how gender imprinting negatively affects new ventures’ endeavors through three liabilities: identity, conformity, and differentiation. Our findings shed light on the challenges new ventures not aligned with the industry imprint encounter to obtaining material and symbolic support. We contribute to theory by advancing knowledge on how industry-specific sociocultural attributes influence entrepreneurial efforts, and to practice by suggesting how to overcome cultural roadblocks in gendered industries.

scholarly journals Founding team experience, industry context, and new venture creation

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-21
Author(s):  
Jun Li ◽  
Dev K. Dutta
Keyword(s):  
New Venture ◽  
New Venture Creation ◽  
Venture Creation ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Technology Industry ◽  
Industry Environment ◽  
Team Experience ◽  
Founding Team ◽  
Industry Experience

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of founding team experience (industry and venturing) in new venture creation. This paper posits the following questions: How does founding team experience influence the likelihood of new venture creation, in the nascent stage? How does industry context moderate this relationship? The study aims to fill an important gap in the literature by unpacking the impact of different types of founding team experiences on venture outcome, and by focusing on the influence of founding team in the venture creation process, specifically at the nascent stage. Design/methodology/approach The paper utilizes data from the Second Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, a longitudinal data set of 1,214 nascent entrepreneurs in the USA. Logistics regression was employed to analyze the effect of founding team experience on new venture creation. Post hoc analysis was conducted to ensure the confidence of the findings. Findings The paper provides empirical insights about how founding team experience influences the likelihood of new venture creation in the nascent stage. At the nascent stage, founding team industry experience positively affects new venture creation while founding team venturing experience does not. However, in the high-technology industry environment, the influence of the founding team’s venturing experience on new venture creation is stronger than that in the low-technology industry environment. Research limitations/implications Due to the design of the data set, there is a risk of “right-censoring” problem. Also, because the study used archival data on founding teams, the methodology did not allow for uncovering the underlying team processes and dynamics during the venture creation process based on learning from experience. Future studies are encouraged to examine other types of founding team experience and the underlying process-level factors on venture creation. Practical implications The paper provides important practical implications for nascent entrepreneurs/entrepreneurial teams on team assembling and composition. In general, a team with higher-level industry experience is critical for venturing success. A team with higher-level venturing experience is more desired in the high-technology industry. Originality/value This paper fulfills an important gap in the entrepreneurial team literature by highlighting the complex and nuanced ways in which founding team experience influences the likelihood of venture creation in the nascent stage of the firm, especially after incorporating the additional impact of the industry context.

Ethnic Minority Graduate Entrepreneurs in the UK

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 455-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javed Hussain ◽  
Cindy Millman ◽  
Jonathan Scott ◽  
Paul Hannon ◽  
Harry Matlay
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
New Ventures ◽  
New Venture ◽  
Considerable Proportion ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
New Venture Creation ◽  
Venture Creation ◽  
Skills Acquisition ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
The Uk

Small ethnic minority businesses make an important contribution to the UK economy, and this is reflected in their rapid growth over the last decade. A considerable proportion of the growth in new venture creation can be attributed to ethnic minority graduates, who increasingly embark on entrepreneurship as a rewarding and fulfilling alternative to paid employment. An illustrative case study approach is adopted for the purpose of this research study. The results of a qualitative investigation of four new venture creation case studies of graduate ethnic minority entrepreneurs in the UK indicate that the main contribution of higher education for these graduate entrepreneurs was in the area of knowledge and skills acquisition. The main motivational factors acknowledged by the respondents included ‘lack of satisfaction’ in working for others, the need to be their own ‘boss’ and achieve more, and the prospect of higher earnings. The authors found no correlation between degree discipline and graduates' propensity to become entrepreneurs. Graduates from non-business disciplines appear to be more likely to engage in entrepreneurship. The size of start-up finance can have an impact on the survival and growth of new ventures. It is therefore suggested that financial institutions and government agencies should develop more focused services, aimed specifically at supporting ethnic minority graduate entrepreneurs in their drive to convert business ideas into thriving and employment-generating enterprises.

scholarly journals Ideation for New Ventures: The Reasonings-Outcomes Matrix, Models and Tools

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meir Russ
Keyword(s):  
New Ventures ◽  
New Product ◽  
New Venture ◽  
New Venture Creation ◽  
Venture Creation ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
The Subject ◽  
New Research ◽  
First Time

The paper summarizes in a step by step ‘recipe’ format a model of developing new ideas (Ideation) that can be used to form a new venture or develop a new product. The proposed ‘recipes’ are widely used and can be applied in tandem with other prevalently available models or tools. The intention of the paper is also to serve as a resource for entrepreneurs and innovators, and the links and references munificently used in the paper are serving this purpose. The author has used the outline and the tools described here in numerous Ideation classes taught for over a decade in several countries around the world. The paper’s intention is not to conduct a systematic review on the subject of new venture creation or propose new research agenda (for that, see for example Shepherd et al., 2021). The purpose is to provide an effective and efficient set of tools, models and techniques that can assist the entrepreneur in her journey to create and achieve her dreams. One such tool is the matrix of Reasonings-Outcomes introduced here for the first time.

Women Entrepreneurs and Microfinance Institutions

2021 ◽  
pp. 211-227
Author(s):  
Waseem Ul Hameed ◽  
Muhammad Farhan Basheer ◽  
Jawad Iqbal ◽  
Qasim Ali Nisar ◽  
Muhammad Saeed Meo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Women Entrepreneurs ◽  
New Ventures ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
New Venture ◽  
New Venture Creation ◽  
Women Empowerment ◽  
Positive Contribution ◽  
Venture Creation ◽  
Microfinance Institutions ◽  
Important Relationship

The objective of this chapter is to highlight the important relationship between microfinance institutions and women entrepreneurs in new venture creation. This chapter is proposed because women-empowerment is one of the crucial issues worldwide. In certain parts of the world, women are bound to customs, norms, beliefs, which are unique. These issues are found to promote social problems and hinder the economic contribution from women. In this direction, microfinance institutions are playing a vital role to promote women-empowerment through providing various opportunities to create new ventures. New venture creation increases the women social and economic empowerment through income generation. Various microfinance factors such as micro-credit, micro-saving, micro-insurance, and micro-training/skill development have a significant positive contribution to create new ventures. Finally, this chapter could be beneficial for microfinance institutes, state bank and government in making the strategies to enhance women-empowerment through new venture creation.

Entrepreneurial competences, liability of newness and infant survival

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (9) ◽  
pp. 1082-1097 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianpaolo Abatecola ◽  
Vincenzo Uli
Keyword(s):  
Entrepreneurial Orientation ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Service Industry ◽  
New Ventures ◽  
Infant Survival ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Research Stream ◽  
Founding Team ◽  
Start Ups

Purpose What entrepreneurial competences can increase the start-ups’ infant survival chances? How can the liability of newness be successfully handled? Positioned in this research stream, which, especially over recent years, has been particularly lively also in the Journal of Management Development, the purpose of this paper is to meet not only the research, but also the education and practice-oriented purposes of the journal. Design/methodology/approach How can routines’ exploitation counteract the liability of newness? How can entrepreneurial orientation oppose it? Why is the liability of adolescence important when discussing the performance of start-ups? To address these questions, taken separately into account, the paper presents a set of three case studies from the service industry, each of which is based on a specific research design. Findings The authors found that the routines’ exploitation mechanisms, the degree of entrepreneurial orientation of the founding team, and the stock of the initial assets, could be all considered consistent predictors of new ventures’ infant survival. The authors thus believe that the findings may offer a useful contribution both to current and prospective managers and entrepreneurs. Originality/value Stinchcombe’s assumption about the tremendous failure rate associated with the earliest stage of start-ups’ life cycle has been proved to be valid at least in the most recent evidence from both Europe and the USA. At the same time, formalizing a checklist of competences appropriate to increase the possibilities of organizational infant survival appears as a priority not yet accomplished. Thus, the study is aimed at providing some useful food for thought on this issue.

Regulation, New Venture Creation, and Resource-Advantage Theory: An Analysis of the U.S. Brewing Industry

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 999-1017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wesley M. Friske ◽  
Miles A. Zachary
Keyword(s):  
New Ventures ◽  
Social Costs ◽  
Tax Credits ◽  
New Venture ◽  
New Venture Creation ◽  
Venture Creation ◽  
Brewing Industry ◽  
Resource Advantage Theory ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Resource Advantage

Regulation is an important means by which policymakers address social costs. However, recent research suggests that managing social costs often comes at the expense of entrepreneurial activity. We explore this duality by extending resource-advantage theory to examine the effects of excise taxes, small business tax credits and exemptions, and sales restrictions on rates of new venture creation in the U.S. brewing industry. Our longitudinal analysis of state-level brewery regulations reveals that taxes and sales restrictions have adverse but limited effects on new venture creation over time. Furthermore, tax credits and exemptions are positively associated with growth rates of new ventures.

A Liability of Breadth? The Conflicting Influences of Experiential Breadth on Perceptions of Founding Teams

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 1540-1568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Mannor ◽  
Fadel K. Matta ◽  
Emily S. Block ◽  
Adam L. Steinbach ◽  
James H. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
New Ventures ◽  
Top Management Team ◽  
Firm Strategy ◽  
Management Team ◽  
New Venture ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Revenue Streams ◽  
Founding Team

Although it is well established that top management team (TMT) experience is highly valued in new ventures, research has largely focused on the value of experience depth. However, founding teams often bring a myriad of different types of experience to their business. Less is understood about how these experiences are perceived by key stakeholders, and prior theory suggests that TMT breadth could be viewed as either an asset or a liability. Drawing from theory on cognitive categorization, we hypothesize that the perceived value of executive breadth depends on the context in which a venture is situated. We argue that the characteristics of the environment shape the degree to which experience breadth is valued, and we show that investors assess breadth positively in opportunistic environments but negatively in threatening environments. Contrary to previous research, we show that breadth can, at times, be viewed as a distinct liability for a new venture. In supplementary analyses, we also show that these effects are not contingent upon the depth of the founding team’s experience. Further, we find that founding team breadth does have significant influences on firm strategy, including the structural positioning of the firm in an industry’s value chain and the cultivation of diverse revenue streams, but that the effect of breadth on investor perceptions is not mediated through these differences in strategy.

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