Business Model Design and the Performance of Entrepreneurial Firms

We focus on the design of an organization’s set of boundary-spanning transactions—business model design—and ask how business model design affects the performance of entrepreneurial firms. By extending and integrating theoretical perspectives that inform the study of boundary-spanning organization design, we propose hypotheses about the impact of efficiency-centered and novelty-centered business model design on the performance of entrepreneurial firms. To test these hypotheses, we developed and analyzed a unique data set of 190 entrepreneurial firms that were publicly listed on U.S. and European stock exchanges. The empirical results show that novelty-centered business model design matters to the performance of entrepreneurial firms. Our analysis also shows that this positive relationship is remarkably stable across time, even under varying environmental regimes. Additionally, we find indications of potential diseconomies of scope in design; that is, entrepreneurs’ attempts to incorporate both efficiency- and novelty-centered design elements into their business models may be counterproductive

Novel business models : an empirical study of antecedents and consequences

PhD ThesisThis research addresses three questions: (1) What are the key antecedent drivers of novel business model design? (2) What effect does a novel business model have on business performance? (3) Does the linkage between novel business model and business performance depend on the environmental context and in/dependence of the strategic business unit? Drawing on the broad strategic orientation literature, the study derives three antecedents of novel business model design: market, entrepreneurial, and technological orientations. Accordingly, and building on the resource-based view of the firm, the study develops hypotheses that link the three strategic orientations to novel business model design. The study also hypothesizes that a novel business model is crucial for business performance; however, this effect is moderated by technological turbulence and by the (in)dependence of the business unit. To test the research model, a cross-sectional design was employed to collect data by means of a web-based survey from a random national sample of UK firms across various sectors and sizes. Following well established procedures for scale development and purification as recommended in the methodology literature, the measurement scales were critically evaluated and reviewed for their psychometric properties. The conceptual model was tested with a structural equation model. The empirical results indicate significant positive effects of market, entrepreneurial, and technological orientations with novel BM design. The variance in business performance was also found to be partly explained by a firm’s ability to design a novel business model, more specifically in an environment characterized by high technological turbulence. Furthermore, the results indicate that starting a new business venture for the new BM can have better performance consequences compared to accommodating it within the borders of the existing structure of the firm. A key implication of the research is that exploiting internal firm capabilities is important not only for product innovation but also for business model innovation. This study contributes to business model literature by examining the business model performance in the new business context, as well as by identifying key antecedent factors that can potentially help firms’ managers in their business model innovation efforts. This gap has been strongly emphasized in previous BM research

Design Management Capability in Entrepreneurship: A Case Study of Xiaomi

In recent years, entrepreneurship has become a popular topic and attracted many young people to start their own companies. In entrepreneurship, design was generally viewed as essential to innovation, replacing the conventional role of the engineer. Unlike traditional businesses, which generally take a longer time to become established in the more stable economic context of mass-production, current start-ups have to face fierce competition and have the tendency to expand rapidly and accommodate the dynamic business environment. Consequently, design management is considered to be crucial to business growth, since it contributes to both competitive advantages and strategic flexibility. However, start-up companies are well-known for their high failure ratio. This triggered our initial research question: what is the role of design in a start-up to support it in achieving success? Through a case study of Xiaomi, a well-known successful entrepreneurship in China, the new capabilities of entrepreneurial design management were reported. It was further classified into three key topics in line with the three stages of entrepreneurial business development. Difference with design management capabilities reported in previous studies, the new capabilities show the dynamic nature of entrepreneurial design management

Prior Experience and Export Performance: The Missing Link of Global Vision

Despite the scholarly interest in the prior experience of entrepreneurs expressed by the field of International Entrepreneurship, empirical investigation linking prior experience with international performance leads to inconclusive and conflicting results. Based on the concept of human capital and resource-based theory, this study provides a supplementary explanation by integrating global vision —the cognitive capital of the entrepreneur related to an international orientation— into this relationship. The study hypothesises that there is no direct relationship between entrepreneurs’ prior experience and export performance; rather, this relationship is mediated by an entrepreneur’s global vision. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling, drawing on a sample of 332 early internationalising SMEs in Bangladesh. To overcome the cognitive inertia resulting from prior experiences, entrepreneurs must focus on their cognitive capabilities, in particular the ability to see the world through a global lens. In order to improve export performance, policymakers must also provide additional support to strengthen entrepreneurs’ global vision

Factors Affecting Egyptian Small and Medium Sized Owners’ Intentions to and Adoption of E-business

The revolution in communications and information technology has played an important role in changing people's day to day life, this in fact has reflected on the way people performing business. Nowadays, modern business is being shifted from paper-based, and people-intensive systems toward electronic-based procedures using new communication tools. It is widely known that the adoption of new technology is not established from scratch, it is a product of cumulative factors and actions, that can be treated as a planned behaviour. In an analysis to investigate the intentions towards adoption of e-business as an entrepreneurial activity, this study relies on theoretical framework of Ajzen theory of planned behaviour. According to this theory human action is guided by three kinds of beliefs: beliefs about the future outcomes of the behaviour (behavioural beliefs), beliefs about the normative expectations of others and motivation to comply with these expectations (normative beliefs), and finally beliefs about the presence of factors that may facilitate or impede performance of the behaviour and the perceived power of these factors (control beliefs). Purpose- the purpose of this paper is to explore and explain the factors that determine the intention for adopting e-business among small and medium sized firms in Egypt. Design/Methodology/ Approach- A review of the literature on e-business, technology adoption and entrepreneurial orientation and behaviour. Develop an integrated model linking endogenous factors and exogenous factors that determine intention of adopting e-business. Originality/ Value: The paper is among the first studies to examine factors enabling/ hindering the adoption of e-business among small and medium sized firms in Egypt

Productive, Unproductive and Destructive Entrepreneurship: A Theoretical and Empirical Exploration

Drawing on Baumolís concepts of productive, unproductive and destructive entrepreneurship and relevant amendments, this thesis aims to contribute to the entrepreneurship literature by developing a conceptual framework which allows operationalising the concepts for empirical assessment. Furthermore, using data from longitudinal survey, author makes one of the first attempts to address the concepts empirically. The results provide with support for the conceptual framework highlighting the importance to shift the focus from firmsí activities to output on both, venture and societal levels, short and long term, when concepts are addressed empirically. Overall findings suggest that productive entrepreneurs are those who are less involved in behaviour such as tax avoidance or illegal business and show a higher level of entrepreneurial orientation.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64372/1/wp917.pd

The Performance of University Spin-Offs: The Impact of Entrepreneurial Capabilities and Social Networks of Founding Teams during Start-Ups

Objectives: University spin-offs have increasingly received attention from academia, governments, and policymakers because they not only generate new innovations, productivity, and jobs the regional economies but also significantly improve university productivity and creativity (Hayter, 2013, Urbano and Guerrero, 2013). However, a lack of understanding of the contribution made by a founding team to a spin-off’s performance still remains within current studies. Employing a resource-based view theory and social networks approach, this paper addresses this gap by exploring university spin-offs in Spain. Prior work: University spin-off studies have concentrated on analysing entrepreneurial business models (Ndonzuau et al., 2002, Vohora et al., 2004b, Bower, 2003, Mets, 2010) to understand how the commercialization of research is undertaken to create a university spin-off. University spin-offs were also been analysed from the perspective of a university’s capabilities (Powers and McDougall, 2005), or capabilities and social networks of an established spin-off instead of the founding teams (Walter et al., 2006). Moreover, Vohora et al. (2004a) and Shane (2004) have suggested founders need to build capable teams, which must have entrepreneurial capabilities and qualitative social networks, to create effective university spin-offs. Both entrepreneurial capability and social network theory have been studied in prior entrepreneurship research, but have received less attention within the context of the university spin-offs (Gonzalez-Pernia et al., 2013). Approach: Utilising an internet-based survey, this paper explores entrepreneurial capabilities and social networks of founding teams in Spanish university spin-offs using quantitative data analysis. Basing upon resource-based view theory of Barney (1991) to study entrepreneurial capabilities of the founding teams, the research employ entrepreneurial technology, strategy, human capital, organizational viability, and commercial resources (see Vohora et al., 2004a). To study social networks of a founding team, we employ the conceptual model of Hoang and Antoncic (2003) that divides networks into three components: structure, governance, and content. Results and implications: The results from an examination of the sample of 181 Spanish university spin-offs empirically demonstrate that by exploiting social networks a founding team can improve its entrepreneurial capabilities, which in turn enhance its spin-off’s performance. By employing the work of Vohora et al. (2004a) and Shane (2004), this paper constructs a model in which entrepreneurial capabilities play a mediate role between social networks and spin-off’s performance. Thus, the paper has implications for universities in training and policy development to support spin-off’s activity. Value: This study addresses some fundamental questions to contribute to the theory-based understanding of university spin-offs: How do entrepreneurial capabilities of founding teams influence the performance of university spin-offs? How do social networks of founding teams contribute to the process of the university spin-offs

Entrepreneurial orientation and international performance: the moderating effect of decision-making rationality

This research examines how entrepreneurial orientation (EO) influences international performance (IP) of the firm taking into account the moderating effect of decision-making rationality (DR) on the EO–IP association. Such an investigation is significant because it considers the interplay of strategic decision-making processes supported by the bounded rationality concept in the entrepreneurship field. Drawing from a study on activities of 216 firms in the United States and United Kingdom, the evidence suggests that DR positively moderates the EO–IP association. The findings suggest that managers can improve IP by combining EO with rational (analytical) processes in their strategic decisions

Relationships between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance : the role of family involvement amongst small firms in Vietnam : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

This thesis broadly investigates entrepreneurship and its intersections with other related research fields, principally family business and organisational behaviour, using multiple studies with different respondent groups in the context of Vietnam. The thesis follows a PhD by publication approach by presenting four studies that examine different sets of relationships among the research variables and presents each of these as a separate paper. Studies 1 and 2 use resource-based theory to test the influence of entrepreneurial orientation and family involvement (i.e., involvement of the owner-manager’s family in the firm in terms of the family’s power, experience, and culture) on firm-level performance. Using a firm-level dataset of 170 Vietnamese small firms, the research confirms the direct effect of entrepreneurial orientation and the moderating effect of family culture, based on results from two hierarchical moderated regression models for firm outcomes (Study 1) and the owner-manager’s goal attainment (Study 2). Study 3 employs social contagion theory and crossover theory to test the crossover from the owner-manager to his/her employees under the involvement of the ownermanager’s family. Results from a multilevel analysis using a dataset of 67 small firm owner-managers and 343 employees confirm that the owner-manager’s entrepreneurial risk-taking has a detrimental effect on both employee job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Study 3 also found the power dimension of family involvement reduces the negative effect of the entrepreneurial risk-taking as the family pursues socioeconomic wealth preservation. Finally, Study 4 explores the notion of becoming an entrepreneur and tests whether the employee’s turnover intentions, under the proximal withdrawal states approach, contribute to development of their entrepreneurial intentions. Results from a structural equation modelling analysis use a dataset of 147 employees to confirm that turnover intentions are positively related to entrepreneurial intentions, but this effect is fully mediated by personal attitudes towards being an entrepreneur. Overall, this thesis contributes to the literature of entrepreneurship and its intersections with family business and organisational behaviour. Based on the research findings, the thesis suggests further research and discusses implications for researchers, policy makers, and business practitioners