Strategic Planning Objectives for Venture Capitalist Investments in Emerging Information Technologies: A value-focused perspective

Abstract Academic and practitioner literature suggests that Venture Capitalists often have problems with aligning information technology opportunities with investment objectives. To a large extent the alignment process is not formally documented and relies on intuitive instincts. Hence it is important to define Venture Capitalist objectives for investments in emerging information technologies. This paper uses the Value-Focused Thinking approach to identify, define and structure value driven objectives. Based on data collected from a number of Venture Capitalist interviews we identified 130 values, which resulted in 72 objectives. These objectives were organized into 22 clusters, which were bifurcated into fundamental and means categories. In a final synthesis we present a 7 fundamental and 15 means categorical objectives for strategically planning Venture Capitalist investments in emerging information technologies

Success Factors of Small and Medium-Sized International Enterprises in the Chinese Market from the Perspective of Polish Direct Investment (Cultural Approach)

Globalization has resulted in increasing transfer of firms operations, regardless of their size, to other countries. The recent dynamic emergence of China in the global economy, connecting with the vast inflows of foreign direct investment in their territory and common adjustments problems of many Western companies, has resulted in growing interest for best suitable business practices to this culturally and socially different environment. In this article, the key factors critical to the success of international companies in this region are introduced, with particular consideration to indigenous cultural elements and specific operation requirements of small and medium-sized enterprises in Business-to-Business sectors. The presented information are based on the broad literature review, five years of direct observation and thirty eight interviews conducted with Polish managers directly residing in China. In addition, some practical recommendations for managers and further research are given.Globalizacja wymusza na firmach, niezależnie od ich wielkości, coraz częstsze przenoszenie operacji do innych krajów. Dynamiczne pojawienie się Chin w światowej gospodarce i szeroki napł;yw zagranicznych inwestycji bezpośrednich na ich teren oraz problemy adaptacyjne wielu zachodnich przedsiębiorstw, spowodował;y zainteresowanie najlepszymi praktykami biznesowymi dostosowanymi do tego odmiennego kulturowo i społ;ecznie otocznia. W artykule zaprezentowane został;y najważniejsze czynnik mające wpł;yw na osiągnięcie sukcesu przez firmy międzynarodowe na tym obszarze, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem aspektów kulturowych i specyfiki dział;ania mał;ych i średnich podmiotów na rynkach B2B. Prezentowane informacje są oparte na przeglądzie literatury, pięcioletnich obserwacjach bezpośrednich oraz trzydziestu ośmiu wywiadach przeprowadzonych z menadżerami polskich przedsiębiorstw odpowiedzialnymi za operacje w Chinach. Dodatkowo wskazano kilka praktycznych rekomendacji menadżerskich oraz możliwości dalszych badań

The decision-making entrepreneur; Literature review

This study provides a literature overview of the entrepreneurial decision-making process. The literature review is used as background information for a qualitative study, which investigates, by means of case studies, the decision-making process of small business enterpreneurs in The Netherlands (Gibcus and Van Hoesel, 2003). The literature overview is the starting point of a confrontation between the literature on decision-making and the empirical findings of the latter qualitive study. Firstly, this literature review gives an introduction to general decision theory. It discusses the classical rationality, the bounded rationality and the neoclassical rationality. The place of the entrepreneur in the general decision theory is also discussed. Next, an analytic framework of the strategic decision-making in SMEs is presented. The analytic framework consists of three elements: the entrepreneur, the environment and the strategic decision process. Each of these elements is critical. Finally, some earlier empirical findings on entrepreneurial strategic decision-making are discussed.

Entrepreneurs' Access to Private Equity in China: The Role of Social Capital

Drawing on Social network theory, this article argues for enhancing effects of social capital of entrepreneurs on investment selection decisions of venture capitalists (to invest versus not to invest), and main effects of social capital on investment process decisions such as venture valuation, investment delivery speed and contractual warrants/provisions. The core idea of enhancing effects is that the presence of particularistic ties between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs will affect positively investment selection decisions of venture capitalists if only other main factors for investment making such as management team, industry, market attractiveness, proprietary technologies and products are perceived as strong by investors. The context of the study is People's Republic of China. The empirical data is composed of 158 venture capital investment decisions in Beijing and Shanghai. The main finding is that social capital is supplementary and additive to other investment determining factors such as project and team qualities at selection stage, and social capital is a main factor for investment process decisions once a venture has been selected for funding. The main theoretical implication is that social capital may affect outcome variables in interaction with other factors. The main practical implication for entrepreneurs is that social capital is probably necessary but insufficient for raising venture capital successfully.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39837/3/wp453.pd

Trust, Organizational Controls, Knowledge Acquisition from the Foreign Parents, and Performance in Vietnamese International Joint Ventures

Successful adaptation in strategic alliances "calls for a delicate balance between the twin virtues of reliability and flexibility" [Parkhe 1998]. On one hand, the joint venture must be flexible enough to respond to the uncertainties of competitive business environments because it is not feasible to plan for every possible contingency. Yet, on the other hand, unfettered flexibility invites dysfunctional behavior, such as opportunism and complacency. This delicate balance accompanies a parallel balance between trust and control of the joint venture. The primary goal of this study is to empirically examine this relationship in the context of Vietnamese international joint ventures (IJVs) by building on the model of knowledge acquisition and performance in IJVs established by Lyles and Salk [1996]. This study makes three major contributions to the literature. First it confirms several findings of the original Lyles and Salk study [1996]. Second, we strengthen Lyles and Salk's original model by incorporating multiple measures of both interorganizational trust and control as independent variables. Finally, this study represents one of the first in-depth examinations of business in the emerging Vietnamese economy.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39713/3/wp329.pd

Entrepreneurship in the Netherlands; Business transfer

This report is the eighth edition of the series 'Entrepreneurship in the Netherlands'. As demonstrated by the name of the series, the reports focus on entrepreneurship but each year a different aspect of entrepreneurship is studied. This eight report deals with business transfer. In the coming years many entrepreneurs in the Netherlands as well as in Europe will retire and cease trading. This will create a large number of enterprises that will be for sale. However at this stage the market for buying and selling such businesses, at least in the Netherlands, is not very well developed and there is a risk that successful enterprises will be closed unnecessarily. In the framework of their entrepreneurship policy, governments as well as the European Commission have developed actions to stimulate a smooth acquisition of these enterprises. In this report, the business transfer case in the Netherlands and the policy developed by the Dutch Government are described.

The Value Co-creation of Private Equity Fund in China -- Customer Participation, Virtual Vehicle and Service System

In China, based on the existing and dominant management method of private equity fund (PE), a general partner (GP) takes full responsibility for the running of PE This entails a closed management style for all activities of the fund, such as investment, fundraising and management. GP creating value and limited partner (LP) sharing value is still the current mainstream management method. However, in recent years, due to the change of the whole economic structure and environment in China, the profit rate and the project survival rate of PE under the management of GP has declined dramatically necessitating consideration of alternative methods of management to respond to these challenges. Academic research on customer participation and value co-creation under a Service-dominant logic (S-D) framework has been studied for many years in China and worldwide. However, there has been less research on customer participation value co-creation under service-dominant logic, especially as evidenced by empirical evidence from China's PE industry. Research on this issue can have a positive impact on dealing with the current problems faced by China's PE industry. Therefore, this thesis explores these basic and important problems. According to the service-dominant logic, this study focuses on customer participation value co-creation, value co-creation vehicle and value co-creation service system. Value co-creation is an important part of S-D logic, which is created value jointly by the customer and the enterprise. Value co-creation could increase the perceived value and the loyalty of customer. Therefore, based on S-D logic, this thesis tries to illustrate a new pathway to solve these problems for China's PE funds in a logical manner combining theoretical insights with empirical evidence. The research questions that this thesis addresses are as follows. Firstly, the hypothesis is verified that the value co-creation of customer participation has a significant positive impact on customer perceived value. Moreover, the complete mediation effect of customer participation in value co-creation of PE on customer perceived value is explored. Secondly, using actual PE (APE) to build a special vehicle, which is a virtual PE (VPE) which provides a platform for customer participation in PE value co-creation processes. It demonstrates that customer participation (engagement) has a partial mediation effect in value co-creation processes. Thirdly, APE and VPE jointly carry out value co-creation, this interaction process not only makes the high-level integration and optimization of resources possible but will also bring unexpected creativity to PE. This needs to be supported by the service system. In the constructed service system, this thesis focuses on researching customer demand preference discovery and Clustering modeling, in order to determine potential customer demand and value propositions; it also studies collaborative filtering recommendation and decision-making and discusses collaborative decision-making mechanisms for PE. Finally, this thesis focuses on PE equity assets monetization and transaction method. Further, it emphasizes that the fair value of PE equity assets should not be the scalar algebraic sum of the initial value + expected excess return value, but the vector sum (module) - composite value of the complex number. This thesis provides recommendations and conclusions for management strategies for those working in the Chinese PE industry to pursue in strengthening all aspects of value co-creation

Social entrepreneurship: How intentions to create a social enterprise get formed.

Social entrepreneurship has raised increasing interest among scholars, yet we still know relatively little about the particular dynamics and processes involved. This paper aims at contributing to the field of social entrepreneurship by clarifying key elements, providing working definitions, and illuminating the social entrepreneurship process. In the first part of the paper we review the existing literature. In the second part we develop a model on how intentions to create a social venture -the tangible outcome of social entrepreneurship- get formed. Combining insights from traditional entrepreneurship literature and anecdotal evidence in the field of social entrepreneurship, we propose that behavioral intentions to create a social venture are influenced, first, by perceived social venture desirability, which is affected by attitudes such as empathy and moral judgment, and second, by perceived social venture feasibility, which is facilitated by social support and self-efficacy beliefs.entrepreneurship; social enterprise;

Transforming an idea into a strategic decision in SMEs

Entrepreneurs in small and medium sized firms (SMEs) are dynamic when it comes to decision-making. 65% of the interviewed entrepreneurs in our sample took an important decision in the last three years or will take an important decision in the near future. In this report we investigated the stages and crucial moments in the decision-making process of SMEs. By means of two extensive pilot studies we developed a model, distinguishing three stages and two moments in the decision-making process.