Configurations of Inter-firm Relations in Management Innovation: A Study in China’s Biopharmaceutical Industry

This dissertation proposes a configurational approach to the study of inter-firm relations facilitating management innovation. Previous research conceptualizes management innovation as either the outcome of determinants of individual firms or a complex process of conjunctural factors between firms. In contrast, this thesis attempts to reconcile the two camps by examining the conditions under which the management innovation process within inter-firm relations takes place. The empirical analysis employs data from 56 firm partnerships in China’s biopharmaceutical industry collected during field research in 2008. The population of firms in China’s biopharmaceutical industry is young, highly diverse and strongly relies on ties to other organizations. Operating under volatile conditions requires constant development of new managerial instruments. Methodologically, this dissertation employs a technique new in the study of management innovation. Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis has been chosen for its ability to properly translate complex theories into models and its suitability for configurational analyses. The results identify four configurations of inter-firm relations differing in their combinations of relational, structural and environmental conditions. Each is equally effective in facilitating management innovation yet employs internal and external knowledge differently to develop and implement new management instruments. The results provide a simple and well arranged decision-making tool for drafting intelligible managerial strategies and indicate that firms in China’s biopharmaceutical industry swiftly develop and introduce management instruments which soon may serve as templates for the global biopharmaceutical industry as a whole

Toward a configurational understanding of entrepreneurship using qualitative comparative analysis

This doctoral thesis aims to promote a configurational understanding of entrepreneurship by showing the potential challenges involved in applying qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) as a research method to study complex phenomena in entrepreneurship. In order to achieve this aim, the thesis presents four empirical studies, each of which has been presented repeatedly at scientific conferences and been developed further based on experts comments at presentations and from reviews. Three of the studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals or edited volumes and the fourth study is currently under review. The introduction of the thesis establishes the link between complexity and entrepreneurship and argues that the discipline can benefit from a configurational perspective. This also requires research designs to consider methods that can embrace characteristics of complexity such as the irreducibility of elements, interdependencies, non-proportionality and dynamics. QCA is a promising research method originating from political science, which facilitates dealing with complex phenomena. In the first study titled Is Qualitative Comparative Analysis an Emerging Method? Structured Literature Review and Bibliometric Analysis of QCA Applications in Business & Management Research, I present a structured literature review which studies the state of the art of the application of QCA in business and management and conveys the particularities of the research method. Among the 96 reviewed articles, ten articles might be assigned to entrepreneurship, but those have so far not included analysis on a country level, rarely introduced other methods, or used larger sample sizes. Three studies then apply QCA as a research method intending to show the benefits of adopting a configurational approach to entrepreneurship both at a macro and a micro level. In the second study titled What drives entrepreneurship? A configurational analysis of the determinants of entrepreneurship in innovation-driven economies, QCA is applied to analyze the configurations of institutional frameworks across 23 innovation-driven economies that foster high levels of opportunity-driven and necessity-driven entrepreneurship. By applying fsQCA for the cross-country comparison, the study moves from focusing on one construct to embracing the complexity of all three dimensions. Apart from revealing the causal conjuncture between conditions explaining entrepreneurial activity, it also shows that for entrepreneurial activity causation needs to be understood as equifinal and asymmetric. In the third study titled The more the merrier? Economic freedom and entrepreneurial activity I ask how elements of economic freedom need to be designed in economies in order to foster entrepreneurial activity. This study illustrates the asset of applying QCA in a cross-country setting. Despite small sample sizes, the study identifies patterns of the configurations of economic freedom that explain high or low levels of entrepreneurial activity. The results also stress the aspect of equifinality with regard to how to design elements of economic freedom and thereby point to the questionable nature of rankings of economic freedom, which imply more economic freedom is equivalent to a promise of more growth and development. In the fourth study titled Overcoming the Matthew effect in status-dominated environments a configurational analysis of venture capital investments, the authors apply QCA on a micro-level using a large longitudinal sample by investigating what combination of deal resources accumulated by venture capital partners leads to high deal performance. The aim is to analyze if new entrants can nonetheless overcome the burden of being new. The results point to a path that enables even new entrants to the status-dominated market to succeed. Applying QCA in this context provides an alignment between theory and research design, as other research methods such as regression or cluster analysis suggest eliminating outliers and would have prevented us from identifying this rare path of how new entrants can overcome the Matthew effect. In sum, this thesis has provided a review of past applications of QCA in business & management and three empirical studies highlighting the new insights and benefits of taking a configurational perspective and applying a research method that complies with it to study complex phenomena in entrepreneurship. While this thesis has made a major contribution to promote a configurational understanding of entrepreneurship by setting out designs on how to study in the face of the growing complexity faced by entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship research, I have also emphasized the challenges still to be overcome in order to establish the configurational perspective of entrepreneurship.Die Dissertation widmet sich der Frage, wie komplexe, unternehmerische Phänomene mit Hilfe eines konfigurationalen Ansatzes besser erklärt werden können. Speziell wird dabei das Potential der Anwendung der Forschungsmethode Qualitative Comparative Analysis für die Entrepreneurship Forschung untersucht

Business model innovation and performance of young ventures: a configurational approach

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Strategy and Organization of Born-global Firms: A Configurational Analysis

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A configurational analysis of network and knowledge variables explaining born globals’ and late internationalizing SMEs’ international performance

Network-based and knowledge-based conditions are widely regarded as important antecedents to international performance among new venture Born Globals (BGs) and their counterpart late internationalizing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Yet, while studies have examined the single effects of these ingredients on BGs’ and late internationalizing SMEs’ international activity, a configurational approach is still missing. How do network-based and knowledge-based factors matter for international performance and do they share the same importance for both types of firms? To address these questions, we apply for the first time a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on data from managers and founders of 365 international German, Austrian, Swiss, and Liechtensteinian companies, mapping configurational paths that lead to high international performance. The results demonstrate that late internationalizers do not share the same paths as BGs for high international performance, except in one instance. We find four causal configurations for BGs and three for late internationalizing SMEs. Results show that while both groups of firms rely on network size, BGs rely much more on collaboration intensity as well as international market knowledge and education

Impacts of inter-organisational knowledge transfer networks on different types of innovations in SMEs

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyThis research aims to understand the contributions of inter-organisational knowledge transfer to innovation in SMEs from a social network perspective. The main objective is to identify the impact of the network characteristics on company’s innovation performance. Organisations are embedded in a network of relationships with other companies. They must make the best use of all available resources in order to survive and thrive in today’s competitive environment. However, most of the previous network studies focus on large organisations and studying network effects in the context of SMEs is not well explored. This study sheds light on the relationships between different network characteristics and two different types of innovation performance in High Tech SMEs. In this study inter-organisational knowledge transfer networks were investigated from ego-network perspective. Radical and incremental innovation was identified as specific types of innovation. More specifically this research studied the impact of the structural, relational and nodal properties of inter-organisational knowledge transfer network on radical and incremental innovation performance. In addition to network characteristics, internal capabilities of companies were also identified important. Pentathlon framework was used to capture firms’ innovation management capabilities. A survey instrument was used to collect data from a sample of UK Small to Medium size Enterprises (SMEs). A new innovation measurement instrument was developed to measure different types of innovation from companies’ and customers’ perspectives. The SMEs were chosen randomly from IT and Chemical industry. Inter-organisational relationships were mapped using social network techniques. Path analysis techniques including PLS were used to test the hypotheses of the study. In addition to the statistical method, Fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis was used to shed light on different combinations (various configurations) of factors that impact on radical and incremental innovation. This study has made theoretical contributions by identifying research gaps through review and synthesis of literature in innovation and inter-organisational relationships and social network theories. Moreover, a new framework was developed based on the concepts identified in social network and innovation literature. The integration of theories and concepts regarding inter-organisational relationships, innovation and social networks with a view of better understanding of the impact of network characteristics on specific types of innovation is another contribution of this study. This research shows how different network properties can help companies to achieve ambidextrousness, which is vital for organisations’ competitive advantages and long term survival. Moreover, this study reveals that the internal capabilities (innovation management practices) of a firm play a significant role in enabling the company to benefit from its network resources. It shows how different configuration of the internal capabilities and network resources can lead to a better radical/incremental innovation performance. Findings from this research can help managers to adapt their network resources according to their strategies and the level of the innovation that they want to achieve

Exploring Innovation as a Determinant to Internationalization in Small Knowledge-Intensive Business Services

This study tests the underlying assumption that innovation is a necessary condition for internationalization in small firms. Specifically, I ask whether a knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) firm’s service innovation influences its propensity and intensity of internationalization. Two sub- questions are posed in relation to this broader question. First, are certain innovation results or combinations thereof associated with internationalization? And second, are certain configurations of innovation inputs and results associated with internationalization? I use both traditional statistical techniques as well as set-theoretic methods to assess how the results garnered from contrasting methodological approaches differ from one another. The results from the logistic regressions and fractional logistic regressions echo the findings from previous studies: they suggest that there is a positive relationship between service innovation and internationalization. Given the assumptions of linearity and symmetry, results from the traditional statistical analyses support the notion that service innovation is positively related to internationalization; that internationalization is unlikely without service innovation. The results from the QCA lend an alternate view to the one proposed by the traditional statistical analyses, suggesting that there can be internationalization without service innovation. The crisp and fuzzy set QCAs suggest there are multiple pathways of innovation attributes a firm may adopt, but very few paths lead to the consistent result of internationalization. While there are few consistent configurations that explain internationalization propensity or intensity, there are many more that explain remaining in the firm’s domestic market. Overall, the findings from the study point to the strength of using alternative methodological perspectives to test theoretical models and nuance the current understanding of the role played by innovation as a driver of internationalization. They also point to the importance of allowing for asymmetry in explaining the presence and the absence of internationalization. Improper generalizations may be made when inferring that the absence of innovation implies the absence of internationalization. Moreover, they suggest that the import of a broader definition of innovation, including activities that precede an innovation result as well as external knowledge sourcing, offers insightful additions in understanding the behaviours adopted by firms that have internationalized

Effectiveness of Social Enterprises: Aligning Strategies and Supply Chains for Impact

Social enterprises use market mechanisms to address social issues that are undesirable targets for intervention by conventional businesses. The pursuit of these goals comes with inherent operational constraints that must be mitigated for the organization to survive, but that are unavoidable without compromising the organization’s social mission. However, the assumption embedded in much of the SCM literature, that profit maximization is the ultimate goal, may lead to the implementation of practices that are inappropriate or even detrimental for social enterprises. This dissertation aims to address this issue through an investigation into how a social enterprise’s social value creation strategy (SVCS) affects its supply chain structure and management, and how supply chain social capital can help organizations overcome operational constraints to achieve effectiveness. This dissertation contains three components. First, a conceptual framework is developed that identifies the core components of an organization’s SVCS: its activity link, financial model and beneficiary characteristics. This framework is used to develop a set of propositions regarding how supply chain constraints associated with these strategies can be addressed through the development of different dimensions of social capital. Second, an fsQCA study is conducted to validate the propositions put forth from the conceptual framework and identify configurations of SVCSs and social capital that are necessary or sufficient for effectiveness. Finally, a multiple case study is presented to validate the suggested supply chain constraints presented in the conceptual framework (e.g., cost or design constraints, competitive constraints) and presents a more nuanced look at the underlying mechanisms through which social capital contributes to social enterprise effectiveness. The findings of this dissertation suggest that different dimensions of social capital make crucial contributions to the effectiveness of social enterprises, and that the nature of these contributions varies based on the organization’s SVCS. This dissertation also identifies underlying mechanisms through which social capital contributes to social enterprise effectiveness. This work contributes to the SCM literature by highlighting the unique constraints faced by social enterprises and the supply chain adaptations implemented to mitigate them, highlighting the ways in which conventional SCM intuition is insufficient to appropriately guide the behaviour of social entrepreneurs

Surrounding the Founder: Examining the Hidden Figures of Entrepreneurship

Founders, as the initial architects of their organizations, receive a great deal of interest and attention in entrepreneurship research. Yet, there is still much we do not know regarding the constellation of other people surrounding the founder and supporting them throughout the entrepreneurial process. This dissertation includes three essays focused on addressing this neglected area of research, and examines various “hidden figures” which are rarely observed in entrepreneurial data and who seldom receive the same recognition as founders, but who still play a fundamental role in venture success. In the first essay, I uncover and introduce the concept of co-creators, or individuals and entities who hold no ownership stake in the business but still make a distinctive contribution in the earliest stages of founding a new business. The second essay examines the role of a second-in-command, or an individual who the founder hires later in the firm’s life cycle to help manage the increasingly complex business. The third and final essay explores coworking communities, an increasingly popular phenomenon in which communities of founders interact with, learn from, and help one another. As a whole, these essays contribute by highlighting how the immediate context around founders can play a major role in determining venture success.Doctor of Philosoph