Open Innovation After Initial Coin Offerings - An Empirical Investigation of Crowd Participation and Third-Party Support

This study investigates the relationship between third-party support of young ventures and crowd engagement in open source development projects grounded in signaling theory. It is centered on the empirical analysis of a multi-source secondary dataset of 697 firms which conducted an initial coin offering (ICO) and published their source code online. We find that internal third-party support by technology advisors is positively associated with crowd engagement for open source development projects. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, we find internal support by business advisors and prestigious external support to be negatively related to crowd participation. The study enhances our understanding of antecedents of software co-creation and contributes to IS literature on third-party endorsement in open innovation and ICOs

Beneficial, harmful, or both? Effects of corporate venture capital and alliance activity on product recalls

Despite growing numbers of corporate venture capital (CVC) deals and alliances, their effectiveness is not guaranteed. This paper investigates the positive and negative impacts of CVC and alliance activity on product safety under different levels of market turbulence. Using a resource-based learning perspective and panel data from large U.S. firms, we find that both CVC and alliance activity have inverted U-shaped relationships with product recall likelihood. Market turbulence moderates both relationships, but differently. We discuss how learning theory complements the resource-based view to understand why no or rather bold external venturing are less harmful than small-scale “stuck-in-the-middle” initiatives

Human Capital in Corporate Venture Capital Units and Its Relation to Parent Firms’ Innovative Performance

Incumbent firms utilize corporate venture capital (CVC) as a vehicle to enhance their innovative performance. Still, little is known about the central individual in this context: the CVC unit head, who acts as a knowledge broker between portfolio ventures and the parent organization. We combine human capital theory with the attention-based view to investigate the effects of various facets of CVC unit heads' experience on parent firms' innovative inputs in the form of explorative and exploitative patenting and innovative outputs, specifically market and technological breakthrough innovation. Drawing on a dataset of U.S.-listed firms with CVC units, our findings contribute to the CVC literature in three ways. First, we introduce CVC unit heads' career experiences as new individual-level antecedents of parent firms' innovative performance. Second, we enhance the understanding of the CVC-core paradox, which is the tension between exploration and exploitation in the parent firm. Finally, by employing a combination of patents and new product introductions as metrics for innovative performance, we bridge the gap between learning and innovation in extant CVC research, demonstrating that the effects of CVC unit heads include customer-facing outcomes.</p

Digital orientation and environmental performance in times of technological change

Digitalization is increasingly seen as a strategic means for firms to yield competitive and environmental advantages. Still, current empirical research does not yet provide ample evidence on how a firm's strategic posture towards digitalization connects to environmental performance. This study examines the link between digital orientation and environmental performance as well as the moderating role of technological turbulence. The natural-resource-based view and literature on strategic orientations provide the conceptual foundations. The hypotheses are tested with data from 515 U.S. Standard and Poor's 500 companies with 2,800 firm observations from 2009 to 2019. The results indicate that, first, a firm's digital orientation has a significant and positive effect on environmental performance and, second, this effect is even more pronounced in technologically turbulent business environments. In sum, our findings suggest that managers can improve their firm's environmental performance and competitive position by increasing the digital orientation within their organizations. We thus add to the literature on the natural-resource-based view by identifying digital orientation as a strategy aligned with the natural environment. Finally, we derive practical implications for managers and policymakers aiming to bring together digitalization and green strategies

Comparison Between Rigid Double Upright and Lace-up Ankle Braces on Ankle Range of Motion, Functional Performance, and User Satisfaction of Brace Characteristics

Background: Braces are often used before returning to activity following ankle sprains and also prophylactically in sports considered the high risk for ankle sprains. The purpose of this study was to compare range of motion (ROM) limitations, functional performance, and satisfaction of rigid double upright and lace-up braces. Subjects: In total, 30 healthy adults \u3e18 years of age (Mean, 22.6 6 2.7 years) without lower extremity injury and involved in regular physical activity participated in this study. Materials/Methods: Ankle ROM assessment and lower extremity performance testing (figure-of-8 hop, side hop, 6-m single-limb crossover, and square hop) was administered under the following 3 conditions: unbraced, rigid braces, and lace-up braces. A questionnaire was completed following the test protocol on brace characteristics and satisfaction. Repeated-measures ANOVA was used to determine the main effects on outcome variables of ROM, hop performance, and satisfaction. Tukey LSD post hoc comparisons were conducted on significant main or interaction effects (P \u3c .05) to determine differences between group by condition means. Results: In total, 30 participants completed the study. The lace-up brace limited plantarflexion and inversion ROM more than the rigid brace. When compared to the unbraced condition, both braced conditions resulted in better performance times, although not statistically significant. Higher satisfaction was reported with the lace-up brace on appearance, fit, prevention, and overall satisfaction. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance: The ankle braces primarily limited ankle plantarflexion and inversion ROM, which are motions related to common reported mechanisms of ankle sprains. The braces did not negatively affect hop performance, and user satisfaction indicated a slight preference for the lace-up brace

Reversing Blood Flows Act through klf2a to Ensure Normal Valvulogenesis in the Developing Heart

Heart valve anomalies are some of the most common congenital heart defects, yet neither the genetic nor the epigenetic forces guiding heart valve development are well understood. When functioning normally, mature heart valves prevent intracardiac retrograde blood flow; before valves develop, there is considerable regurgitation, resulting in reversing (or oscillatory) flows between the atrium and ventricle. As reversing flows are particularly strong stimuli to endothelial cells in culture, an attractive hypothesis is that heart valves form as a developmental response to retrograde blood flows through the maturing heart. Here, we exploit the relationship between oscillatory flow and heart rate to manipulate the amount of retrograde flow in the atrioventricular (AV) canal before and during valvulogenesis, and find that this leads to arrested valve growth. Using this manipulation, we determined that klf2a is normally expressed in the valve precursors in response to reversing flows, and is dramatically reduced by treatments that decrease such flows. Experimentally knocking down the expression of this shear-responsive gene with morpholine antisense oligonucleotides (MOs) results in dysfunctional valves. Thus, klf2a expression appears to be necessary for normal valve formation. This, together with its dependence on intracardiac hemodynamic forces, makes klf2a expression an early and reliable indicator of proper valve development. Together, these results demonstrate a critical role for reversing flows during valvulogenesis and show how relatively subtle perturbations of normal hemodynamic patterns can lead to both major alterations in gene expression and severe valve dysgenesis