LEGITIMATING CHARACTERISTICS AND FIRM EMERGENCE

Most of the organizational theories take the existence of organizations for granted. Thus, attempts to understand success and failure at the nascent firm stage have often been conducted without an underlying theory to explain why some nascent firms succeed in becoming new firms while others do not. This study proposes that institutional theory offers an explanatory framework to explain firm emergence. Specifically, we argue that nascent firm becomes new firm thanks to resource endowments. The reliance on legitimating characteristics will grant a nascent firm an access to critical resources necessary for its emergence. We explore these ideas empirically and find support for our basic arguments.Entrepreneurship, firm emergence, nascent entrepreneurs, nascent firms, legitimacy, legitimating characteristics, institutional theory, PLS estimation

The effects of initial firm configuration and VC involvement on future firm growth: a case of picking or forming winners

The main objective of our study is to explore to what extent the long-term performance of new firms is the result of initial firm configurations or VC’s involvement during the investment period. Our analysis among new VC-backed firms in Sweden over their full venture capital cycle gives strong support for the effect of initial funding conditions on the long-term growth of new firms. VC involvement, on the contrary, has much more marginal role in explaining long-term growth. In fact, VCs involvement seems to occur when firms are in trouble (i.e. “fire-fighter” role)

The effects of initial firm configuration and VC involvement on future firm growth: a case of picking or forming winners

The main objective of our study is to explore to what extent the long-term performance of new firms is the result of initial firm configurations or VC’s involvement during the investment period. Our analysis among new VC-backed firms in Sweden over their full venture capital cycle gives strong support for the effect of initial funding conditions on the long-term growth of new firms. VC involvement, on the contrary, has much more marginal role in explaining long-term growth. In fact, VCs involvement seems to occur when firms are in trouble (i.e. “fire-fighter” role)

How a laid-off employee becomes an entrepreneur: The case of Nokia’s Bridge program

This paper investigates how to support employees to become entrepreneurs. Using original survey data by Nokia, we show two main findings. First, some contents of entrepreneurship were effective commonly to employees with an R&D background and to those with a non-R&D background while other contents were effective to either employees with an R&D background or those with a non-R&D background. The former contents are general knowledge on management, and the later contents are further development of their own specialties. Second, providing a such program to employees had merits to the program provider. Our findings have implications for how a firm to design entrepreneurial programs for employees and to form a business ecosystem around it.31 p

How a laid-off employee becomes an entrepreneur: The case of Nokia’s Bridge program

This paper investigates how to support employees to become entrepreneurs. Using original survey data by Nokia, we show two main findings. First, some contents of entrepreneurship were effective commonly to employees with an R&D background and to those with a non-R&D background while other contents were effective to either employees with an R&D background or those with a non-R&D background. The former contents are general knowledge on management, and the later contents are further development of their own specialties. Second, providing a such program to employees had merits to the program provider. Our findings have implications for how a firm to design entrepreneurial programs for employees and to form a business ecosystem around it

Empirical exploration of a cohort of new technology-based firms in Sweden: what happens to them during their early years?

This chapter contributes to the current understanding of new technologybased firm growth. We find a surprisingly high survival rate (70 per cent) for the 2006 cohort of NTBFs at the end of 2014 and this rate is much higher than those reported in previous studies. Additionally, we find that very few firms experience high-growth during their first seven years (0.6 to 3 per cent from the cohort) and that, among the high-growth firms, employment growth and sales growth are highly correlated. To address the challenges of measuring growth for new and small firms, we show thepotential usefulness of the kink-point approach. Researchers can use this approach to capture much of the growth excluded in other measures, for example, the OECD measure