Board control and corporate innovation: an empirical study of small technology-based firms

This paper follows a behavioural perspective on boards and governance in exploring the influence of board control on corporate innovation in small technology-based firms. An analysis of 135 Swedish technology-based firms suggests that board involvement in decision control may influence corporate innovation. The empirical results show that board involvement in strategic decision control is positively associated with process innovation, while board involvement in financial decision control is positively associated with organizational innovation. No association is found between board involvement in decision control and product innovation. Overall, the findings suggest that board involvement in decision control may promote corporate innovation but that different kinds of decision control influence different forms of innovation.boards of directors; corporate innovation; decision control; technology-based firms; small firms

University professors and research commercialization: An empirical test of the “knowledge corridor” thesis

There has been an increasing interest in the determinants and outcomes of successful technology transfer and commercialization of research results. In this study we test the validity of the “knowledge corridor” thesis for explaining the involvement of university professors’ in the early stages of research commercialization. Statistical analysis on a sample of 86 respondents from engineering, natural science and medical faculties in a large Swedish university shows that both entrepreneurial and private industry experience significantly influence their ability to spot and generate business ideas in their research. Moreover, we find that research based business idea generation increase at a faster rate for professors with private sector work experience who have more time for research in their positions. The article ends with a discussion of our empirical findings together with its implications for support activities related to technology transfer and commercialization of research results.academic entrepreneurship; knowledge corridor; research commercialization

Graduates of venture creation programs - where do they apply their entrepreneurial competencies?

The assessment of entrepreneurship education outcomes should move beyond a focus on firm creation and associated economic impact to consider a more nuanced view that pays attention to graduates and their entrepreneurial competencies. There is currently limited understanding to what extent entrepreneurial competencies developed through entrepreneurship education are applied in graduates\u27 subsequent careers across various occupational roles, either as employees or as self-employed. Our analysis is based on a survey administered to 556 graduates from three Nordic master-level entrepreneurship education programs (1997-2018), all identified as venture creation programs. We find that, to a large extent, entrepreneurial competencies developed through venture creation programs are applied in subsequent careers across multiple occupational roles encompassing self-employment, hybrid entrepreneurship, and intrapreneurship. Entrepreneurship education is relevant not only to new firm creation but also to entrepreneurial positions in established organizations when it comes to graduates\u27 application of entrepreneurial competencies in subsequent careers. Plain English Summary Entrepreneurial competencies developed through entrepreneurship education are applicable to careers other than "start-up entrepreneur." This article examines graduates from three entrepreneurship education programs in Northern Europe where students experienced venture creation as part of the education. Graduates report the extent to which they apply entrepreneurial competencies (AECs) in their subsequent career. The most common career among graduates is self-employed entrepreneur, closely followed by a career as intrapreneur, where graduates apply their entrepreneurial competencies in established organizations. A smaller group of graduates have careers as hybrid entrepreneurs, where they combine paid employment with self-employment. A minority group of graduates have more conventional careers as full-time employees in established companies, where entrepreneurial tasks are not their main activities. The results indicate that venture creation programs provide fertile ground for graduates to engage in a broad spectrum of entrepreneurial careers. From the analysis, we found that a career as an intrapreneur is more similar to a self-employed entrepreneur than to a conventional employee. An implication for entrepreneurship education is that real-life educational experience through venture creation is applicable to entrepreneurial careers beyond start-ups. Additionally, the study provides a first attempt to connect entrepreneurial competencies developed through education with how such competencies are manifested in graduates\u27 subsequent careers, motivating a discursive shift in how policies could spur a more entrepreneurial society that goes beyond a narrow start-up perspective

Entrepreneurship, Career Experience and Learning - Developing Our Understanding of Entrepreneurship as an Experiential Learning Process

Why are some individuals more successful in recognizing and exploiting new venture opportunities than others? The common view is that successful entrepreneurs have acquired and developed specific types of knowledge through their previous career experiences, which in turn facilitate their involvement in the entrepreneurial process from opportunity recognition to opportunity exploitation. If this is true, how can we understand the learning mechanisms that underlie this experiential learning process? The overall purpose of this dissertation is to develop concepts that enhances our understanding of entrepreneurship as an experiential learning process, and based on this development to empirically test a conceptual framework that explains how individuals develop entrepreneurial knowledge through experiences acquired in their careers. To meet the overall purpose five individual studies have been conducted. The empirical data consists of both personal interviews as well as a large-scale mail questionnaire on Swedish entrepreneurs. The overall findings imply that entrepreneurship should be conceived as a lifelong learning process that proceeds both before and after the initial start-up of a new venture. This means that the sequences of events whereby individuals enter an entrepreneurial career and learn how to recognize and exploit new ventures opportunities needs to be understood in the light of individuals? career experiences as a whole. Entrepreneurial learning is consequently not something that only occurs in typical entrepreneurial settings but also in the everyday working life of individuals well before they even think of being involved in new venture creation. Moreover, the overall findings suggest the need to reconsider the predominant view on entrepreneurial learning which presumes a direct link between a particular experience and the knowledge gained from this experience. The empirical results show that different types of career experiences lead to different types of entrepreneurial knowledge, and that the knowledge developed also depends on the entrepreneurs? preferred mode of transforming experience to knowledge, i.e. whether they prefer putting their emphasis on exploring new possibilities or exploiting their pre-existent knowledge. Consequently, there is a need to distinguish between the two concepts "experience" and "knowledge" if we are to understand entrepreneurship as an experiential learning process

Does prior start‐up experience matter for entrepreneurs' learning?

Purpose– This paper aims to present a study of the role of prior start‐up experience as a source of learning in the entrepreneurial process. Three learning outcomes are examined with respect to a comparison between habitual and novice entrepreneurs: skills for coping with liabilities of newness, preference for effectual reasoning, and attitudes towards failure.Design/methodology/approach– This is an empirical study based on statistical analysis conducted on a sample of 231 Swedish entrepreneurs that have started a new independent firm in 2004.Findings– The findings suggest that habitual and novice entrepreneurs differ significantly with regard to several interesting aspects of the hypothesized dimensions.Research limitations/implications– The findings provide a better understanding of start‐up experience as a source of learning and its effects on the skills, preferences and attitudes of habitual entrepreneurs.Originality/value– Previous research has suggested that prior start‐up experience is an important source of entrepreneurial learning, but has not put much effort into explaining how this particular type of experience influences various learning outcomes on an individual level. The present study advances these suggestions by showing how prior start‐up experience influences entrepreneurs' skills for coping with liabilities of newness, effectual reasoning and attitudes towards failures. Moreover, the study contributes to existing literature and research on entrepreneurial learning by developing explorative measures of individual learning outcomes that have been highlighted as influenced by prior experience in recent entrepreneurship research

The process of entrepreneurial learning: A conceptual framework

The present article seeks to advance the theoretical knowledge of entrepreneurial learning by reviewing and synthesizing available research into a conceptual framework that explains the process of entrepreneurial learning as an experiential process. The framework identifies three main components in the process of entrepreneurial learning: entrepreneurs' career experience, the transformation process, and entrepreneurial knowledge in terms of effectiveness in recognizing and acting on entrepreneurial opportunities and coping with the liabilities of newness. Based on the arguments in the article, five major propositions were developed to refine our understanding of entrepreneurial learning. Finally, theoretical and practical implications were discussed

Does prior start-up experience matter for entrepreneurs’ learning? : A comparison between novice and habitual entrepreneurs

Purpose– This paper aims to present a study of the role of prior start‐up experience as a source of learning in the entrepreneurial process. Three learning outcomes are examined with respect to a comparison between habitual and novice entrepreneurs: skills for coping with liabilities of newness, preference for effectual reasoning, and attitudes towards failure.Design/methodology/approach– This is an empirical study based on statistical analysis conducted on a sample of 231 Swedish entrepreneurs that have started a new independent firm in 2004.Findings– The findings suggest that habitual and novice entrepreneurs differ significantly with regard to several interesting aspects of the hypothesized dimensions.Research limitations/implications– The findings provide a better understanding of start‐up experience as a source of learning and its effects on the skills, preferences and attitudes of habitual entrepreneurs.Originality/value– Previous research has suggested that prior start‐up experience is an important source of entrepreneurial learning, but has not put much effort into explaining how this particular type of experience influences various learning outcomes on an individual level. The present study advances these suggestions by showing how prior start‐up experience influences entrepreneurs' skills for coping with liabilities of newness, effectual reasoning and attitudes towards failures. Moreover, the study contributes to existing literature and research on entrepreneurial learning by developing explorative measures of individual learning outcomes that have been highlighted as influenced by prior experience in recent entrepreneurship research

Business angels and value added : what do we know and where do we go?

Business angels have been highlighted as important stakeholders for potential high-growth ventures. Extant empirical research provides evidence that they not only contribute with money but also bring added value to the ventures in which they have invested. However, despite the reported benefits of the value added provided by these investors there are very few studies that try to conceptualize this important issue. The present study seeks to meet this shortcoming by presenting a review of literature and research on business angels and value added. The overall objective is to recognize the range of value added activities that business angels have been reported to perform, aggregate the findings into a set of distinct but complementary value adding roles, and then link these roles to theoretical perspectives that explain why they have the potential to contribute to added value. Four different value added roles performed by informal investors are presented together with an explanation of how they can be seen as complementary to each other. The following discussion is then used to guide future studies of business angels and value added towards areas where our knowledge is still limited