A configuration study based on performance of nascent ventures : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

This research provides explanations for the reasons why one group of entrepreneurs start a venture early, while a second group starts later to create their venture. It also considers what factors contribute to some entrepreneurs quitting the venture early while others quit later. There is a dearth of studies that have explicitly considered the performance for both starting and quitting over time from the same dataset. There are methods limitations when analysing nascent entrepreneurs developing new ventures which are limited by a focus on mainly regression analyses. Research is sparse for uncovering types of new venture by examining similar contexts of new venture performance from a multidimensional view. Data from a sample of nascent entrepreneurs (people in the process of setting up a venture) were analysed over a six-year period. An initial sample of 1135 nascent entrepreneurs was drawn from a US dataset, and then the second, and last years’ interviews were used to assess their progress. There were 690 early starters amongst this group and 248 respondents were later starters. There were 219 respondents who quit their venture early compared to 51 who quit their venture later. The thesis focuses on explaining the relative importance of a variety of factors affecting performance for new ventures by explaining causal relationships beyond the correlation analyses perspectives. These factors are organised in terms of Gartner's (1985) framework of new venture creation. This framework suggests that start-up outcomes depend on the characteristics of the individual(s) starting the venture, the organisation that they create, the environment surrounding the new venture, and the process by which the new venture is started. The research also considers the strategy which is not part of Gartners framework but considered important to understanding performance outcomes for nascent entrepreneurs. The research applies the method fuzzy sets qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), (Ragin, 2008) to compare nascent entrepreneurs and explores links between various configurations of attributes known as domains and new venture performance which is a contribution to knowledge on new ventures performance. This is important as the method provides better explanations of the combination of sets necessary to create recipes for performance. The results show for both early and late starters that when high need for achievement is coupled with better access to financial resources, and the absence of external support, then starting a new venture is likely to occur. This suggests that for nascent entrepreneurs, they need to have entrepreneurial personality trait need for achievement which is a trait showing the propensity to be entrepreneurial, or be engaged in entrepreneurial activities and a clear access to financial resources. External support is not as relevant to starting new ventures when financial resources and need for achievement are present. The overall findings for configurations based on early versus late quitters suggest that unlike the later quitters, early quitters were limited in relation to financial resources and external support. The early quitters had a high need for achievement, at least moderate levels of specific human capital, limited external support and limited access to financial resources. In contrast, the late quitters had higher levels of specific human capital, higher levels of entrepreneurial intensity but limited external support which suggests that they were able to quit later because they had other options, such as other ventures or employment available to them. Keywords: new venture performance, qualitative comparative analysis, configurations, asymmetry, new ventures, fsQC

Application of Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) to Analyse the Impact of External Environment on Innovation Ecosystem

The Innovation ecosystem has become an emerging area of academic research within the last 15 years Grandstrand and Holgersson, 2020) and this has been recognized as a key element to achieve value proposition in particular for innovative firms (Talmar et al. 2020). However, no comprehensive approach has been developed in order to understand the extent to which this ecosystem is affected by external environment and if any remedial action needs to be taken by the firms in order to bring the ecosystem back to its normal status following a major external event/shock with a severe impact or potential disruption

Cyber resiliency for digital enterprises: A strategic leadership perspective

As organizations increasingly view information as one of their most valuable assets, which supports the creation and distribution of their products and services, information security will be an integral part of the design and operation of organizational business processes. Yet, risks associated with cyber attacks are on the rise. Organizations that are subjected to attacks can suffer significant reputational damage as well as loss of information and knowledge. As a consequence, effective leadership is cited as a critical factor for ensuring corporate level attention for information security. However, there is a lack of empirical understanding as to the roles strategic leaders play in shaping and supporting the cyber security strategy. This study seeks to address this gap in the literature by focusing on how senior leaders support the cyber security strategy. The authors conducted a series of exploratory interviews with leaders in the positions of Chief Information Officer, Chief Security Information Officer, and Chief Technology Officer. The findings revealed that leaders are engaged in both transitional, where the focus is on improving governance and integration, and transformational support, which involves fostering a new cultural mindset for cyber resiliency and the development of an ecosystem approach to security thinking. Managerial relevance statement Our findings provide interesting insights for managers particularly those in the role of Chief Information Officers (CIOs), Chief Security Information Officers (CSIOs), and Chief Technology Officers (CTOs). We propose a Cyber Security Strategy Framework (CSSF) which can be used by these information/technology managers to design an effective organizational strategy to develop cyber resilience in their organization. Our framework suggests that managers should focus on transitional and transformational support. The transitional support focuses on improving governance and integration whereas transformational support focuses on the emphasis of fostering a new cultural mindset for cyber resiliency and the development of an ecosystem approach to security thinking. Our findings provide good evidence showing how leaders can support more effective cyber security initiatives

Investigating the benefits and challenges of Total Quality Management implementation in the pharmaceutical companies

Pharmaceutical companies in Eastern European region are facing urgent quality tools implementation due to fierce global competition. The aim of this research is to provide current understanding of TQM in this region and provide further guidance on how to improve quality standards and techniques. The study follows a qualitative method and data was collected through 5 semi-structured interviews. The study highlights that TQM in pharmaceutical industry in this region is not well developed. The findings shows that there is lack of senior management commitment to TQM principles explanation and emphasises on its importance. Additionally, lack of governmental influence on quality standards and budgeting problems also affects TQM development. Moreover, there is a believe that TQM will not influence the overall performance of the company in the positive manner, since the development of such quality improvement method has to be efficiently budgeted and under current economic and political circumstances it is not possible.N/

Selected Well-Being Interventions for Hybrid-Working Employees

This chapter proposes four distinct techniques to boost subjective well-being, also called happiness, tailored for hybrid-working employees. These techniques suggested here are as follows: 1) selected goal-setting techniques around the ‘why of goal pursuit’ with a particular focus on self-concordance and approaching/avoidance driven goal strivings, 2) job crafting/leisure crafting, 3) acts of kindness and 4) gratitude exercises. The chapter discusses each technique on its merits by reviewing the related literature, and how they can be useful in boosting people’s subjective well-being for employees who are predominantly working in a hybrid format, and therefore, their experiences at work as well as at home impact strongly on their subjective well-being

Investigating innovation capability and organizational performance in service firms

In the service firm, innovation capability influences both financial and nonfinancial performance. It is crucial for businesses to address key challenges anticipated by the changes in socioeconomic and environmental issues. Innovation capability is largely seen as a vital source for generating sustainable competitive advantage. This article investigates the determinants of innovation capability and their relationship with organizational performance in the Jordanian banking sector

Data sharing for business model innovation in platform ecosystems : from private data to public good

Extant research posits that open data could unlock more than $3 trillion in additional value worldwide across various application domains. This paper investigates a data-sharing perspective in business models of platform ecosystems and discusses how platform owners can derive more value using data. We chose a sample of 12 platforms in which data are used as a key resource for service propositions. By contrasting these cases, we identify and analyse four archetypes: data crawler, data marketplace, data aggregator, and data disseminator. We define the key features of these archetypes and demonstrate how they realise value via the platform. These archetypes can guide managers in realising private and public goods via data sharing. Building on our findings, we derive recommendations for data-driven business model innovation for platform ecosystems

Applying network analysis to measure organizational behaviors using R software

The amount of research investigating psychological networks has grown substantially over the last decade but to our knowledge this is the first study applying network analysismethodology to the fields of OB/HRM. As such, this study aims to provide researchers and practitioners with an easy-to-use syntax to conduct network analysis for the exploration of relationships among organizational behaviors. Unlike the mainstream techniques used in psychometrics (e.g., principal component analysis and structural equation modelling), which are constrained by the number of associations among variables or assumptions regarding dimensionality, network analysis is able to analyze the whole set of items at once in order to find the most representative associations among them. A step-by-step guide is provided with an example showing how to test potential relationships between engagement and authentic leadership using the R package bootnet. Besides information on edge-weights and centrality measures, this paper covers a bootstrapping procedure to test their accuracy and stability when small sample sizes are used. The possibilities of applications of psychological networks to organizational behavior and HRM practices are endless and can help overcome some of the limitations of the traditional statistical techniques applied to these fields