The Role of the Board of Directors for Opportunity Development in Early-Stage High-Tech Ventures

Abstract

This study investigates the role of the board of directors for the opportunity development process in early-stage high-tech firms. Based on a board capital perspective, we argue that boards with more experience will contribute more to the development of opportunities. Furthermore, building on the attention-based view, we argue that this effect will be moderated by situational and structural factors that affect board members’ attention to the venture’s opportunity development process. Using hand-collected data on 183 early-stage high-tech firms in Belgium, we find that board experience has a stronger relationship with the board’s contribution to opportunity development when board size decreases, when board tenure increases and when the firm underperforms. These findings offer a contribution to the literature on opportunity development in new ventures and to research on the role of boards of directors in new ventures. They also have important implications for entrepreneurs who are trying to develop opportunities and their stakeholders.