VENTURE DESIGN, SCALABILITY AND SUSTAINED PERFORMANCE.

Abstract

Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings includes abstracts of all papers and symposia presented at the annual conference, plus 6-page abridged versions of the “Best Papers” accepted for inclusion in the program (approximately 10%). Papers published in the Proceedings are abridged because presenting papers at their full length could preclude subsequent journal publication. Please contact the author(s) directly for the full papers. ArticlesVENTURE DESIGN, SCALABILITY AND SUSTAINED PERFORMANCE.Richard Jeffrey BerginRichard Jeffrey BerginPublished Online:13 Dec 2017https://doi.org/10.5465/apbpp.2001.6133855AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsDownload CitationsAdd to favoritesTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail AbstractWhich organizational processes and structures support "scalability" and performance in new enterprises? This paper investigates competing hypotheses regarding this question offered by the entrepreneurial and technology management literatures. Some entrepreneurial management scholars have found that ventures go through an organic early stage of growth. In contrast, researchers in technology management have found that flexible organizational processes and hierarchical organizational structures can lead to higher product development performance in high technology ventures. This cross-sectional study of the organizational processes and structures of thirty venture-capital-backed Internet start-ups provides insight into the links among venture design, scalability and sustained economic performance. Flexible processes and hierarchical structures are here shown to be correlated with greater scalability. As defined in this study, greater scalability is in turn a potential predictor of long-term economic performance. In contrast, the experience of founders, first mover status and access to capital are not related to scalability and performance in this sample of firms. The findings of this study are consistent with the suggestion that certain long term characteristics of an organization are established very early- close to the time of founding of the enterprise.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 2001, No. 1 Permissions Metrics in the past 12 months History Published online 13 December 2017 Published in print 1 August 2001 InformationCopyright of Academy of Management Journal is the property of Academy of Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.KeywordsSCALABILITYINDUSTRIAL managementSYSTEM designORGANIZATIONAL behaviorNEW business enterprisesBUSINESS enterprisesINDUSTRIAL psychologyORGANIZATIONAL growthORGANIZATIONAL changeORGANIZATIONAL sociologyDownload PDF