Innovation In Entrepreneurial Firms Research Articles

Digital innovation in entrepreneurial firms: a systematic literature review

Entrepreneurial firms are central actors in the process of the generation and diffusion of digital innovation which, on the other hand, provides a wide range of opportunities for entrepreneurs. Although existing research has produced several contributions on both topics, the knowledge generated in the field appears fragmented and the findings are sometimes ambiguous. The reason for this fragmentation can be traced back to the lack of reference frameworks that clarify the most used concepts, thus providing a shared language. This study aims to consolidate the state-of-art of scholarly research published over the past 20 years at the intersection of the innovation and entrepreneurship fields of study. To this aim, we carried out a systematic literature review by analyzing a set of 185 papers in order to find what are the relevant topics in the investigated research domain. This activity was performed using MySLR software. Besides a descriptive picture of the scientific activity, a map of the literature published to date that simultaneously addresses the two themes, is provided. In particular, we characterized the six relevant topics in the investigated research domain: start-ups’ collaboration networks, business-model innovation, digital platforms, digital ventures, the digital entrepreneur’s profile, and digital-innovation ecosystems. Based on these results the article proposes three main research directions for future research: multi-level analysis of Digital Innovation in Entrepreneurial Ventures; interdisciplinary approaches; development of specific theories for igital Innovation. Overall, the value of research is to provide a framework for analyzing the phenomenon of innovation in and with entrepreneurial firms that can be used as a reference model for both entrepreneurship and innovation management researchers.

Going Green and Innovation in Entrepreneurial Firms: An Exploratory Study

This paper explores the relationship between firms going green and innovation. We examine two datasets: a cross-sectional dataset of more than 22,000 small businesses in 41 countries in 2020 and a panel dataset of almost 2,800 small businesses in Vietnam over the period 2011-2015. We find that firms going green are more innovative than firms not going green. Also, firms going green due to extrinsic pressure (requirements from customers and governments) are equally as innovative as firms going green due to intrinsic motivation (self-motivated). The channels that link going green to firm innovation include long-term vision, better operational practices, and efficient organisational communication. Finally, while market dynamism weakens the relationship between intrinsic motivation for going green and firm innovation, it strengthens the relationship between extrinsic motivation for going green and firm innovation. Our findings are robust in thousands of regressions that control for variable operationalisations, model specifications, estimators, endogeneity, and contexts.

Product innovation in entrepreneurial firms: How business model design influences disruptive and adoptive innovation

Blockchain technology has the potential to drive product innovation in various industries. This emerging technology is an important enabler of the next generation of new ventures. Our study examines the effects of the business model designs of blockchain-based entrepreneurial firms on the scope of product innovation, including disruptive innovation and adoptive innovation. To test this relationship, we conduct a survey to collect data from 159 blockchain-based ventures. The findings indicate that the novel business model strongly entices disruptive innovation but does not influence adoptive product innovation. The results also indicate that the efficient business model strongly encourages adoptive product innovation, but strongly discourages disruptive product innovation. Further, our analysis shows that the firm's disruptive technological capability strengthens the positive relationship between the novel business model and disruptive product innovation but weakens the positive relationship of design efficiency with adoptive innovation. Additionally, we found that the disruptive technological capability strongly entices blockchain-based entrepreneurial firms to favor disruptive product innovation over adoptive product innovation.

Nested Embeddedness: How Alliances Impact the Innovation Benefits of Entrepreneurs’ Social Capital

This study advances research on networks and innovation of entrepreneurial firms by examining how industry-level alliance networks influence the optimal configuration of entrepreneurs’ personal networks. Specifically, we hypothesize that new venture innovation increases when entrepreneurs form managerial ties to either firms with brokerage positions in the industry’s alliance network (i.e., “brokers”) or firms that have no alliances (i.e., “isolates”). We also argue that a focal venture’s alliance network centrality increases the innovation benefits of managerial ties to brokers, yet diminishes the value of managerial ties to isolates. Implications for research on networks and innovation in entrepreneurship are discussed.

CROWDFUNDING AND INNOVATION

AbstractEntrepreneurs have started relying on crowdfunding to fund their investments. This paper surveys the literature linking crowdfunding with innovation in entrepreneurial firms. Two distinct areas are discussed. First, crowdfunding has the potential to foster innovation by offering new sources of capital to innovation‐driven firms and thereby reduce the funding gap for innovative startups. Second, crowdfunding offers a way for the crowd to participate in the innovation process by providing feedback to the entrepreneur. This feedback can take various forms, including providing ideas on the development of the product during and after the campaign (in the spirit of crowdsourcing), and providing valuable information on the future demand for the new product.

Entrepreneurial Team Creativity: Driving Innovation from Ideation to Implementation

Innovation in entrepreneurial firms is influenced by team creative processes. This study investigates how perceptions of team creativity lead to the generation, promotion and implementation of new ideas and opportunities for the enterprise, increasing the firm’s innovation performance. The results of the study of respondents across industries disclose how teams develop ideas and solutions, and turn them into new opportunities for the organization. Creativity and innovation have been widely studied, yet few studies have focused on entrepreneurial team creative practices in pursuit of new ideas for business development. This study contributes to our understanding of the team behaviors that lead to the formation of new and useful ideas that are promoted and implemented to bring benefits to the team, organization, and marketplace.

Corporate Venture Capital, Value Creation, and Innovation

We analyze how corporate venture capital (CVC) differs from independent venture capital (IVC) in nurturing innovation in entrepreneurial firms. We find that CVC-backed firms are more innovative, as measured by their patenting outcome, although they are younger, riskier, and less profitable than IVC-backed firms. Our baseline results continue to hold in a propensity score matching analysis of IPO firms and a difference-in-differences analysis of the universe of VC-backed entrepreneurial firms. We present evidence consistent with two possible underlying mechanisms: CVC's greater industry knowledge due to the technological fit between their parent firms and entrepreneurial firms and CVC's greater tolerance for failure.

A Perspective of Innovation in Entrepreneurial Firms

Rogers (1983) defines innovation as an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by individuals or units that adopt it. Innovation can be seen as “something that is new or improved and that which creates value”. For an entrepreneurial firm defined by Miller (1983) as, “the one that engages in product, market innovation, undertakes risky ventures, and is first to come up with proactive innovations, beating competitors to the punch”, innovation is considered integral for its existence. These entrepreneurial firms can be small and medium enterprises (SME’s) also. This study attempts to understand the perspective of innovation, characteristics of the entrepreneurial firms and their innovative practices.

Public Support of Innovation in Entrepreneurial Firms

Public Support of Innovation in Entrepreneurial Firms Albert N. Link Edward Elgar Publishers, 2013 191 pages, $ 110.00 (Hard cover)Albert N Link is a professor of Economics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His book Public Support of Innovation in Entrepreneurial Firms is a well-chosen collection of some of his previous research in the area of public support of innovation, mainly through government programs, in small, technology-based entrepreneurial firms.A major contribution of this book is the access the author had to data collected by the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies of the United States on projects funded through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.The book is organized into four sections. Section one focuses on commercializing new technology. This section is composed of two papers:1) Bringing science to market: Commercializing from NIH SBIR awards, and2) Government as entrepreneur: Evaluating the commercialization success of SBIR projects.The papers conclude that even with the assistance of the U.S. Small Business Innovation Development Act, a firm does not have a greater chance to commercialize from a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award.Section two focuses on Employment growth from public support of innovations. This section is composed of two papers:1) Employment growth from public support of innovations in small firms, and2) Employment growth from the Small Business Innovation Research program.Employment growth is analyzed in both short-term and long-term employment. Through an analysis of the NRC data, the papers conclude that while there is no significant increase in short-term employment that can be associated with the SBIR founded research, there is an increase in long-term employment that can be associated with the SBIR program.Section three focuses on the spillover benefits from public support of innovation and it is composed of five papers:1) Public/private technology partnerships: Evaluating SBIR-supported research,2) Public gains from entrepreneurial research: Inferences about the economic value of public support of the small business innovation program,3) Public knowledge, private knowledge: The intellectual capital of entrepreneurs,4) The exploitation of publicly funded technology, and5) Regional appropriation of university-based knowledge and technology for economic development. …

Corporate Venture Capital, Value Creation, and Innovation

We analyze how corporate venture capital (CVC) differs from independent venture capital (IVC) in nurturing innovation in entrepreneurial firms. We find that CVC-backed firms are more innovative, as measured by their patenting outcome, although they are younger, riskier, and less profitable than IVC-backed firms. Our baseline results continue to hold in a propensity-score-matching analysis of IPO firms and a difference-in-differences analysis of the universe of VC-backed entrepreneurial firms. We present evidence consistent with two possible underlying mechanisms: CVCs’ greater industry knowledge due to the technological fit between their parent firms and entrepreneurial firms and CVCs’ greater tolerance for failure.

Innovation of entrepreneurial firms

An empirical test is provided of the effect of the degree of obsolescence on the effect of firm size and monopoly profits on a firm's ability to innovate. Recent theory suggests that innovation depends on firm size and monopoly profits only if the firm conducts product improvement as well as new product innovation. This is due to the allocation of limited entrepreneurial attention between improving current products and innovating new products. Current products are subject to obsolescence and innovation requires technological opportunities. The firm conducts product improvement as well as new product innovation only if the degree of obsolescence is sufficiently low relative to the level of technological opportunity. This theory provides an explanation for previously unexplained empirical observations. We find preliminary support for the hypothesis that product improvement reduces the positive effect of firm size on new product innovation and sufficient product improvement may reverse the negative effect of monopoly profits on new product innovations. In addition, product improvement reduces the positive effect of technological opportunity on new product innovation.