The originality of entrepreneurs along the life cycle of firms: Understanding the attributes of entrepreneurial decision making
Final Report Abstract
It is widely accepted that new ventures – particularly in the high-technology industry – spur growth of national economies. In these firms, founders are perceived to be eminently influential as their “talent, experience, actions […] are particularly influential when complex technological advancements play a critical role in the venture” (Beckman et al. 2012). However, research so far has rarely studied the implications of direct founder involvement in research and development (R&D) on firm innovativeness and success. In the 1st project phase, we investigated how founder involvement in R&D influences novelty generation at the level of the inventive team and how it relates to firm survival and growth. Specifically, founder-inventors appear to see unique applications for an R&D team’s experience which facilitates the development of more novel inventions, and increase the exploitation of new technological resources learned from R&D collaboration. In addition, founder-inventors seem to foster the growth and survival of their firms through their continuous involvement in R&D. While these results shed light on how founder-inventors can have an impact on their firms’ development, the question of its origin remained unanswered. In the 2nd project phase, we explored how founder-specific aspects – such as the ownership share or the experiences of founders – and firms’ structural aspects – such as ownership distribution in the new venture team (NVT) and NVT changes – relate to new ventures’ innovativeness, survival and growth. Our results indicate that, in addition to ownership, the technical experience of founders is particularly relevant for the creation of novelty. Interestingly, it does not appear to matter how much ownership founder-inventors have, but how ownership is distributed within the NVT. The distribution of ownership in NVTs is also relevant to firm growth: NVTs with unequal distribution tend to grow more. Our results suggest that the exit and entry of NVT members and investors is an opportunity to react to performance consequences of the initial ownership distribution. With these insights, we advance the scholarly debate about how founders’ characteristics and behavior, as well as the organizational design of new venture and its development relate to new venture innovation, growth and survival.
Publications
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Collective Knowledge. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Figge, Patrick
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Absorbing partner knowledge in R&D collaborations – the influence of founders on potential and realized absorptive capacity. R&D Management, 50(2), 255-276.
Mueller, Elisabeth; Syme, Lorna & Haeussler, Carolin
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Founder–inventors and their investors: Spurring firm survival and growth. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 13(3), 288-325.
Haeussler, Carolin; Hennicke, Maria & Mueller, Elisabeth
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The Influence of Entrepreneurial Teams' Ownership Distribution on Recombinatory Novelty. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2020(1), 16927.
Mueller, Elisabeth; Koerner, Laura; Figge, Patrick & Haeussler, Carolin
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Bridging the gap between invention and innovation: Increasing success rates in publicly and industry-funded clinical trials. Research Policy, 50(2), 104155.
Haeussler, Carolin & Assmus, Anne
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Unequal implies success? How initial ownership split impacts team entry and new venture performance. European Management Journal, 42(3), 305-315.
Mueller, Elisabeth & Hennicke, Maria
