مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد عملکرد رشد راه اندازی فناوری پیشرفته – الزویر 2019

Focusing on the role of efficiency and novelty design themes, this paper examines how (a) the initial business model of a start-up, (b) the subsequent changes in the design themes and (c) the combinative effect of efficiency and novelty (contextual ambidexterity) impact a start-up’s growth performance. The study is based on a survey involving 267 new ventures from high-tech industries. The results highlight the importance of pursuing higher efficiency over the life cycle of a start-up, although not at the moment of its establishment. In relation to business model ambidexterity, the findings highlight the different effect that contextual ambidexterity can have on the growth performance of a start-up firm in different stages of its life cycle. While initial ambidexterity is found to have a negative effect on growth performance, successive increases in the level of ambidexterity have a positive influence on growth.

Introduction

High-tech start-ups are often seen as engines of economic development and as effective vehicles for job creation (Adelino, Ma, & Robinson, 2017; Hathaway, 2013). Yet, although a handful of such firms do achieve incredible success, on average high-tech start-ups have a limited impact on employment and reach only moderate rates of growth, as confirmed by academic research (Pe’er, Vertinsky, & Keil, 2016; Song, Podoynitsyna, Van Der Bij, & Halman, 2008), and by an increasing amount of statistical data (European Commission, 2017; Kauffman Foundation, 2017; OECD, 2018). Such poor performance is caused by several limitations and weaknesses intrinsic to these firms, pertaining to entrepreneurial, strategic and organisational aspects (Pugliese, Bortoluzzi, & Zupic, 2016) and – ultimately – to their precarious business models (BMs). Indeed, it is anything but easy for a start-up to guess the ‘right’ (meaning scalable and profitable) BM since the very beginning (Andries & Debackere, 2007; Reymen, Berends, Oudehand, & Stultiëns, 2016). Most of the time, such firms must dynamically adapt and fine-tune their BMs, through flexibility (Bock, Opsahl, George, & Gann, 2012), experimentation (Andries, Debackere, & Van Looy, 2013) and the use of trial-and-error heuristics (Chesbrough, 2010; Sosna, Trevinyo-Rodríguez, & Velamuri, 2010).