Innovation and Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice

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    Explaining Women’s Level of Involvement in Nascent Entrepreneurial Activities –The Non-linear Role of R&D Investments in Different OECD Countries
    ( 2020-01-07) Maalaoui, Adnane ; Gaies, Brahim
    Acknowledging that “There is perhaps no greater initiative a country can take to accelerate its pace of entrepreneurial activity than to encourage more of its women to participate” (Reynolds, Camp, Bygrave, Autio, & Hay, 2001: 5), our study is interested in explaining women’s level of involvement in nascent entrepreneurial activities in different countries. It has been argued, “Institutional theory may be a particularly apt framework for addressing national contexts shaping entrepreneurial activity” (Baughn et al., 2006: 688). Indeed, structural characteristic of a given country could explain why there are consistent differences in the levels of entrepreneurial activity in different countries (Reynolds et al., 2003). While we do not lack empirical studies about the importance of different regulative, normative, and cognitive institutions, we still know relatively little about one important regulatory institution, namely the level of R&D investments, and its role in explaining women’s level of involvement in nascent entrepreneurial activities. Since the first lessons of endogenous growth theory (Aghion and Howitt,1992; Romer, 1994), innovation has been considered as one of the main sources of economic development. Innovation should ensure higher productivity gain, develop new business opportunities and, hence promote self-employment. Yet, findings of empirical studies on the linkages between innovation and levels of entrepreneurial activity remain somewhat ambiguous. In some cases (e.g. Wennekers et al., 2002; Anokhin & Wincent, 2012) scholars have observed a positive relationship between small firms and innovation, while in other cases a negative link (e.g. EIM/ENSR, 1996, 1997; Parker, 2009; Arin et al., 2015). These negative results are usually attributed to important run-up costs of research and development (R&D) related to innovation activities, which, in turn, makes R&D investments an enormous hurdle for entrepreneurial activities. Because relatively less attention has been paid to the constraining or empowering role of R&D investments in explaining women’s level of involvement in nascent entrepreneurial activities, in this study our main objective is to explore conceptual arguments and empirically test them about the effects of R&D investments on the relative rates of female nascent entrepreneurs in different countries.
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    How to Design a Successful Digital Product? An Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Analysis of Expert Opinions from the Berlin Start-up Scene
    ( 2020-01-07) Azka, Muhammad Yusuf ; Chankov, Stanislav
    Designing the best digital product is vital for the competitiveness of any organization. Thus, this paper aims to determine the critical success design factors and to create guidelines for start-up founders, product managers, designers and entrepreneurs on how to design a successful digital product. To this end, six key design factors and 24 respective sub-factors were identified based on literature and expert opinions. Further, 21 experts were surveyed regarding their priorities on these factors, using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The results suggest that high-level planning design is the most important success factor, while having clear product vision, discovery, strategy and goals, building a great user experience, and creating an aesthetic user interface are the top three priority sub-factors for successful digital products.
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    Business Model Adaptation: Evidence of Lean Experimentation in Digital Startups
    ( 2020-01-07) Ghezzi, Antonio ; Sanasi, Silvia ; Cavallo, Angelo
    Digital startups frequently adapt their business model, but in doing so they face resource scarcity and need to “make-do” in validating and implementing their design changes at a practical level. We thus argue that digital startups employ a Lean Experimental approach when adapting their BM to contextual conditions. By means of an exploratory multiple-case study on Digital startups, this research investigates the factors driving the deployment of an experimental approach and proposing some factors that may drive differences in its application. Results suggest that most startups dealing with BM adaptation engage in experimentation practices that can be identified with the Lean Startup Approaches (LSAs), although with different extents of application. In this sense, startups move from scarce resource availability in resembling selected elements of the framework, whereas those with higher resource availability seem to be more prone to adopting LSAs in a structured and customized way at the organizational level.
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    Dynamic Capability, Ambidexterity, Social Network--Empirical Evidence from SMEs in China
    ( 2020-01-07) Croasdell, Dave ; He, Xin ; Wu, Xia ; Zhai, Yanhai
    The investigation of organization’s ambidexterity is a challenge in management science research. While the existent literature shows a positive relation between dynamic capability and innovation, few empirical studies are focused to explain how dynamic capability influences the balanced and combined dimension of ambidexterity, and still less is understood about how social networks moderate this relation. By a relational model of dynamic capability, ambidexterity, and social network, this study has conducted multiple regression analysis on data collected from 350 SMEs in mainland China. The results show that, dynamic capability has positive influences on both the balanced and combined dimension of ambidexterity; and both the relational network and structural network play an inverted U moderating role, where the moderation of relational network is stronger than that of structural network. This study provides empirical support on dynamic capability’s influence on ambidexterity together with the moderation of social network.
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    Let the Games Begin: Finding The Nascent Entrepreneurial Mindset of Video Gamers
    ( 2020-01-07) Scott, Stephanie ; Niemand, Thomas ; Kraus, Sasha ; Oberreiner, Raphael
    This study explores nascent ‘entrepreneurial’ cognitive factors within the minds of video gamers. The objective is to theorize how certain gamification activities might be designed to enable the development of entrepreneurial behavior. While studies have begun to posit the range cognitive factors that result in the emergence of entrepreneurial action, more conceptualization work is needed to understand nascent conditions and activities that might foster the entrepreneurial mindset; especially within the gaming design context. This exploratory study uses a sample of 217 self-reported gamers and suggests that individuals who exhibit high levels of entrepreneurial orientation have enhanced opportunity recognition capabilities when the frequency of playing video games is also high. It was also found that shooting games have the highest effect on the development of opportunity recognition. This suggests that certain game activities may be designed to enhance entrepreneurial cognitive development; which has implications for the entrepreneurial intent literature and game-designers.
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    Giving and Taking in Online Communities of Practice: The Role of Geography and Culture in Knowledge Sharing and Innovation
    ( 2020-01-07) Passerini, Katia ; Osatuyi, Babajide ; Stipe, Walker
    Researchers have long been fascinated with the phenomenon of lurking and free riding in knowledge sharing. This interest has led to the investigation of which factors drive decisions to contribute to a knowledge exchange as opposed to only exploiting the information in such exchange. Many studies have specifically focused on identifying the extrinsic and intrinsic motivational drivers for knowledge sharing in communities of practice by administering user surveys on behavioral intention, expectations, and satisfaction with the community. Our analysis is different from prior studies in that it does not look at expectations of reciprocity and other individual characteristics. Rather, it extracts and analyzes interaction data and, then, it groups such data based on factors like geographical location and related cultural background. This study adopts known models of national culture and relates them to social interactions using a large dataset mined from an online community of practice. The results show interesting deviations from the literature, which may be limited to the specific community of practice (programmers sharing coding knowledge) or may guide the design of open innovation systems that support knowledge sharing. This paper presents the first step on why and how to conduct such studies and suggests open questions for future study.
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    The Role of IT in Innovation at the Organizational Level – A Literature Review
    ( 2020-01-07) Mamonov, Stanislav ; Peterson, Richard
    Information technology (IT) is broadly recognized as an important element that supports innovation, however there has been relatively little integration of research in Information Systems on this topic. In this literature review, we examine and synthesize studies on the role of IT in innovation at the organizational level of analysis published in the past ten years in the leading Information Systems journals. We find that while much of the research has generally demonstrated positive effects of IT investments on innovation, IT can also be a cause of hyperturbulence in specific industries, and many factors can moderate the returns realized from IT investments. We also note that extant research is grounded in a relatively narrow theoretical foundation and we discuss the opportunities for developing the theoretical base on the role of IT in innovation.
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    Measuring the Effectiveness of Entrepreneurship Education
    ( 2020-01-07) Liu, Haibin ; Kulturel-Konak, Sadan ; Konak, Abdullah
    This study explores a multi-dimensional model for measuring the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education. The proposed model was validated through an empirical study involving 298 college students who have participated in entrepreneurship courses in China. The research results show that the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education can be observed through the improvement of participants' entrepreneurial competencies, the reduction of their entrepreneurial barriers and the change of their entrepreneurial intention. On this basis, this study draws on the approach of the Triangulation widely used in qualitative research and develops a ‘Triangle Measurement Model for the Entrepreneurship Education Effectiveness’. The Model provides an effective tool for the development and upgrading of entrepreneurship education courses, as well as a standard framework for cross-cultural or cross-regional comparative studies of entrepreneurship education.
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    Introduction to the Minitrack on Innovation and Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice
    ( 2020-01-07) Bartolacci, Michael ; Passerini, Katia ; Bandera, Cesar