The Role of Operational Capabilities in Enhancing New Venture Survival: A Longitudinal Study

We investigate relationships between operational capabilities and new venture survival. On the basis of operations management and entrepreneurship literature, we develop a contingency framework of operational capabilities especially appropriate at different life phases of a new venture's evolution. We expect that in the first years of a new venture's life, entrepreneurs should emphasize high inventory turnover to preserve working capital, support customer responsiveness, and aid firm adaptability. As new ventures grow, entrepreneurs should emphasize internal working capital generation via larger gross margins to support production ramp‐up. Later, new venture entrepreneurs should emphasize employee productivity to buttress sustainable volume production. We analyze a 6‐year longitudinal sample of 812 Swedish manufacturing new ventures using a gamma frailty‐based Cox regression. The findings show that specific operational capabilities, while always supporting new venture survival, have exceptional influence in specific new venture life phases. The three hypotheses are confirmed, suggesting that higher inventory turnover, gross margin, and employee productivity further increase new venture survival likelihoods, respectively, in the venture's start‐up, growth, and stability phases. This suggests a phased‐capabilities approach to new venture survival. This study contributes to operations management and entrepreneurship theory and practice, and sets a foundation for future research on operations strategy for new ventures.     

Operational Slack and Venture Survival

Slack can act as a double‐edged sword. While it can buffer against environmental threats to help ensure business continuity, slack can also be costly and reduce profitability. In this study we focus on operational slack, the form related to the firm's production processes. We investigate the role of operational slack on firm survival during its venture stage when its survival is significantly challenged by environmental threats. Specifically, we explore how change in three types of environmental uncertainty, namely dynamism, complexity, and lack of munificence, affect the relationship between operational slack and venture survival. Results suggest that with an increase in environmental uncertainty, operational slack lowers the likelihood of venture failure.     

Rule Violations and Organizational Search: A Review and Extension

Whether they are formally prescribed or informally agreed upon, rules delineate the types of behavior deemed acceptable or appropriate within organizations. Studies often find that negative outcomes such as decreased group cohesion and higher turnover result when rules are broken. However, research rarely examines the potential positive effects of rule violations. Rules describe expectations about behavior within routines, or patterns of activity in organizations. When rules are violated by individuals, it could be an indication that the associated patterns of activity are no longer appropriate and that changes to the routines are needed. Organizations may learn from these violations if the violations trigger a search for new ways to organize activities, but this connection between violations and the search for new routines is affected by several factors. Drawing from a review and discussion of rules, routines, and research on organizational search and learning, this paper develops propositions regarding how rule violations motivate the search for new routines. This perspective integrates the literatures on rule‐breaking and organizational search, and also suggests that managers who attend to patterns of rule‐breaking within their organizations may detect drift from their environments and take corrective action earlier than suggested by other organizational learning research.     

Venture Survival in a Transitional Economy

Many formerly controlled economies have undergone discontinuous transformations in their approach to markets, institutional environments, and the role of government in economic activity. We study the factors that affect venture survival in a transitional economy through a two-stage study of private ventures in Hungary. We find that ventures survive under uncertainty, even without significant government support. Industry experience, networking activities, and the strategic orientation of the firms predict survival. Contrary to our predictions, SOE experience, access to infrastructure, and differentiation strategies do not significantly differentiate survivors.     

Multinational enterprises' Entry Mode Strategies and Uncertainty: A Review and Extension

The issue of uncertainty has been one of the most important topics in the research on multinational enterprises' foreign market entry modes. This paper provides a conceptual review of the literature on the role of uncertainty in entry‐mode strategies. It is found that transaction cost theory has focused primarily on entry modes as a way of minimizing behavioural uncertainty, while research using the more recent real options approach has distinguished between endogenous and exogenous types of uncertainty and provided evidence that managing uncertainty through appropriate entry modes may lead to competitive advantage. By synthesizing the relevant literature, this paper provides some new perspectives and avenues for future research on uncertainty and entry‐mode choices by considering the impact of firm learning, prior experience and host market attractiveness.     

新企业创业导向转化为绩效的新企业能力:理论模型与中国实证研究

新企业高失败率和成长巨大差异性引起了学者们广泛关注,并导致创业导向研究的丰富成果.鉴于现有研究陷于新企业创业导向与绩效问无限追加调节和中介变量的复杂模型中,而忽视了对其中关键要素的深入挖掘,本文基于演化经济学、战略理论和组织理论,认为新企业从创业导向到组织绩效,中间需要一定的转化路径与能力支持,并提出新企业能力构念,构建了"创业导向一新企业能力一新企业绩效"模型,并通过150份有效样本验证了中国背景下新企业创业导向和新企业能力的维度构成以及与新企业绩效的关系,同时也发现了新企业创业导向与绩效之间的环境敌意性和环境动态性的调节作用、新企业能力的显著中介效应.     

The Negative Effects of Social Capital in Organizations: A Review and Extension

Numerous studies have examined the positive effects of social capital in organizations, whereas the possible negative effects have attracted considerably less scholarly attention. To rectify this imbalance, this paper first undertakes a rigorous review of the published scholarly empirical evidence pertaining to the negative effects of social capital in organizations through a search of Web of Knowledge and Scopus, and then enumerates six potentially negative effects arising from increased levels of social capital. The review focuses on negative effects arising from bonding social capital and those arising from dense networks and closure, advancing new theory to elucidate the generative mechanisms that give rise to the proposed negative effects. Finally, the authors identify potential moderators of the negative effects thus theorized. Using the lens of social identification theory, the authors argue that dysfunctional identification processes restrict the processing of information and stimulate over‐commitment to established relationships, diluting in turn the dialectical process, and inhibiting individual learning within organizations, culminating in groupthink, the postponement of structural adjustments, the non‐rational escalation of commitment, and the blurring of firms’ boundaries. This review thus furthers the agenda of a more balanced inquiry into the effects of social capital in organizations.     

国外公司创业投资中组织间学习研究述评

公司创业投资中,组织间学习的研究打开了公司创业投资价值创造机制的"黑箱"。不同类型的学习及社会互动是公司创业投资中组织间学习的关键机制,而知识产权保护、吸收能力、相关度、社会网络和社会资本是公司创业投资中组织间学习的重要影响因素。基于此,对未来的研究方向进行了探讨。     

Cultural Intelligence: A Review and New Research Avenues

Cultural intelligence (CQ), an individual's capability to function and manage effectively in culturally diverse situations and settings, has become the focus of a vibrant scholarly conversation and a flourishing area of multidisciplinary research. Since the introduction of the concept in 2002, substantial research has been conducted concerning its definition, the validation of its measurement, and the examination of its development and predictive capabilities. The present paper systematically reviews 73 conceptual and empirical articles published on CQ from 2002 to 2015 in management and international business journals as well as in education and psychology. The authors discuss two distinct conceptualizations of CQ, developments within the conceptual research, and opportunities for further theorizing. They also cluster the empirical studies based on how CQ was used and identify patterns, achievements and challenges within the literature. Finally, based on their analysis, they identify promising avenues for future research and propose specific questions that can further advance the scholarly conversation on CQ.     

互动导向与新企业绩效:组织合法性中介作用

新企业如何克服组织合法性门槛、实现成长一直是创业研究的重要课题,信息技术的快速发展为新企业响应顾客日益个性化的需求和获得组织合法性提供了新的手段。整合互动导向视角和组织合法性视角,分析信息技术背景下新企业的互动导向对组织合法性和新企业绩效的作用机制,尤其是组织合法性的中介作用,选取中国情境下209个新企业作为调查样本,采用多元回归方法对研究假设进行检验。研究结果表明,新企业互动导向正向影响新企业绩效和组织合法性水平,互动导向通过组织合法性的部分中介作用影响新企业绩效。这表明在信息技术日益发达的今天,中国新企业可以利用信息技术平台提升互动导向水平,促进组织合法性,从而克服新企业组织合法性门槛,实现成长。     

制度环境变化与创业企业绩效--基于新三板企业的实证研究

以中国的市场化改革为情境,探讨和检验了制度环境变化速度和变化失调度与创业企业绩效的关系,发现:制度环境变化速度、变化失调度显著负向影响创业企业绩效;但是,企业研发行为会显著削弱它们之间的负向关系。     

先前工作经验、创业机会与新技术企业绩效——一个交互效应模型及启示

突出创业机会创新性的情境作用,研究了不同情境条件下创业者经验多样性、经验相关性贡献于新技术企业绩效的程度大小。结果显示,创业前所担任过管理职位的多样性越高、经验的行业相关性越强的创业者往往能收获更优越的新技术企业绩效。而创业机会创新性调节着上述影响机制,相对于创新性较低的机会而言,创新性较强的机会更依赖经验多样性高的创业者来收获更好的绩效,而难以通过经验职能相关性强的创业者来收获优越绩效。     

关系强度、关系资源与新企业绩效——基于行为视角的实证研究

大多数研究认为,善于利用社会关系网络的创业者更可能收获更高的新企业绩效,但对关系资源在促进新企业绩效中的角色并没有引起足够重视.针对这一问题,本文考察了创业者所利用的关系强度、关系资源与新企业绩效之间的逻辑联系,以及资源获取行为对该作用过程的中介作用.研究发现:在创业过程中,越丰富利用关系资源的创业者更容易整合到更丰裕的创业资源,从而提升新企业绩效.尽管所利用关系强度更高的创业者往往能以更快的速度获取创业资源,但并不能确保创业者能够迅速应付创业初期的资源需求,并不会改善新企业绩效.本文的主要理论贡献在于嵌入到行为层面揭示了社会资本改善新企业绩效的作用机制及资源获取的中介作用,发现网络嵌入性资源是有助于解释新企业绩效差异的重要变量,这是对已有文献的重要补充.     

Operational Risk in Financial Services: A Review and New Research Opportunities

We present a framework to describe and analyze operational risk in financial services from an operations management perspective, focusing in particular on process design, process management, and human behavior aspects. The financial services industry differs from other service industries in ways that affect the nature of the operational risks it is subject to. In recent decades, many books and papers have focused on operational risk in financial services; however, this literature has focused mainly on the conceptual and statistical aspects of operational risk management and not on its operational aspects. Operational risk in financial services has not received much attention from the operations management community. The framework presented here is based on the premise that operational risk in financial services can reap significant benefits from research done in the theory and practice of operations management in manufacturing industries as well as in other services industries. The objective of this study is to propose particular challenges and questions raised in the practice of operational risk management that may stimulate future research in this particular area of operations management.     

高科技风险企业资本运营与其价值弹性及评价模型

高科技企业价值评估方法的研究重点不仅要关注企业绩效的考核以及公司获利能力的评价,还应该从资产重组和结构调整的角度出发,关心被收购企业的资产质量、业务范围、行业领域等对主收购企业的整体价值.企业价值存在着多元动态的弹性,探索性地提出了对企业价值进行区间估计的方法与原理,引入了概率论的误差及风险理论、可靠程度、无偏性、一致性、有效性等理论,对高科技企业价值的弹性理论和区间估计的方法进行了必要的分析和说明.     

Mixed Consequences of Government Aid for New Venture Creation: Evidence from Italy

Most countries have designed programsto stimulate the birth and development of new firms.One of the most important issues in evaluating theimpact of public entrepreneurial policies is toanalyze their influence on the post-entry performanceof the new ventures. This paper examines how the mostimportant government program to encourageentrepreneurship in Italy (the Law 44 program) affectsseveral aspects of the early performance of new firms.A sample of new firms receiving government aid iscompared to a matched sample of new firms notreceiving public assistance, i.e., ``control' firms. The control firms were born in the same year, launchedtheir business in the same geographical area andoperate in the same industry classification. Resultsshow that the public program produces mixed effects.Government aid allows firms to have a higher level oftechnology. However, government funding gives rise toentrepreneurial start-ups, which are not fullyefficient. A discussion of these findings andsuggestions for future research are presented.     

基于新生企业发展阶段的动态角色匹配

新生企业的持续成长需要克服对初创期成功发展模式的路径依赖。随着新生企业的不断发展,企业所面临的关键任务与主要问题会出现动态变化,新生企业创始人的角色也将随之变化。创业者要依据发展阶段的不同,调整角色定位,以不同角色组合模式应对新生企业发展的动态变化需求。     

期权理论在高新技术创业企业评估中的应用

高新技术创业企业评估的主要资产是专利权,专利权是一种灵活的选择权,它给企业以一种类似期权的权力,即可以选择有利的市场时机投入资金开发该专利,当企业进行了不可逆投资后,企业就相当于执行了期权.鉴于专利权与期权都是一种不附带义务的选择权,期权定价理论就为高新技术创业企业的价值评估提供了理论基础.本文对期权理论在高新技术创业企业评估中的应用进行了探讨.     

新企业生成中创业者成长期望研究——基于CPSED首轮调查数据分析

基于中国创业动态跟踪研究项目首轮调查数据资料,考察具有不同成长期望的创业者行为差异,探寻成长期望在新企业生成中的作用.比较成长导向型创业者与适当规模型创业者发现:①前者比后者更多地采用偶然发现的机会识别方式,且成长期望与机会识别方式具有相关性;②前者比后者进行更多的计划准备工作;③前者比后者进行更多的资源整合工作.说明成长期望在新企业生成中发挥着重要作用.