Technology Intelligence Practice for NTBFs in Developing Countries

The aim of this paper is to identify empirically the characteristics that lead new technology-based firms (NTBFs) to establish collaborative agreements with other firms and research organizations. Since the seminal work by Teece (1986), the wish of firms to obtain access to complementary assets possessed by other firms that can be combined with their own assets so as to obtain synergistic gains has figured prominently among the motives of alliance formation. This argument is especially pertinent to NTBFs. In fact, these firms are often created with the aim of exploiting commercially an innovative technology; their distinctive technological capabilities relating to an innovative idea make them attractive as alliance partner. In addition, they generally lack the specialized complementary assets that are needed to exploit this idea commercially. Nevertheless, access by NTBFs to specialized complementary assets through alliances may encounter serious obstacles. On the one hand, the search for potential partners by managers of high-tech start-ups is a time consuming activity, with great opportunity costs. These costs are expected to decrease if entrepreneurs can rely on the social network of a 'sponsoring organization'. In this perspective, venture capital (VC)-backed companies and academic start-ups (ASU, that is companies formed by academic personnel and supported by public research institutions) enjoy an advantage with respect to other NTBFs. On the other hand, if the quality of the distinctive capabilities of a NTBF is unknown to potential partners, adverse selection problems similar to those that NTBFs experience in financial markets arise, hindering the establishment of the alliance. Therefore, the ability of NTBFs to credibly signal their quality and the certification effect of endorsement by a sponsoring institution, be it a VC firm, a public research institution, or a public administration providing subsidies to the R&D activity of the NTBF, play a key role in favoring alliance formation.

Purpose This study aims to examines how knowledge management (KM) within new technology-based firms (NTBFs) affects venture teams’ financial attraction (FA) and performance (P), contributing to NTBFs’ survival in highly competitive environments. The large socio-economic impact of NTBFs contrasts with high mortality rates, prompting interest in factors influencing long-term success. Design/methodology/approach This study employed a PLS-SEM model using data from the Global Accelerator Learning Initiative (GALI) of Emory University (2013–2019) to analyze 103 NTBFs from Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the USA. Findings The results confirm significant relationships between KM, FA and NTBF performance, underscoring social capital as a key aspect of KM. Practical implications NTBF venture teams should prioritize building strong networks while acquiring business debt to enhance KM and attract funding. Policymakers must promote KM, encourage collaboration and facilitate access to business credit lines for these firms. Originality/value The findings extend the understanding of these relationships by focusing on venture teams within NTBFs, demonstrating the signaling role of debt financing in attracting investment. The study highlights the crucial role of social capital in KM while indicating that debt may be a stronger signal of viability in specific contexts.

We examine to what extent a transaction relation-based value network maturity status of New Technology-Based Firms (NTBFs) is related to their survival. A specific challenge of NTBFs is their lack of market-orientation, which is why the maturity of the ties they form towards the market in terms of customers, financiers, personnel and partners is supposed to be a strong indicator for survival. We analyze a sample of 170 NTBFs by capturing their value network status from business plans and defining their survival status using secondary research. Simple statistical tests and regressions suggest that the official registration of the business is a pre-step for survival that requires industry-specific value network dimension strengths. A sub-sample survival analysis shows that for all NTBFs that have reached registration, regardless of their industry, a stronger customer value network maturity dimension prevents from failure and is thus a significant predictor for survival. Moreover, the analyses partly support the idea that NTBFs from the IT sector are less dependent on a strong value network in the financier dimension to survive. The results are of relevance for both practitioners and researchers in the innovation system: a better understanding of the factors impacting on NTBF survival can help to provide more tailored support services for young firms, increase the effectiveness of resource allocations, and provide a basis for further research.

New technology-based firms (NTBFs) invent, develop, and commercialize original technologies whose research, development, and commercial success is highly uncertain and risky. Their growth is lengthy and often insufficient, but investors’ growth expectations are high. The study aims to determine factors and circumstances that affect the growth of new technology-based firms. The source of knowledge is a personal experience from a guided interview with the founder, which is recorded in the questionnaire. The research sample includes 67 NTBFs doing business in Slovakia. The respondents’ statements were analyzed using critical discourse analysis (CDA) with the support of artificial intelligence. The results are the factors that influence the business performance of the investigated companies. The performance of companies that show a long-term loss is affected by very limited access to financial resources, restrictive regulations, and a lack of qualified employees. The performance of companies that show a long-term profit is influenced by favorable access to external capital, effective management of human resources, optimization of internal processes, and improvement of marketing. The order of the identified factors expresses their importance in the thematic group. The secondary results are the accompanying circumstances of the growth of the investigated companies, namely the reasons for the establishment of NTBF and entry into business, commercialization of new technology, and cooperation with investors and banks. The combination of limited access to finance and a lack of qualified human resources creates a complex set of obstacles to the business performance of NTBFs. AcknowledgmentThis work was supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic and Slovak Academy of Sciences (VEGA) under the grant “Accelerating the growth of innovative enterprises - scaling up scale-ups and new technology-based firms (NTBFs)”, number 1/0006/22.

The aim of this paper is to analyze empirically under which circumstances the universities located in a geographical area contribute to the growth of a special category of local new technology-based firms (NTBFs), those established by academic personnel (academic start-ups, ASUs). We examine the effects of a series of characteristics of local universities on the growth rates of ASUs and we compare them with the effects of the same university characteristics on the growth of other (i.e., non-academic) NTBFs. In the empirical part of the paper, we estimate an augmented Gibrat law panel data model using a longitudinal dataset composed of 487 Italian NTBFs observed from 1994 to 2003. Out of these NTBFs 48 are ASUs. The results of the econometric estimates suggest that universities do influence the growth rates of local ASUs, while the effects on the growth rates of other NTBFs are negligible. In particular, the scientific quality of the research performed by universities has a positive effect on the growth rates of ASUs; conversely the commercial orientation of research has a negative effect. These results indicate that universities producing high-quality scientific research have a beneficial impact on the growth of local high-tech start-ups, but only if these firms are able to detect, absorb, and use this knowledge. In this perspective, a greater commercial orientation of university research leading to a reduction of the knowledge available for absorption by these companies, can be detrimental.

Public intervention is often advocated in high-tech sectors in order to solve market imperfections that limit the activity of new technology-based firms (NTBFs). Whilst some European countries have adopted national government support policies which explicitly target this type of firm; in Italy, as in other EU countries, there are no public support measures specifically designed for NTBFs. So, a question arises: to what extent are the NTBFs of these countries able to get funds from public administration? The paper focuses on the Italian case, and after a review of the available national public subsidies, through empirical and econometric analyses, it investigates whether horizontal general-purpose direct support mechanisms at national level permit an efficient allocation of public funds. The results highlight the need for more specific and customised policy measures towards NTBFs.

Increasing the number of rapid-growth new technology-based firms (NTBFs) is considered one of the key priorities of innovation policy adopted by the European Commission. Grounded in the empirical literature on the determinants of high-tech start-up growth in Europe, this paper develops a heuristic firm growth model for European NTBFs to individuate three primary areas of intervention for policy-making aimed to sustain the growth of NTBFs: (i) reducing the social and regulatory burdens arising from (honest) firm failure, (ii) acknowledging the local nature of the venture capital industry and promoting territorial marketing initiatives to attract (international) venture capitalist players and (iii) leveraging the “halo and certification” effect of directs public subsidies and grants towards NTBFs. If recent initiatives of the European Commission go in these directions, much remains to be done to increase the growth potential of high-tech start-ups on the European landscape.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how new technology-based firms (NTBFs) overcome established notions of scale and scope through business model innovation, leveraging the value from digitalization.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts an exploratory research design, drawing on a novel data set of 50 publicly available interviews with vertical farming (VF) industry leaders and insiders who represent 36 different organizations from North America and Europe.FindingsThe study develops a framework showing how NTBFs leverage the value from digitalization via a paradoxical approach combining both efficiency and novelty value drivers.Originality/valueThe study extends current theorizing on the desirability of a combined business model approach leveraging both efficiency and novelty from digitalization. Furthermore, the study is among the first to investigate the unique and highly technological context of VF.

This longitudinal study identifies two core business dimensions important for New Technology-Based Firm (NTBF) survival. These business dimensions are business networks, and entrepreneurial business behaviour and competition. Data was collected from 131 small high-technology firms located in incubators initially in 2005, when most were almost three years old, and again in 2014. A factor analysis was conducted using 17 variables, and a correlation analysis was then performed. Four control variables were also included in the analysis to separate the performance that was due to the firm and the performance that was due to the incubators. Further, three latent variables were developed from the two business dimensions. The findings from this study confirm the importance of business networks and explain how the behaviour and competition of NTBFs during their initial three years may impact firm survival. The latent variables of business and patent advice also had a significant relationship with firm survival.

Building up a new technology-based firm (NTBF) to the point where it becomes a competitive enterprise with a stable position in the market makes great demands on the founders. Although founders primarily contribute technical know-how, they often do not possess sufficient business skills and the owned capital that they are able to bring into the new foundation is usually small. Their state of information regarding the market and legal and financial questions is often only limited. They are thus highly dependent on cooperation with external investors and providers of information, and have to acquire new abilities and additional know-how during the initial business years.

This article examines how two core factors – strategic and entrepreneurial dynamics – influence research and development (R&D) investment in new technology-based firms (NTBFs) using data from a questionnaire survey conducted in Japan. Among the strategic dynamics, it is found that joint R&D projects with universities have a positive, complementary effect on R&D investment. Moreover, among the entrepreneurial dynamics, a chief executive officer’s higher education and prior industry experience in an R&D role (the latter implying at least a tertiary-level education in order to have acquired such experience) are positively related to R&D investment. These results indicate that the impact of universities on R&D expenditure in NTBFs occurs in strategic and entrepreneurial dynamics, and is expressed both directly and indirectly, with consequent implications for R&D capability and innovation.

Science parks in Japan and their value-added contributions to new technology-based firms

Innovation marks the future for organisations and affects the length of their existences by asking organisations for capabilities needed to keep their game on the playfield. However, innovation development requires legal conditions to guarantee the fair and appropriate use of its outcomes. Intellectual property rights (IPRs) seek to cover this issue, although it has not the same application in different regions like Latin-America where innovation performs in different, not deeply explored pattern. This study aims to analyse influence of IPRs on innovation capability (IC) in 102 Colombian new technology-based firms (NTBFs) located in business incubators and technology parks. The empirical study had a latent variable design and was analysed through covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM). Results show that IPRs account for 20% of variation in IC (medium influence). Hence, as IPRs promote innovation by safeguarding the benefits of its outcomes, IPRs are important in developing economies such Colombia and particularly for NTBFs.

Influences of university-industry alliance portfolio depth and breadth on growth of new technology-based firms: Evidence from China

The growth of new technology-based firms (NTBFs) is usually restricted by their limited ownership and management structures. This paper explores whether acquisition, particularly that by multinational enterprises (MNEs), promotes the growth of NTBFs. Based on Swedish micro-level longitudinal data, this study further distinguishes between Swedish MNEs and foreign MNEs as acquirers and disentangles their different acquisition effects on the growth of NTBFs. Based on a large sample of Swedish NTBFs entering from 1997 to 2002 and being followed until 2009, this paper uses fixed-effects model combined with inverse-probability-of-treatment weights to account for endogeneity of acquisition arising from both time-invariant and time-varying heterogeneity across firms. The findings show that acquisition by Swedish MNEs significantly improves the growth of NTBFs, but only when it comes to the growth in employees. In contrast, acquisition by both foreign MNEs and Swedish domestic enterprises is not found to have any significant effects on the growth in either employees or sales of NTBFs.