Common use of Research Objectives Clause in Contracts

Research Objectives. ‌ The main objective of this dissertation is to shed light on the growth processes of technology-based new ventures and link these processes to performance. The previous section revealed that a conceptual framework for research in this direction has to meet two fundamental requirements. First, it has to assume an inside-out perspective on the organisation and second, it has to be dynamic. The concept of dynamic capabilities (▇▇▇▇▇ and ▇▇▇▇▇▇ 1994; ▇▇▇▇▇, ▇▇▇▇▇▇, and ▇▇▇▇▇ 1997; ▇▇▇▇▇ and ▇▇▇▇▇▇ 1999; ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ and ▇▇▇▇▇▇ 2000; ▇▇▇▇▇ and Winter 2002; Winter 2003) has attracted growing attention from strategic management scholars during the past years. The main purpose of this framework is to explain how firms gain a competitive advantage under conditions of rapid and unpredictable change. This dynamic concept is especially relevant in Schumpeterian worlds dominated by innovation-based competition, creative destruction of established competencies, and increasing returns (Teece, ▇▇▇▇▇▇, and ▇▇▇▇▇ 1997). In fact, entrepreneurial firms mostly compete on innovation (▇▇▇▇▇▇ and ▇▇▇▇▇ 1977; ▇▇▇▇▇▇ and ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ 2000; ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ and ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ 2002; ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ and ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ 2002). Consequently, the concept can be considered to analyse performance differences and thus differences in growth rates of technology-based new ventures. According to ▇▇▇▇▇, ▇▇▇▇▇▇, and ▇▇▇▇▇ (1997) dynamic capabilities are an organisation's “ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external competences to address rapidly changing environments” (p. 516), and thus are a source of competitive advantage under conditions of rapid change (▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ and ▇▇▇▇▇▇ 2000). The concept of dynamic capabilities builds on the resource-based view of the firm (Wernerfelt 1984; ▇▇▇▇▇▇ 1991; ▇▇▇▇ and Schoemaker 1993; Peteraf 1993), which argues that the competitive advantage of organisations is contingent upon their resource base. When firms grow in high-velocity environments, they need to alter this resource base and consequently have to deploy certain capabilities. However, these capabilities need to be developed as well. Just as firms do not have a large resource base from the beginning (Stinchcombe 1965; Romanelli 1989; Brush, ▇▇▇▇▇▇, and ▇▇▇▇ 2001; ▇▇▇▇▇▇ and ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ 2003; Ravasi and Turati 2005), new organisations do not possess dynamic capabilities in their early days (Helfat and Peteraf 2003). Given this theoretical excurse, I am able to specify the initial research objective. In order to describe the growth processes of technology-based new ventures and link them to performance, I apply the concept of dynamic capabilities. The approach can be separated into two specific tasks: the operationalisation of the concept, and the process description including the linkage to performance. Regarding the first task, I use the emerging dynamic capabilities in the entrepreneurial firm as contrast agents to describe the process of organisational development. Therefore, the capabilities themselves need to be specified at an operational level. In addition, the evolution of dynamic capabilities in the growing firm has to be made visible, i.e. an observer must be able to track the emergence of certain capabilities over time. The second task comprises the representation of the entrepreneurial growth process, which is described by the evolution of certain dynamic capabilities over time. In order to understand this process I address three different aspects. The first aspect covers external and internal drivers for the emergence of dynamic capabilities in technology-based new ventures. The second aspect addresses the linkage between certain characteristics of the growth process and new venture performance, i.e. growth of the firm. The last aspect focuses on the specific paths of entrepreneurial growth. This thesis is another result of a dedicated research programme at the Centre for Technology and Innovation Management (CeTIM) at Leiden University and University BW Munich, which focuses on the concept of dynamic capabilities. Previous work at this institute prepared the ground for this dissertation. Examples of successful research in this field include the measurement of dynamic capabilities under conditions of high uncertainty in new technology-based ventures (Dissel 2003) or the dynamic capabilities of product development (▇▇▇▇ 2004). Due to the promising results, additional work is expected to provide further insights in this direction.