Abstract
Research on open innovation (OI) has demonstrated the benefits of openness for firm innovation processes, but studies have mostly offered cross-sectional insights on incumbent firms. This study offers a more dynamic perspective on the relevance of OI for nascent ventures. Combining entrepreneurship and OI theories, we argue that it is key for resource-scarce nascent ventures to achieve critical venture-creation milestones. While OI can help these ventures to leverage salient external partnerships, we argue that it affects their speed of reaching these milestones. We test our hypotheses on a longitudinal sample focusing on external collaboration practices of nascent ventures in the renewable energy or information and communications technology industries. Our results show that, while engaging in R&D collaborations slows down nascent ventures’ product development and sustainable profit generation activities, joining industry associations does not have a slow-down effect. Our results complement the OI literature by warning about the downsides of openness for nascent ventures, particularly during the venture creation phase, where speed is a high priority.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 102732 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-12 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Technovation |
| Volume | 124 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Regarding our first set of hypotheses studying the relation between R&D collaboration and milestone achievement, hypothesis 1a is supported by the evidence. Engaging in an R&D collaboration is negatively associated with nascent ventures' hazard of completing product development. This means that nascent ventures that engage in an R&D collaboration, compared to nascent ventures that do not, finish their product development at a later point in time. To quantify this effect: at any time, 0.71 times as many nascent ventures that engage in an R&D collaboration finish their product compared to nascent ventures that do not engage in an R&D collaboration. Furthermore, our results support hypothesis 1b. Engaging in an R&D collaboration is negatively associated with nascent ventures’ hazard of generating sustainable profits. This means that nascent ventures that engage in an R&D collaboration, compared to nascent ventures that do not, generate sustainable profits at a later point in time. To quantify this effect: at any time, 0.75 times as many nascent ventures that engage in an R&D collaboration generate sustainable profits compared to nascent ventures that do not engage in an R&D collaboration
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s)
Keywords
- Nascent ventures
- Open innovation
- R&D collaborations
- Resource scarcity
- Time to market
- Time to profitability
