The Impact of Knowledge Resources on New Venture Performance

Abstract

A new venture's strategy-and thus its performance-is based upon the knowledge the firm has about its market, its opportunity in that market, and its appropriate conduct to take advantage of that opportunity. Resource-based theory underscores knowledge as a type of resource that confers competitive advantage and the potential for sustainability, two factors that are critical for start-ups. Three types of procedural knowledge are considered to be important at start-up: (1) about the industry in which the venture competes; (2) about the type of business approach the venture is pursuing; and (3) about creating, building, and harvesting new ventures. Knowledge useful to the new venture is developed either through relevant personal experiences or by accessing relevant knowledge possessed by others. Hypotheses are developed regarding the impact on the performance of new ventures as a result of these sources of knowledge, and these relationships are explored in a study of new technology-based firms.

How Business Idea Fit Affects Sustainability and Creates Opportunities for Value Co-Creation in Nascent Firms

“…Tanriverdi and Venkatraman [55] proposed that corporate performance is improved when the firm simultaneously exploits three types of knowledge relatedness, which are product, customer and managerial knowledge relatedness. West and Noel [56] found that knowledge relatedness with respect to the type of business is positively associated with performance. We call the extent to which the business idea aligns with the actors' knowledge relatedness.…”

Influencia del capital físico y humano en la supervivencia de nuevas empresas

“…1, Mar. 2015 performance level increasing with the entrepreneur's level of education (Honig, 1998;West & Noel, 2009;Headd, 2003;Van Praag, 2003). The explanation of this phenomenon lies in the capacity of a better education to help the acquisition and transformation of know-how (Haber & Reichel, 2005), which, in turn, helps entrepreneurs assess opportunities and use resources more efficiently (Castrogiovanni, 1996).…”

The co-construction of entrepreneurial sensemaking

“…Entrepreneurs with a background in the academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (the so-called STEM disciplines) tend to focus on the technical aspects of their business idea . The 'technical mindset' of STEM entrepreneurs can impede their focus on value for the customer, which in turn causes a 'management' or survival challenge for the novel business opportunity (West & Noel, 2009;Schindehutte, Moris & Kocak, 2008). With this study we aim to contribute to the literature in the following ways.…”

“…The ensuing predominantly 'technical mindset' can impede the entrepreneur's focus on value for the customer, which in turn causes a 'management' or survival challenge of the novel business opportunity (West & Noel, 2009;Schindehutte, Moris & Kocak, 2008). There is a basic training on business modeling which lasts one afternoon and is offered at least twice during the one-year program.…”

“…Few entrepreneurs know what their market is, who their (potential) customers might be (Blank, 2005). They are liable to focusing too much on the technology of their product or service when they develop a business opportunity, at the detriment of focusing on value for the customer (Sarin & Mohr, 2008;West & Noel, 2009;. While a market orientation is ultimately expressed in attitudes and behavior regarding the creation and delivery of (superior) customer value (Van Raaij & Stoelhorst, 2008), it is rooted cognitive faculties, for example in market-oriented information processing activities (Kohli & Jaworski, 1990) or cognitive models .…”