Asta Savaneviciene

Human Resource Management and Performance: From Practices Towards Sustainable Competitive Advantage

© 2012 Savaneviciene and Stankeviciute, licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Human Resource Management and Performance: From Practices Towards Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Venture Capital a Catalyst for Start-Ups to Overcome the “Valley of Death”: Lithuanian Case☆

Abstract Research so far have indicated that start-ups in early stage of development encounter with the financial gap which limits companies’ ability both to innovate and to commercialise its products (valley of death) ( Hudson & Khazragui, 2013 ). Moreover limited human capital, high uncertainty in terms of product and market, volatile development process, weak partnership ties are the utmost impediments for successful start-ups development (Fielden, Davidson and Makin, 2000). It has been finalised that venture capitalists are valuable contributors in both filling the financial gap (1), and providing value added services (2) like financial, technological, managerial support, and contacts (Hellmann, Puri 2002; Dubocage, Rivaud-Danset & Redi, 2012; Caselli et al., 2009 , Bertoni and Tykvova, 2012 ). Still the research on venture capital role on the start-ups performance is fragmented the impact on the companies’ performance indicators is revealed in some extent ( Peneder, 2010 ). Having all mentioned the scientific problem emerges: what is the role of venture capital in start-ups development specifically on the performance indicators (turnover, number of employees). Purpose of study is to explore the role of venture capital funds as a catalyst for start-ups to overcome the “valley of death” especially focusing on the value added provision in terms of financial and innovation perspectives. Research is carried out by combining qualitative and quantitative research techniques including analysis and synthesis of the scientific literature, case studies and statistical data as well. The literature research has identified the characteristics of venture capital financing, specifically there are evidences that venture capital funds trigger the growth of company, product development, inspire entrepreneurship and thus enhancing the competitiveness of start-ups. Regarding the analysis of venture capital backed companies’ cases in Lithuania it has been revealed that investments were made not only in start-ups, but for mature companies as well and covered various sectors, not solely high-tech, but also including energy, food, and textile sectors.

Exposition of Internal Factors Enhancing Creativity and Knowledge Creation

A creative organization is distinguished among traditional organizations. Creative organizations are trying to strike a balance between business and creativity when creating a proper environment for knowledge management, at the same time, encourages employees to develop creative work and produce new products that meet market needs. Thus, the research purpose is defined as follows: what features of internal factors do influence creativity and knowledge creation in a creative organization? A qualitative research method, based on a scientific analysis and identification of the key factors, allowed reveal the features of a task, group and time influencing creativity and knowledge creation in a creative organization. The research results show that different features of tasks, group and time make an impact on different employee groups, types of creativity and knowledge in a creative organization.