Pek-Hooi Soh

The role of networking alliances in information acquisition and its implications for new product performance

Abstract The premise of Austrian economics on entrepreneurial discovery suggests that mutual knowledge about market participants defines who will acquire potential information about opportunities to bring future products into existence. Building upon this argument, this research investigates the role of networking alliances in information acquisition and its lagged effect on the new product performance of the firm. By using a longitudinal analysis, the study shows that a firm improves its new product performance as it increases the number of repeated partners and its centrality position relative to others in the technology collaboration network.

Networks of innovators: a longitudinal perspective

This paper investigates how evolutions of complex technologies and networks of innovators affect the development of emerging innovations. Building upon the theories of technological evolution and socio-organizational dynamics, we develop propositions to examine the stability and change of networks punctuated by successive technological changes. We argue that incumbents who are early advocates of standards in complex technological environments are more likely to survive via alliances. Based on 150 firms and 319 alliances in the US data communications industry from 1985 to 1996, we found support for our propositions and the characteristics of central-periphery structure best describe the patterns of industry networks.

A contingent model of network utilization in early financing of technology ventures

Most of the entrepreneurship literature has addressed the benefits and necessity of using social network ties as opposed to market methods in early venture finance, but it has largely understated the potential limitations and costs of doing so. Specifically, very sparse research has examined the factors that influence entrepreneurs’ choice between using networks versus market methods. In this study, we propose a contingent model of network utilization when approaching initial investors, based on the dimensions of human capital of the entrepreneurs. We test this model with primary field survey data from 226 new high–tech ventures in Singapore and Beijing. The results show that high occupational status and relevant industrial work experience are positively associated with the entrepreneurs’ propensity to utilize existing networks by enhancing the resourcefulness of their network ties (social capital); however, such influences are alleviated by entrepreneurs’ marketing or managerial experience, which increases the entrepreneurs’ ability to interact with strangers (an aspect of social competence).

Dynamic Inducements in R&D Investment: Market Signals and Network Locations

This research shows that alliance networks shape how firms respond to uncertainty-reducing information generated outside a network. Product awards signal the potential commercial success of the awa...

Entrepreneurial Resource Acquisition through Indirect Ties: Compensatory Effects of Prior Knowledge:

This study investigates when indirect ties, in which a referrer appears between an entrepreneur and a resource owner, can enhance the likelihood of resource acquisitions for starting a new venture. The authors argue that when either resource owners or referrers possess a greater level of prior knowledge about a venture’s technology or product, information asymmetry problems arising from weak component ties decline, enabling resource owners to evaluate the venture better. On the basis of survey data from 378 high-tech entrepreneurs, the analysis shows that resource owners’ prior knowledge, but not referrers’, compensates for limited information in weak component ties better than in strong component ties.

Direct Ties, Prior Knowledge and Entrepreneurial Resource Acquisitions in China and Singapore

The entrepreneurship literature suggests that network ties are useful in mitigating the problem of information asymmetry faced by entrepreneurs when acquiring resources at the early stage of venture creation. We introduce prior knowledge of resource owners as an inverse measure of information asymmetry and investigate the contingent effect of prior knowledge and tie strength between entrepreneurs and resource owners on the likelihood of entrepreneurial resource acquisition. Using data from 378 high-tech ventures located in Beijing, China and Singapore, the analysis shows that strong ties are more important than weak ties, in entrepreneurs’ resource acquisition and this importance grows when resource owners have less prior knowledge to offset problems of information asymmetry. Similar network effects are found in both China and Singapore. The insignificant country difference suggests that the social network culture of the start-up community is universal.

Is Usage a Missing Link in Explaining the Perceived Learning Outcome of Technology-Mediated Learning?

Information systems (IS) researchers have demonstrated that usage is a key variable in explaining the performance impact of information technology. However, existing technology-mediated learning (TML) studies have not examined the influence of usage on learning outcome and the factors that determine the usage of TML. To address this research gap, our study presents and tests a TML model by drawing insights from two research streams. First, following the IS literature, we incorporate the impact of technology usage on individual performance. Second, building on the social cognitive theory, we study the influences of self-efficacy beliefs (system and subject domain) and affective responses (affect and anxiety) on technology usage. Based on 503 matched responses collected using two-stage questionnaire surveys, our analyses confirm the significance of usage in mediating the effects of system self-efficacy and anxiety on perceived learning outcome, but not in mediating the effects of affect and subject-domain self-efficacy. We find strong support for the influences of self-efficacy beliefs on affective responses. Self-efficacy beliefs of the users are also observed to change over time and perceived learning outcome plays a significant role in explaining this change. Our research enhances the existing TML theory by producing useful insights regarding the influence of social cognitive factors of learners on the usage of TML and how usage mediates the influence of these variables on perceived learning outcome.

Determinants of technological frames: a study of E-learning technology

This work presents a framework that elucidates the technological, social and political factors associated with the adoption of a technological innovation. Our attempt to study in detail the various determinants of sensemaking of technology has identified three important factors (1) user competency (2) expectancies (3) attitude towards learning, that affect the technological frames of the users. The influence of these factors in the sensemaking process has been tested using an empirical study of 505 students from 10 secondary schools of Singapore in adopting an e-learning technology.