Tommaso Minola

Hyper-Growth of SMEs: Toward a Reconciliation of Entrepreneurial Orientation and Strategic Resources

Purpose – This study seeks to focus on factors characterizing a pool of hyper‐growth firms, trying to gather insights on how the hyper‐growth firms achieve hyper‐growth.Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical framework is proposed, borrowing well established approaches from strategic management and entrepreneurship. Subsequently, some explorative case studies are described and help in understanding how much of a firms hyper‐growth can be explained by the resource endowment and entrepreneurial orientation (EO). A revised framework and some propositions are eventually suggested.Findings – Hyper‐growth seems mainly explainable by extraordinary business opportunities and extraordinary access to resources (especially knowledge‐based). Entrepreneurship appears much more as a moderating variable, rather than an explanatory variable per se of hyper‐growth.Research limitations/implications – Although the case study approach is robustly motivated as a research step that can contribute to the process of theory ...

Who's Going to Provide the Funding for High Tech Start-Ups? A Model for the Analysis of Determinants with a Fuzzy Approach

The aim of this paper is to understand which factors influence the financial structure of Italian young, high-tech, innovative firms, and to attempt to formulate a predictive model to determine the ideal financial strategy for a given entrepreneurial project. Venture capital is the most relevant form of financing for high-technology start-ups in the United States and is frequently cited as crucial in the technological leadership of the US economy. However, banks are also moving toward establishing a role in capital provision, making innovative offers to meet the financial needs of start-ups, especially in bank-centric countries such as Italy. Is it possible to build a robust and ordered set of determinants of the financial strategy of new technology-based firms? Is it possible to gather them in a model that allows a rigorous analysis? Is it possible to summarize the analysis in a synthetic value of orientation to one or other form of financing? Through a systematic review of the literature and comparison between investors, we have taken the first step toward answering these questions. This work develops a methodology to solve the problem and builds a provisional fuzzy-set based tool to permit the rationalization of the relevant information and effectively support the reduction of qualitative evaluation of complex phenomena into simple and measurable dimensions. The structure of the model is hierarchical but simple. We consider, as the first level of main determinants (sub-dimensions), the figure of the entrepreneur, the nature of the project, the financial scenario, and the market characteristics. For each of these, we provide deep insights about their relation with finance. We have verified the value of this approach in the context of ten business cases, by matching the financial strategies undertaken by entrepreneurs and the obtainable conclusions with the fuzzy tool. However, the definition of a robust, predictive model requires more consistent empirical validation, which we intend to develop from this work.

Students climbing the entrepreneurial ladder: Family social capital and environment-related motives in hospitality and tourism

Purpose This paper aims to address the research question of whether family social capital affects the degree of engagement in the entrepreneurial process in the case of hospitality and tourism (H&T) new ventures, and how this relates to environment-related motivations. In particular, drawing on a process-based approach of individuals’ engagement in entrepreneurship, this paper provides new insights into the relationship between the perception of support by the family through the provision of bonding and bridging social capital and the decision to engage in the entrepreneurial process. The main contribution consists in the role of “following an environmental mission” that emerges as a motivation mediating the relationship between family resource provision and entrepreneurial engagement in the H&T industry. Design/methodology/approach For this exploratory study, we rely on cross-sectional observations from 2,923 individuals gathered through the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students Survey, which collects information on career choices and preferences of university students around the globe. Given our focus on the early engagement process in entrepreneurship and the role of embeddedness in family structures, the use of a sample of young potential entrepreneurs such as students is particularly appropriate. Findings This study suggests that the family acts as a fundamental institution fostering entrepreneurship, both through the provision of bonding and bridging social capital, and the nurturing of attitudes toward the environment. The results indicate that, in the H&T industry, entrepreneurship can be a valuable means to pursue such attitude and is perceived as a way to proactively contribute to undertake responsible environmental activities. Research limitations/implications The study provides some implications for researchers, educators and policymakers interested in fostering entrepreneurial initiatives in the field, considering the role of a social-oriented mission as a vehicle to encourage profit-oriented entrepreneurial initiatives, and the importance of the family as a resource provider that fosters entrepreneurial engagement. The paper also discusses the strengths and limitations of this unique and broad cross-national sample. Originality/value Becoming entrepreneurs is depicted as climbing an entrepreneurial “ladder”, whereby each individual’s engagement along this process depends on a number of antecedents. Family bridging and bonding social capital, as well as following an environmental mission, emerge as important factors in the H&T industry, thus extending previous literature on the distinctiveness of this industry.

Conflicting selves : family owners’ multiple goals and self-control agency problems in private firms

This study examines the self–control agency problems associated with family ownership in private firms. Theorizing that family owners’ inner conflicts between economic and non–economic goals lead to competing preferences in the allocation of financial resources, we predict that the relationship between financial slack and firm profitability is contingent on factors that increase the potential salience of either economic or noneconomic goals for family owners. Accordingly, our findings suggest that self–control is a separate source of agency costs in private firms and that family ownership is not as crucial as owners’ goals in predicting the impact of financial slack on firm profitability.

Are Youth Really Different? New Beliefs for Old Practices in Entrepreneurship

This article reviews and systematises prior studies focusing on the differences between young and old people in entrepreneurship. This study highlights that the young are different in several areas: accumulation of resources and skills; psychological, cognitive and motivational attributes; and reaction to influences from the environment, culture and norms. This article provides guidance about promising avenues for future research and encourages policy attention for the field of youth entrepreneurship.

Financing Patterns in New Technology-Based Firms: An Extension of the Pecking Order Theory

Understanding financial strategies and patterns of new firms is crucial to the theoretical unravelling of the entrepreneurial process as well as to the elaboration of appropriate support programs from practitioner and policy maker. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether a pecking order theory underlies the financing strategies of new technology-based firms (NTBFs). From the analysis of previous literature on the subject, controversial results emerge: while some authors have confirmed a traditional pecking order theory for NTBFs, others, on grounds of NTBFs major financial constraints derived from higher information asymmetry, have proposed a revised pecking order, where access to equity (in particular private equity) occurs prior to debt. This research has been carried out applying an approach based on estimation of internal financial gap (Cosh et al., ECOJ 119:71494-1533, 2009) using data from the Kauffman Firm Survey. Additionally, we extend the pecking order prediction by examining the effect of human capital as determinants for financing decisions, given its crucial role in shaping entrepreneurial dynamics of NTBFs. Our results support the existence of a revised pecking order in the case of NTBFs; moreover entrepreneurs age and experience play a role in clarifying financial priorities of NTBFs.

The Family's Financial Support as a "Poisoned Gift": A Family Embeddedness Perspective on Entrepreneurial Intentions

We argue that greater availability of financial support by the family for creating a new venture entails stronger financial and non‐financial obligations. Cognizant of these obligations, potential founders anticipate negative performance implications for the planned firm and threats to the family system in the case of their non‐fulfillment. We thus postulate that the formation of actual entrepreneurial intentions is less likely the greater the available financial support. We confirm this by studying a sample of 23,304 respondents from 19 countries and find the negative relationship to be dependent on family cohesion and on individual entrepreneurial self‐efficacy.

Entrepreneurial learning in Italian high-tech start-ups:an exploratory study

Many academics agree with the opinion that small firms are more suitable than bigger ones to manage radical innovations. However, empirical observations show that about 60% of high-tech start-ups fail within six years, and this is found to be due to lack of learning. We analyse along which dimensions and how entrepreneurs learn in reaction to external stimuli triggered by the stakeholders, considering the effects of frame-oriented and experimental learning, contingent to external context. A multiple case study on five Italian high-tech start-ups has lastly been conducted, obtaining some useful results on the directions to pursue a successful learning.

Companies spun out of universities: different typologies for different performance patterns: How Technology and Entrepreneurship are Shaping the Development of Industries and Companies

The main objective of this chapter is to critically embrace the heterogeneity of university-based companies, to describe the peculiarity of their founding team (as a form of resource transferred from the university) and to analyze differences in performance among different typologies of university-based companies.

How Do Family Firms Launch New Businesses? A Developmental Perspective on Internal Corporate Venturing in Family Business

This conceptual work depicts internal corporate venturing in family business as consisting of two separate and sequential strategic choices: first, the decision about the degree of relatedness between the parent firm and the venture; second, the definition of the level of venture autonomy. Drawing on stewardship theory, we argue that family business dynamics, and in particular the development of the ownership structure, influence how family firms pursue internal corporate venturing and make decisions related to such two steps. We also discuss the contingent effect of corporate governance characteristics and of the national legal system.