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Regional economies clearly benefit from thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems. However, ecosystems are not yet entirely gender-inclusive and therefore are not tapping their full potential. This is most critical with respect to technology-based entrepreneurship which features the largest gender imbalance. Despite the considerably growing amount of literature in the two research fields of female entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystems, the intersection of the two areas has not yet been outlined. We depict the state of knowledge with a structured review of the literature highlighting bibliometric information, methods used, and the main topics addressed in current articles. From there, recommendations for future research are derived.
The business plan is one of the most frequently available artifacts to innovation intermediaries of technology-based ventures' presentations in their early stages [1]–[4]. Agreement on the evaluations of venturing projects based on the business plans highly depends on the individual perspective of the readers [5], [6]. One reason is that little empirical proof exists for descriptions in business plans that suggest survival of early-stage technology ventures [7]–[9]. We identified descriptions of transaction relations [10]–[13] as an anchor of the snapshot model business plan to business reality [13]. In the early-stage, surviving ventures are building transaction relations to human resources, financial resources, and suppliers on the input side, and customers on the output side of the business towards a stronger ego-centric value network [10]–[13]. We conceptualized a multidimensional measurement instrument that evaluates the maturity of this ego-centric value networks based on the transaction relations of different strength levels that are described in business plans of early-stage technology ventures [13]. In this paper, the research design and the instrument are purified to achieve high agreement in the evaluation of business plans [14]–[16]. As a result, we present an overall research design that can reach acceptable quality for quantitative research. The paper so contributes to the literature on business analysis in the early-stage of technology-based ventures and the research technique of content analysis.
Evaluation of tech ventures’ evolving business models: rules for performance-related classification
(2022)
At the early stage of a successful tech venture's life cycle, it is assumed that the business model will evolve to higher quality over time. However, there are few empirical insights into business model evolution patterns for the performance-related classification of early-stage tech ventures. We created relevant variables evaluating the evolution of the venture-centric network and the technological proposition of both digital and non-digital ventures' business models using the text of submissions to the official business plan award in the German State of Baden-Württemberg between 2006 and 2012. Applying a principal component analysis/rough set theory mixed methodology, we explore performance-related business model classification rules in the heterogeneous sample of business plans. We find that ventures need to demonstrate real interactions with their customers' needs to survive. The distinguishing success rules are related to patent applications, risk capital, and scaling of the organisation. The rules help practitioners to classify business models in a way that allows them to prioritise action for performance.
What drives entrepreneurial action to create a lasting impact? The creation of new ventures that aim at having an impact beyond their financial performance face additional challenges: achieving economic sustainability and at the same time addressing social or environmental issues. Little is known on how these new hybrid organizations, aiming for multiple impact dimensions, manage to be congruent with their blended values. A dataset of 4,125 early-stage ventures is used to gain insights into how blended values are converted into financial, social and environmental impacts, giving shape to different types of hybrid organizations. Our findings suggest new hybrid organizations might opt to sacrifice financial impact to achieve social impact, yet this is not the case when they aim to generate environmental or sustainable impact. Therefore, the tensions and sacrifices related to holding blended values are not homogeneous across all types of new hybrid organizations.
The business model canvas (BMC) and the lean start-up manifesto (LSM) have been changing both the entrepreneurial education and, on the practical side, the mindset in setting up innovative ventures since the burst of the dot-com bubble. However, few empirical insights on the business model implementation patterns that distinguish between digital and non-digital innovative ventures exist. Connecting practical management tools to network theory as well as to the theory of organizational learning, this paper investigates evolution patterns of digital and non-digital business models out of the deal flow of an innovation intermediary. For this purpose, a multi-dimensional quantitative content analysis research design is applied to 242 ventures' business plans. The measured strength of transaction relations to customers, suppliers, people, and financiers has been combined with performance indicators of the sampled ventures. The results indicate that in order to succeed, digital ventures iterate their business on the market early and search for investment afterwards. Contrariwise, non-digital ventures already need financial investments in the early stages to set up a product ready to be tested on the market. In both groups we found strong evidence that specific evolutionary patterns relate to higher rates of success.
Validity of the business model is a key indicator for buying into ventures in the early-stage. Business models of early-stage ventures decrease in validity when developing the business over the progressing stages of the business life-cycle. By doing so, the ventures are validating their business model when building transaction relationships to the surrounding value network. In prior research, we developed a research design based on existing business innovation proposals (onepager, pitch decks, business plans) that is assumed to evaluate the status of business model validation. The core hypothesis of the research design is that transaction relations represent a strong anchor between the business model and the business reality, thus providing information on the business model validity. In this research, we test this hypothesis by designing and analyzing a survey that was directed to founders taking part in a business plan competition. We compared the relationships described in the submitted business plans to the relations explicitely stated in the follow-up questionnaire. We identified that the described relations to customers, investors, and people (human resources) match the relationships expressed in questionnaires quite well. A significant disagreement, however, exists in the relationships to suppliers. We conclude that there is still a theoretical and empirical gap that leads to disagreement between business plans and reality in the group of suppliers.
This paper broadens the resource-based approach to explaining survival of new technology-based firms (NTBFs) by focusing on the entrepreneur's ability to transform resources in response to triggers resulting from market interactions. Network theory is used to define a construct that allows determining the status of venture emergence (VE).The operationalization of the VE construct is built on the firm's value network maturity in the four market dimensions customer, investor, partner, and human resource. Business plans of NTBFs represent the artifact that contains this data in the form of transaction relation descriptions. Using content analysis, a multi-step combined human and computer coding process has been developed to empirically determine NTBFs' status of VE.Results of the business plan analysis suggests that the level of transaction relations allows to draw conclusions on the status of VE. Moreover, applying the developed process, a business plan coding test shows that the transaction relation based VE status significantly relates to NTBFs' survival capabilities.
This paper builds upon the widely-used resource-based approach to explaining survival of new technology-based firms (NTBFs). However, instead of looking at the NTBF's initial resource configuration, a process-oriented perspective is taken by focusing on the entrepreneur's ability to transform resources in response to triggers resulting from market interactions. Transaction relations reflect these interactions and are thus operationalized with a suggested method for measuring the status of venture emergence (VE) applicable to early-stage NTBFs. NTBFs' value network maturity is reflected in the number and strength of their transaction relations in the four market dimensions customer, investor, partner, and human resource. Business plans of NTBFs represent the artifact that contains this data in the form of transaction relation descriptions. Using content analysis, a multi-step combined human and computer coding process has been developed to annotate and classify transaction relations from business plans in order to empirically determine NTBFs' status of VE. Results of the business plan analysis suggest that the level of transaction relations allows to draw conclusions on the VE status. Moreover, applying the developed process, first analysis of a business plan coding test shows that the transaction relation based VE status significantly relates to NTBF survival capability.