Exploring the dynamics of novelty production through exaptation: a historical analysis of coal tar-based innovations

Theories of technological change fail to account for innovation stemming from affordances of previously developed artefacts.  The literature has highlighted that novelty can originate from market needs, from inferences made from scientific theories or be the object of deliberate technology projects in technology-push models. More recently, scholars have suggested that exaptation, defined as the co-option of artefacts for new functions, may constitute a different path to novelty production. However, the link between the existing artefact and the genesis of new functions driving exaptation is underexplored. Through a longitudinal case study of instances of emergence of new technologies stemming from a single compound, coal tar, we show that exaptation plays a role in all novelty production and, in some cases, it is its main determinant. We build a model of exaptive novelty production that captures the interactions between secondary effects of existing technology, affordances, functionalities, and the emergence of new functions. Our model enriches the theory of innovation by integrating both serendipitous and planned processes as well as both artefactual characteristics and human intentionality.     

Using the security triad to assess blockchain technology in public sector applications

This conceptual paper explores the impact of blockchain technology on public sector processes through the lens of information security. It includes an overview of the evolution of e-government, a synopsis of existing applications of blockchain technology, and innovative blockchain developments. We utilize the Confidentiality-Integrity-Accessibility (CIA) triad to guide our discussion of the security, governance, and regulatory implications of this technology. Leveraging the CIA triad model, we provide context for public managers who may consider blockchain technologies, and we highlight certain advantages arising from the “non-reputability” of distributed ledgers.In particular, we highlight the advantages of blockchain technologies with regards to non-reputability to help public managers understand how to best leverage blockchain technology to transform operations.     

R&D laboratory classification and public policy: The effects of environmental context on laboratory behavior

R&D laboratories have changed dramatically in the last few decades. These changes have included the emergence of new laboratory forms such as cooperative and joint venture laboratories and the evolution of existing industrial, university and government laboratories into new and different entities. The utility of classifying R&D organizations as being industrial, university or governmental in character and then further assuming certain behavioral traits based on sector status appears to be limited. Science policy analysts need an updated classification typology that captures the nature of the existing institutional framework for R&D laboratories. To address this need, this paper presents a new conceptual typology for R&D laboratory classification and evaluates the implications of this re-thinking for science policy analysts.It is argued that R&D laboratories, like most organizations, are to a large extent functions of their environment. Realizing that the environment of R&D organizations are heavily influenced by the government, the market or both, the typology presented in this paper classifies R&D organizations accordingly. The resulting classification typology establishes 9 clearly different research laboratory types.Using survey data from a study population of 250 laboratories and case study data from 32 laboratories, it was found that the typology did capture the significant structural and behavioral differences among the array of laboratories operating today. A preliminary analysis of the policy implications of the new classification typology indicates that new initiatives to increase the level of market influence on R&D laboratories or to create more cooperative research ventures should be carefully considered before implementation.     

A Survey on Blockchain for Information Systems Management and Security

Blockchain technologies have grown in prominence in recent years, with many experts citing the potential applications of the technology in regard to different aspects of any industry, market, agency, or governmental organizations. In the brief history of blockchain, an incredible number of achievements have been made regarding how blockchain can be utilized and the impacts it might have on several industries. The sheer number and complexity of these aspects can make it difficult to address blockchain potentials and complexities, especially when trying to address its purpose and fitness for a specific task. In this survey, we provide a comprehensive review of applying blockchain as a service for applications within today’s information systems. The survey gives the reader a deeper perspective on how blockchain helps to secure and manage today information systems. The survey contains a comprehensive reporting on different instances of blockchain studies and applications proposed by the research community and their respective impacts on blockchain and its use across other applications or scenarios. Some of the most important findings this survey highlights include the fact that blockchain’s structure and modern cloud- and edge-computing paradigms are crucial in enabling a widespread adaption and development of blockchain technologies for new players in today unprecedented vibrant global market. Ensuring that blockchain is widely available through public and open-source code libraries and tools will help to ensure that the full potential of the technology is reached and that further developments can be made concerning the long-term goals of blockchain enthusiasts.     

风险投资的整全性及其网络化运行——以硅谷为例

发展风险投资必须面对风险投资的发展方向和风险投资运行的有效性问题。基于整全性视角来看,风险投资需要在创新网络中运行才能够充分发挥作用。创新网络作为一个内含技术网络、社会网络和交易网络的"三网"集成体,为风险投资提供了一个有效运行的场域。而风险投资在创新网络中运行的结构化特征表明,技术与资本之间缔结的一体化结构促使创新资本化;社会资本与风险资本所构成的二元资本结构不仅推动了风险投资业的发展,而且社会资本是风险资本网络化运行所凭依的不可缺少的构件;风险投资机构与交易性市场中介组织之间形成的交易网络,其在功能上体现出来的适应性,能够使资本、技术和人力资源充分融合,进而推动着风险投资的有效运行。     

高管团队特征、薪酬差距与创业企业绩效

高管团队通过制定战略决策来决定企业的战略方向。近年来,高管团队特征、薪酬差距等影响高管团队决策效率的因素也成为高管团队研究领域的热点问题。本文以2012-2014年部分创业板上市公司的高管数据为样本,运用回归分析方法分别实证了高管团队特征和薪酬差距对创业企业绩效的影响,以及薪酬差距在高管团队特征对创业企业绩效影响中所起的调节作用。研究结果表明：高管团队平均教育水平、社会资本、海外背景、薪酬差距分别对创业企业绩效具有正向影响;而高管团队平均年龄、专业背景异质性分别对创业企业绩效具有负向影响;高管团队薪酬差距分别在平均教育水平和专业背景异质性对创业企业绩效影响中起调节作用。     

Profit distribution and compensation structures in publicly and privately funded hybrid venture capital funds

Policy makers have become increasingly concerned at the lack of risk capital available to new and early-stage entrepreneurial ventures. As a public response to a perceived market failure, several governments have set up programs to channel equity finance to capital constrained but high potential, young enterprises. Critically, government support is often directed through the agency of private venture capital funds. We examine the profit distribution and compensation structures used in these hybrid public/private funds. We appraise government policy makers’ ability to use these structures to improve the expected returns in market failure areas in order to attract private sector investors and professional managers to participate in these funds. The results derived from our simulation study suggest that such asymmetric profit sharing models can only resolve relatively modest market failures unless the programs also manage to attract highly competent investors who are able to produce above average gross returns in market failure areas.     

创业者先前工作经验与新企业初期绩效关系研究

 利用天津市2006年申请“科技型中小企业创新基金项目”的新企业数据,考察创业者先前工作经验与新企业绩效之间的关系。研究结论显示,新企业能否取得较好绩效的关键并不在于创业者有无先前工作经验,而是取决于拥有什么样的工作经验。首先,工作经验的性质,即工作经验与创业者在新企业中所承担工作的匹配性越高,新企业初期绩效越好,但工作经验与新企业所处行业的匹配性对绩效并无显著影响。第二,不同职能类型的工作经验对初期绩效有不同的影响,研发经验显著正向影响初期绩效,但市场营销、财务、一般管理和生产运营管理经验则无显著影响。最后,创业者工作经验的职能多样性有利于新企业绩效。     

技术溢出视角下新能源开发的就业效应分析——以中国海洋能为例

为缓解传统能源资源压力、应对气候变化,我国日益重视新能源的开发与利用.发展新能源产业是否会导致“技术进步型失业”.为探讨二者之间的关系,本文以海洋能为例,从技术溢出的视角出发,通过构建行业间技术距离公式得到海洋能产业对其他行业的技术溢出效应,据此建立面板数据模型,分析海洋能产业研发活动对就业产生的影响.结果显示:海洋能源开发技术经费收入增加对本行业就业具有创造效应;通过直接的知识性与产业关联性机制同时伴有市场性溢出特点,对海洋工程技术研究各行业带来技术溢出效应,由此产生的就业效果显著;通过间接的知识性溢出与产业关联性溢出机制对海洋基础科学研究和信息服务业产生技术溢出效应,该效应对就业具有正向促进作用,但影响效果较弱.为进一步增强海洋能产业研发活动对就业的积极影响,为沿海地区带来“资源福利”,提出相关建议.     

市场进入战略创新性与新技术企业初期绩效——对成长性绩效与规模绩效影响差异性的分析

以新技术企业为研究对象,结合技术创业实际重点考察了市场进入战略的选择,即新企业将什么样的产品与服务经由怎样的交易结构引入市场,进而兑现技术成果的商业价值.从进入战略创新的视角解释技术创业的高失败率与低成长现状问题.利用中国情境下的随机样本实证检验了新技术企业市场进入战略创新性时其初期绩效的影响.结果表明,创新性的进入战...     

When good blocks go bad: Managing unwanted blockchain data

Blockchain has been praised for providing the technical infrastructure that enables a group of self-interested entities to share data without relying on intermediaries. Technically, blockchain is a distributed and decentralized append-only database. This latter aspect leads to an important, yet overlooked governance issue, namely what should the network members do when erroneous or malicious data are added to the blockchain ledger? We start by describing three public cases when the above happened. For each case, we elaborate on the adopted solution, which we refer to as the “rollback,” the “do nothing,” and the “overturn” solution. Drawing from these previous cases, discussions with experts, and from our own experience with blockchain research and development, we provide suggestions concerning managerial, technical, and information security policies and practices organizations should follow when contemplating enterprise-level applications of the blockchain technology.     

风险投资促进了中国企业的技术创新吗？

风险投资对企业技术创新作用的研究结果呈现出多样化特征。本文选取2009-2018年间在中国创业板上市的708家企业为样本,从创新投入和创新产出视角,构建创新生产模型研究风险投资对中国企业技术创新的作用。研究发现：风险投资背景对企业创新投入和创新产出没有显著的促进作用;风险投资机构的数量对企业创新投入和创新产出有显著影响;风险投资机构的持股比例对企业创新投入和创新产出有负向作用;风险投资金额对企业创新投入有显著的促进作用,对企业创新产出则没有影响。进一步的检验揭示了研发投入对于风险投资机构数量和创新产出之间的中介效应,企业创新产出主要源于风险投资机构数量累积效应下的企业研发投入实现。研究结果表明,风险投资对中国企业的技术创新同时具有促进效应和抑制效应。     

基于技术轨道的新创企业创业导向决策

创业是企业发展的一种重要战略，以获取新技术、实现新业务创建为目的的创业导向并购逐渐成为了新创企业主要的战略实施方式。鉴于新创企业的发展具有技术依赖性，且董事会的构成较为特别，本文选取了2012年12月31日前在中国创业板上市的公司为研究对象，采集了截止到2015年12月的并购数据，通过回归分析，实证检验了不同技术轨道下新创企业董事会中创始人开放性和机构投资者参与对企业创业导向战略决策的影响。结果表明：在新创企业中，创始人开放性和机构投资者参与均能显著正向影响企业创业导向战略决策，且二者之间具有互补效应。进一步发现，企业所处的技术轨道不同，以上作用效果不同。在供应商主导和规模密集型企业中，创始人开放性与机构投资者参与的交互作用不显著；在信息密集型和专业化供应商企业中，创始人开放性与机构投资者参与具有显著的互补效应；在基于科学的企业中，机构投资者参与对企业的创业导向战略决策具有负向的影响。     

Pathways to developing information technology-enabled capabilities in born-digital new ventures

Despite significant business opportunities made possible through advancements in technology, readily available digital technologies are often overlooked and not used by new ventures. To address this knowledge gap, this paper looks at the relationships between readily available digital technologies and born-digital new venture capabilities. We use an affordance lens to explore conditions in which born-digital new ventures interact with digital technologies to actualize digital affordances that facilitate the development of important capabilities. First, using the existing literature, we present a research model and its key elements. Then, using data on new ventures in a Canadian university incubator, we conduct fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and develop seven configurational research propositions as pathways to develop information technology-enabled organizational capabilities in new ventures. Using this retroductive approach, this research builds a context-specific middle-range theory that explains complex interactions between readily available digital technologies and new venture characteristics, where resources are provided by incubators in dynamic environments, to facilitate the development of ITOCs in the new ventures. We close by describing the study’s theoretical and practical implications.     

Are public subsidies effective for university spinoffs? Evidence from SBIR awards in the University of California system

This study examines the impact of public subsidies, and specifically, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards on university spinoff companies. Using unique data for a population of University of California spinoffs, we find pronounced differences between companies commercializing digital technologies (software and hardware), and those that focus on other product spaces. For digital spinoffs, receiving an SBIR award has a negative impact on raising venture capital and no impact on IPOs, exits or first sales. Conversely, for non-digital firms (e.g., biotechnology, energy), receiving an SBIR award has a positive effect on raising venture capital and performance outcomes. We reason that digital technologies are subject to faster cycle times and higher market uncertainty, relative to technological uncertainty. Digital firms may therefore benefit less from subsidies designed to support technology development, and private investors may view the need of digital companies to obtain such subsidies as a negative certification. Our findings inform policy by suggesting that the industrial domain may be an important boundary condition for the effectiveness of SBIR-type subsidies for university spinoffs.     

Time to seize the digital evolution: Adoption of blockchain in operations and supply chain management among Malaysian SMEs

This study aims to investigate the effects of relative advantage, complexity, upper management support, cost, market dynamics, competitive pressure and regulatory support on blockchain adoption for operations and supply chain management among Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. Unlike existing studies that employed linear models with Technology Acceptance Model or United Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology that ignores the organisational and environmental factors, we adopted the Technology, Organisation and Environment Framework that covers the technological dimensions of relative advantage and complexity, organisational dimensions of upper management support and cost and environmental dimensions of market dynamics, competitive pressure and regulatory support. Empirical data from 194 SMEs were investigated and ranked using a nonlinear non-compensatory PLS-ANN approach. Competitive pressure, complexity, cost and relative have significant effects on behavioural intention. Market dynamics, regulatory support and upper management support were insignificant predictors. SMEs often lack resources for technological investments but faces same requirements for streamlining business processes to optimise returns and blockchain presents a viable option for SMEs’ sustainability due to its features of immutability, transparency and security that have the potential to revolutionise businesses. This study contributes new knowledge to the literature on factors that affect blockchain adoption and justifications were discussed accordingly.     

Blockchain in the operations and supply chain management: Benefits,challenges and future research opportunities

Blockchain technologies have captured the imagination of scholars, managers, and practitioners around the world. It is widely accepted by these actors that blockchain is not a buzzword, but a highly disruptive technology that is already remodeling the organizations and their supply chain business models. Despite the meaningful advance in the last years, blockchain applications regarding the operations and supply chain management (OSCM) are still in their infancy. Little is known about the role of blockchain in terms of operations traceability, as well in areas such as e-commerce, agriculture, public services, etc. Therefore, this Special Issue seeks to extend our understanding of blockchain applications in OSCM and how firms create and capture business value with blockchain. To this effect, this Special Issue will provide a well-articulated and in-depth discussion of the role of blockchain in creating value in the domain of OSCM. Specifically, it is expected that more light is shed on how blockchain integrates with and impacts new business models, transforms relationships, and improves performance and competitive advantage in OSCM. Also, the evolution of blockchain was reviewed in order to provide a strong background to the readers. The literature review was performed taking into account a bibliometric perspective of blockchain-related publications. The review supports the importance of this Special Issue by highlighting the urgent needs of this topic in this reputable journal. Finally, we provide future research directions and a guide for the papers presented in this Special Issue.     

Speciation through entrepreneurial spin-off: The Acorn-ARM story

Can the concept of speciation explain evidence on how technologies branch and advance? Can evidence on innovation through spin-off usefully inform the concept of speciation? These questions are addressed through a case study of detailed processes enabling the shift of technology to new domains of application. An innovative IT firm developed its own semiconductor technology to remedy supplier deficiencies but it required a joint venture with a completely new business model to adapt and move the technology into new market domains. We propose the concept of techno-organizational speciation to delineate this phenomenon. Competing perspectives on speciation (compatibility, niche and lineage approaches) are found to illuminate the evidence, while complementarities between these conceptual dimensions are revealed by the case. Causal processes uncovered include the following: (1) Techno-organizational speciation through spin-off may be needed to launch a dominant technical standard, compatible with multiple applications. (2) This can be achieved through niche creation from which develops a new business ecosystem. (3) Inherited knowledge together with organizationally based learning foster the branching and renewal of technological lineages.     

GIS专业就业现状分析与人才培养的思考

从就业率、就业行业、就业区域等方面分析了广西师范学院地理信息系统专业历届毕业生的就业现状,结合本专业人才需求情况探讨该专业面临的就业挑战,并从专业认知度教育、课程设置、实践教学和就业指导等方面反思专业人才培养存在的问题和教学改革的方向。     

海归高管与企业创新效率:助力还是阻力？

以2008-2017年A股上市公司为研究对象,用三阶段DEA模型从技术研发和转化两个阶段测度企业创新效率并分析其与高管海外经历的关系。结果表明,高管海外经历能提高企业创新效率,且不同学历层次和专业背景对企业创新效率影响具有明显差异。进一步研究国有属性和风投注资视角下的影响差异,发现相较于非国有企业,具有海外经历的高管在国有企业任职更能发挥对技术创新的促进效应;在有风险投资进入时,具有经管专业背景的高管更能发挥自身优势,促进企业技术创新。