Speaker:

David Storey, Professor, Warwick Business School

Title:

Do Entrepreneurs Really Learn? Evidence from Bank Data

Abstract:

This paper examines the theory and evidence in support of entrepreneurial leaning (EL). Under this theory entrepreneurial performance is argued to be enhanced by EL which itself is enhanced by business experience. However, if business performance is strongly influenced by chance then evidence of EL will be difficult to identify. We test for EL using a large scale data set comprising 6,854 new firms. We choose business survival over two years as our performance measure and use three tests for EL. None of the three tests provide compelling evidence in support of EL.

About the Speaker:

Until 2008 David Storey was Associate Dean (Research) at Warwick Business School and Director of the Centre for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. He has a First Class Degree in Economics, a Diploma in Applied Statistics and a PhD in Economics. He also has two honorary Doctorates and has been Visiting Professor at Durham Business School, Manchester and Reading. He has been an EIM Fellow since 2001. In 1998 he received the International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research from the Swedish Council. His book, Understanding the Small Business Sector, is the most frequently cited item of writing on small firms and was translated into Japanese in 2003.

For four years he was appointed by the UK Secretary of State for Trade and Industry as a Member of the Small Business Council which advises the government on small business policy making.

He has undertaken work for many overseas governments and organisations. During 2006, for example, he acted as consultant to the governments of Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and Denmark as well as the World Bank. In 2008 he completed a Handbook on SME policy evaluation for OECD. Currently he is a consultant to the Inter American Development Bank (IADB) for SME policy in Mexico and had previous assignments on micro enterprises in Trinidad and Tobago, and in Jamaica. In Europe he co-ordinated an EU-wide review of new technology based firms for DG XIII, and is the UK partner in the SME Observatory for DG Enterprise.

Speaker:

Robert Burgelman, Professor of Management, Executive Director, Stanford Executive Programme, Stanford University USA

Title:

Managing Internal Corporate Venturing Cycles

Abstract:

In this seminar Professor Burgelman will discuss his research on the managing of internal corporate venturing (ICV) cycles. This research, which has examined factors contributing to ICV cyclicality, has led Burgelman (and co-researchers) to suggest that companies can achieve better outcomes if executives recognize the strategic importance of internal corporate venturing activities and view them as a way of gaining insights into emerging opportunities.

About the Speaker:

Robert Burgelman is the Edmund W. Littlefield Professor of Management and Director of the Stanford Executive Program of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He is one of the world's leading researchers on strategic decision processes, corporate innovation and technology strategy, and his work has been published in many leading journals including Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, California Management Review, MIT Sloan Management Review and Strategic Management Journal. He recently co-authored Strategic Dynamics (McGraw-Hill, 2006), which incorporates many of the ideas developed in the course "Strategy and Action in the Information Processing Industry" which he co-teaches at Stanford with former Intel CEO, Andy Grove.

Speaker:

Gang Zhang, Professor, School of Management, Zhejiang University
Hangzhou, 310058 P. R. China

Title:

Modularity and Incremental Innovation: The Roles of Design Rules and Organisational Communication.

Abstract:

This paper responds to an article about the impact of modularity on innovation (Ethiraj, Levinthal & Roy, 2008); as to its limitations, we suggest that the degree of modularity in a structure depends on the level of near decomposability and the degree to which intermodule interactions are specified by design rules. The results of our simulation experiments indicate that the effectiveness of intermodule communications and the length of competition cycles moderate the relationship between near decomposability and innovation, and the option value relevant to modularity would offset the constraint effect of design rules on the space of incremental innovation.

About the Speaker:

Dr Gang Zhang is Professor of Business Administration and chair of Department of Business Administration in School of Management, Zhejiang University in P. R. China. He got his Ph. D degree in Management Science and Engineering from Zhejiang University. His research has focused on organization theory, knowledge management, innovation and entrepreneurship. He has gotten grants from National Nature Science Foundation of China and National Social Science Foundation of China. He has general interest in organization and knowledge, specifically regarding organization as the allocating mechanism of knowledge, and has published 3 books and more than 30 papers on this topic.

Speaker:

Garry Bruton, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Neely School of Business, Texas Christian University

Title:

Governance, Ownership Structure and Performance of IPO Firms: The Impact of Different Types of Private Equity Investors and Institutional Environments.

Abstract:

This paper examines performance effects of ownership concentration and two types of private equity investors (venture capitalists and business angels) in firms that have recently undergone an initial public offering (IPO) in the United Kingdom and France. We expand and contextualize nascent understanding of multiple agency theory by examining heterogeneity of private equity investors and by suggesting that multiple agency relationships are affected by different institutional contexts. We employ a unique, hand-collected dataset of 224 matched IPOs (112 in each country). Controlling for the endogeneity of private equity investors' retained share ownership, we find support for the agency theory argument that concentrated ownership improves IPO's performance. The research also shows that the two types of private equity investors have a differential impact on performance, and the legal institutions in a given country moderate this impact.

About the Speaker:

Professor Garry Bruton is a professor of entrepreneurship at the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University where he holds Fehmi Zeko Faculty Fellowship. Garry was one of the founders of the entrepreneurship program at TCU and he still serves as Academic Dirctor of the Neeley Entrepreneurship Program

Professor Bruton's research focuses on entrepreneurship in emerging economies and he has published or has forthcoming over 65 academic articles in leading journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of International Business Studies, and Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice. In addition,Garry has co-authored three text books - one on small business management (McGraw-Hill), technology and innovation management (Cengage), and international management (Cengage).

In 2005 Professor Bruton was the first holder of the Hall Chair in Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets offered by the Fulbright Foundation. He is currently the President of the Asia Academy of Management and editor of the Academy of Management Perspectives. Garry in addition serves on the editorial board of five other academic journals.

Speaker:

Anoop Madhok, Professor, Schulich School of Business, York University

Title:

Overcoming the liability of emergingness through internationalization by acquisition: Learning and competitive catch-up by emerging multinationals.

Abstract:

Outward direct investment by multinational enterprises from emerging economies has witnessed a sudden surge in recent years. In particular, observers have been surprised at the extent of acquisition activity, especially in the advanced economies. I argue that understanding EE MNE direct investments into the advanced economies requires a departure from established concepts which emphasize the existence of firm advantage prior to internationalization. Instead, outward internationalization through acquisition can be explained by a search for advantage creation when firms possess mainly ordinary resources. In explaining such internationalization through acquisition, I emphasize how acquisitions can help these firms overcome what we term as the 'liability of emergingness' and, moreover, how they serve as a mechanism for learning and competitive catchup. Austrian notions of entrepreneurship provides the basis for such learning.

About the Speaker:

Anoop Madhok is a Professor of Strategy at the Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto and a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Vrije University, Amsterdam. He was formerly a Professor of Management at the David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1993 from McGill University, Montreal and an MA in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, Rotterdam and at the University of Melbourne as well as a visiting research scholar at a number of other prominent institutions. Earlier, he worked as a manager in prominent multinational firms operating in India.

Professor Madhok's research interests span strategy and international management and include topics such as multinational firm strategy, foreign market entry, strategic alliances, trust and interfirm collaboration, and the theory and boundaries of the firm. He has lectured extensively on these topics in a number of countries. His work has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Journal of International Business Studies, Management International Review, among many others, as well as in a variety of books, and he serves on the editorial review board of Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Journal of International Management and Journal of World Business.

Professor Madhok has received numerous honors and awards in recognition of his work. He recently received the McGill University Desautels Faculty of Management Distinguished PhD Alumnus Award in 2009. His 1995 paper won the Journal of International Business Studies 2005 Decade Award for the most influential paper in JIBS. He has also been identified as one of the top contributors worldwide in international strategic management research and recognized as one of eight scholars whose work was recognized for being both prolific and influential in this domain.

Speaker:

Jan Johanson, Emeritus Professor in International Business at Uppsala University.

Title:

A Business Network Perspective on the Internationalization Process

Abstract:

The Uppsala internationalization process model is revisited in the light of changes in business practices and theoretical advances that have been made since 1977. Now the business environment is viewed as a web of relationships, a network, rather than as a neoclassical market with many independent suppliers and customers. Outsidership, in relation to the relevant network, more than psychic distance, is the root of uncertainty. The change mechanisms in the revised model are essentially the same as those in the original version, although we add trust-building and knowledge creation, the latter to recognize the fact that new knowledge is developed in relationships.

About the Speaker:

Jan Johanson is Emeritus Professor in International Business at Uppsala University. He is one of the foremost authorities on the internationalisation of the firm, with his groundbreaking 1977 article co-authored with Jan-Erik Vahlne, 'The Internationalization of the Firm', still widely cited today. Jan Johanson has published 13 books in the course of his career and countless journal articles and book chapters. His most recent article is 'The Uppsala internationalization process model revisited: From liability of foreignness to liability of outsidership', which appears in the recent JIBS40/AIB50 Anniversary Issue of the Journal of International Business Studies. Jan's seminar will be based on this paper, so it is a chance to hear about his latest thinking on the internationalisation process of the firm.