Aristides I. Ferreira, Timo Braun, Helena Carvalho, António C.M. Abrantes and Jörg Sydow
Many start-ups do not survive the first few years of business. Previous studies suggest that networks play a role in start-ups' success, but this positive effect has limits. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Many start-ups do not survive the first few years of business. Previous studies suggest that networks play a role in start-ups' success, but this positive effect has limits. The purpose of this paper is to answer the call for a better understanding of the dark side of networks and the variables that condition variables' effect on the likelihood of start-ups' survival.
Design/methodology/approach
A longitudinal research design includes 139 start-ups (102 from Germany and 37 from Portugal) and a total of 252 participants. A generalized linear mixed model (GLMM)was applied to estimate all the coefficients, to test the mediation (H1), the moderation (H2) and the moderated mediation (H3) while considering the economic situation of the start-up (sales growth), start-ups' networking behavior, creativity orientation and ultimately the likelihood of survival.
Findings
Based on an empirical study from two different countries, the results show that effective networking is contingent on the start-up's economic situation and creative potential. Specifically, the results point to situations in which early sales growth may lead to external networking, which, in contexts of low creativity-oriented start-ups, can compromise the start-ups' success.
Originality/value
Based on the findings, the authors compare scenarios in which networking increases the chances for start-up survival with situations where networking can have adverse effects. This study highlights the importance of considering specific start-up parameters, such as start-ups' economic situation and level of creativity orientation, in the business venturing literature.
Details
Keywords
Aristides Isidoro Ferreira, Carla Cardoso and Timo Braun
This study drew upon conservation of resources and organizational support theory to develop a deeper understanding of the antecedents of affective and behavioral reactions to…
Abstract
Purpose
This study drew upon conservation of resources and organizational support theory to develop a deeper understanding of the antecedents of affective and behavioral reactions to change processes. The purpose of this paper is to construct a theoretical framework based on previous findings of change management research to suggest that the relationship between organizational support and resistance to change is mediated by ego-resilience. This framework was then validated empirically.
Design/methodology/approach
To test this model, the mediation relationship was examined using regression analysis with bootstrapping. The sample consisted of 323 employees from private and public organizations.
Findings
The results confirmed that the relationship between organizational support and affective and behavioral reactions to imposed change is mediated by ego-resilience. The theoretical model was thus validated for use in future research.
Research limitations/implications
This study’s findings have implications for organizations regarding how managers guide their employees through change processes. The research’s limitations arise from the use of convenience non-probability sampling and cross-sectional, self-reported data, which only allow for a tentative generalizability of the results.
Originality/value
The findings show that organizational change processes are affected by factors on both the individual (i.e. ego-resilience) and organizational level (i.e. organizational support). This study’s results thus provide empirical support for the conclusion that ego-resilience mediates the indirect relationship between organizational support and employees’ resistance to change.
Details
Keywords
Carolin Auschra, Timo Braun, Thomas Schmidt and Jörg Sydow
The creation of a new venture is at the heart of entrepreneurship and shares parallels with project-based organizing: embedded in an institutional context, founders have to…
Abstract
Purpose
The creation of a new venture is at the heart of entrepreneurship and shares parallels with project-based organizing: embedded in an institutional context, founders have to assemble a team that works on specified tasks within a strict time constraint, while the new venture undergoes various transitions. The purpose of this paper is to explore parallels between both streams of research and an increasing projectification of entrepreneurship.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based upon a case study of the Berlin start-up ecosystem including the analysis of interviews (n=52), secondary documents, and field observations.
Findings
The paper reveals that – shaped by their institutional context – patterns of project-like organizing have become pertinent to the new venture creation process. It identifies a set of facets from the entrepreneurial ecosystems – more specifically different types of organizational actors, their occupational backgrounds, and epistemic communities – that enable and constrain the process of new venture creation in a way that is typical for project-based organizing.
Originality/value
This study thus elaborates on how institutional settings enforce what has been called “projectification” in the process of new venture creation and discuss implications for start-up ecosystems.
Details
Keywords
Temporary organisations are time-limited organisations that are created with a deliberate termination point. Temporary organisations can increase flexibility, allow for innovative…
Abstract
Temporary organisations are time-limited organisations that are created with a deliberate termination point. Temporary organisations can increase flexibility, allow for innovative and transformative activities with less resource commitment, and reflect a ‘Zeitgeist’ of acceleration and time limitation in society. They also give rise to tensions and paradoxes that require new adaptive and coordinative practices. Research on temporary organisations has moved from primarily exploring the distinction between temporary and permanent organisations to using temporary organisations to study a range of phenomena such as temporality, acceleration, identity, and attachment–detachment dilemmas. This volume reflects this new orientation. We map empirical phenomena along the lines of events, projects and networks, and explore three conceptual themes that run through the nine chapters that comprise this volume: (1) temporality in temporary organisations; (2) the interaction between temporary and permanent organisations; and (3) the strategies and practices that temporary organisation develop in response to tensions and paradoxes.
Lorenzo Skade, Sarah Stanske, Matthias Wenzel and Jochen Koch
‘Acceleration’, that is, the performance of activities in ever-shorter periods of time, is a distinctive feature of contemporary organizations and societies that is reflected in…
Abstract
‘Acceleration’, that is, the performance of activities in ever-shorter periods of time, is a distinctive feature of contemporary organizations and societies that is reflected in, and driven by startups’ attempts to scale up their businesses in ever-faster ways. Although prior research has highlighted that temporary organizing is a key way to accelerate the startup process, little is known about how actors do so. Based on a one-year ethnographic study at a startup accelerator, the authors explore how actors enact temporary organizing to attempt to accelerate the startup process. Their analysis shows that this process involves a plurality of partly conflicting temporal structures. As their study shows, such conflicts invoke tensions that actors live out in their daily activities. The authors identify three temporal practices – sequencing, freezing, and merging – through which actors engaged in temporary organizing enact acceleration in the startup process by reconciling these temporal structures. Their study has implications for understanding time in the expanding literature on temporary organizing and acceleration.
Details
Keywords
René Abel, Suleika Bort, Indre Maurer, Clarissa E. Weber and Hendrik Wilhelm
Portfolios of temporary organisations, particularly portfolios of R&D projects with different project partners, are a common yet understudied phenomenon. We know that these…
Abstract
Portfolios of temporary organisations, particularly portfolios of R&D projects with different project partners, are a common yet understudied phenomenon. We know that these portfolios suffer from tensions inherent in project portfolio ambidexterity (e.g. portfolios balancing R&D projects with new and recurrent partners), yet our understanding of what might lessen these tensions remains limited. This study introduces the idea of project portfolio maturity and theorises how it can mitigate the negative effects of ambidextrous project portfolios. We test our hypotheses by combining proprietary survey and archival data on 136 R&D project portfolios in the German biotechnology industry covering project partnerships with both new and recurrent partners. Our results show that ambidextrous project portfolios hamper firm performance and that portfolio maturity mitigates these negative effects. By introducing a new perspective on project portfolios that accounts for overlooked temporal dimensions, this study provides a new contingency that has the potential to ease the tensions that result from projects with new and recurrent partners. We thereby add to the literatures on temporary organising, project portfolios, and ambidexterity.
Details
Keywords
Robert DeFillippi and Yesim Tonga Uriarte
Festivals are conceptualised in this chapter as temporary organisations embedded in more permanent structures (e.g. festival lead organisation). Festivals face a series of…
Abstract
Festivals are conceptualised in this chapter as temporary organisations embedded in more permanent structures (e.g. festival lead organisation). Festivals face a series of paradoxical tensions common to temporary organisations in creative fields. These tensions arise, in part, from the diversity of actors involved in festivals and the distinctive values and priorities they bring to their festival organisational involvement. Lucca Comics & Games (LC&G), which is one of the biggest comic-cons in the world, operates in the intersection of different institutional contexts, which include a wide range of actors involved. Thus, tensions appear within the LC&G domain as a result of these actors’ different levels of involvement in the festival organisation and their diverse identities. These tensions and their resolutions will be analysed from the perspective of extant theory on paradox. A specific focus of this chapter is on the belonging paradox, which concerns the role of competing identities among different types of festival participants and how these competing identities are manifested in the organisational identity of LC&G, its structures and processes. Our study provides evidence of identity tensions as both/and relationships that are not mutually exclusive or antagonistic. The authors also suggest that ‘place identity’ requires further examination as a distinctive feature of temporary organising in festivals, considering its role in mediating tensions arising from the belonging paradox amongst festival main actors (exhibitors, artists, public bodies and lead organisation employees).
Details
Keywords
Federica Angeli, Jörg Raab and Leon Oerlemans
Project networks are an increasingly salient organisational temporary form to deal with complex problems. It remains unclear, however, whether and how project networks adapt over…
Abstract
Project networks are an increasingly salient organisational temporary form to deal with complex problems. It remains unclear, however, whether and how project networks adapt over time, and hence implement changes, both within the span of the specific project, and across projects. The authors apply the performance feedback (PF) perspective to explore how adaptive responses to PF are organised and absorbed within project networks. The authors investigate these matters in the area of humanitarian and development aid efforts, which represent complex social issues. In this context, project networks involve a multitude of actors at different distances from the implementation field, ranging from the donor, through an international Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), to the NGO’s country offices, local NGOs and the beneficiary communities. This study’s qualitative findings, which the authors generate through an abductive analytical process, highlight that project networks dealing with complex social issues face six paradoxes based on work by DeFillippi and Sydow: the distance, difference, identity, learning, temporal and performance paradoxes. Collective goal setting, adaptive monitoring and evaluation practices, and continuous re-negotiation of aspiration levels emerge as coping mechanisms enabling project networks to internalise insights from the field and translate them into adaptive behavioural responses, mainly at the intra-project level. The authors contribute to a better understanding of adaption in these temporary forms, and particularly in its behavioural consequences. The study also advances knowledge on the PF perspective, through its application in temporary settings, on the level of the project network and in the context of complex social issues, where organisational arrangements strive to pursue multiple interdependent goals.