• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.131-141
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• 2019

This paper investigates a relationship between a market position of a venture capitalist(i.e.,VC) and its subsequent performance. Although a VC firm may perform better if it occupies a narrow niche(e.g.,specialist), which allows the firm to attain deep insider knowledge and build an identity as an industry expert, a firm may perform better if it has a broader niche(e.g.,generalist), which gives the firm access to more diverse information and opportunities and to effectively spread out potential risks. Given that accesses to valuable information and chances are critical for success in venture capital industry, we hypothesize that venture capitalists with broad niche width are more likely to grow in the future and analyze 26-year data on US venture capital industry. We found that, in general, a firm can enjoy the advantage of having a broad niche. However, the return to having a broad niche varies depending on its status within the market: a return greater for low- status than high-status VC firms. Our finding suggests that explorative efforts may be more rewarding for low-status VC firms.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.169-183
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• 2019

Should a startup file for a patent subject to imitation in its quest to attract venture capital(VC) investors? Considering the US pharmaceutical biotechnology industry context, this paper attempts to answer this question by investigating the relations between the number of applied patents of startups, patent imitability, and the total amount of money the startups received as their first VC funding round. Data of 157 US-based pharmaceutical biotechnology startups founded in between 1995 and 2005 are analyzed. Empirical results from this study show that the number of applied patents is positively related to the total amount of money received at the time of the first funding round, and patent imitability is negatively related to the total amount of money received as first VC funding round. Nonetheless, the interaction term between the number of applied patents of startups and patent imitability came out as positive, raising interesting questions and implications for innovation-oriented startup entrepreneurs. The current study's empirical findings suggest that, in the pharmaceutical biotechnology sector, VC investors pay attention to the quantity and quality of the patents possessed by startups when they decide the level of funding. In particular, imitability of applied patents may not be a one-sided concept related to negative features such as the weak protectability of an invention. Rather, patent imitability may be a multi-facet element which also contains positive attractiveness of the startup's invention. Furthermore, it seems that the positive side of imitability can be augmented by the number of applied patents.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.63-80
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• 2006

This paper suggests a normative performance measurement model for B2B e-marketplace. The model is for the neutral and systematic sourcing B2B e-marketplace. It is based on BSC that is very powerful and sound tool among all the available performance measurement systems. In addition, we used AHP to make the model more structured and to draw weights of performance measures from experts. We derived main features and factors affecting performance of e-business companies and especially of B2B e-marketplaces based on literature. In order to make the model usefulness, we co-worked with some experts who are engaged in real Korean B2B e-marketplaces. They included venture capitalists, top managers of B2B e-marketplaces, and consultants. By their assistances, we could find important evaluating factors and define the hierarchical structure. After defining the hierarchical structure, the expert group decided weights of performance indicators through the designed questionnaires. The weight for each measure was calculated using geometric mean of the questionnaire response. We made the case studies of two real Korean B2B e-marketplaces to apply the suggested model with some adjustments. The results of the case studies were so satisfactory that the suggested performance measurement model for B2B e-marketplace is useful and applicable to the real world.