In an initial coin offering (ICO), new ventures raise capital by selling tokens to a crowd of investors. Often, this token is a cryptocurrency, a digital medium of value exchange based on the ...distributed ledger technology. Both the number of ICOs and the amount of capital raised have exploded since 2017. Despite attracting significant attention from ventures, investors, and policy makers, little is known about the dynamics of ICOs. This initial study therefore assesses the determinants of the amount raised in 423 ICOs. Drawing on signaling theory, the study explores the role of signaling ventures' technological capabilities in ICOs. The results show that technical white papers and high-quality source codes increase the amount raised, while patents are not associated with increased amounts of funding. Exploring further determinants of the amount raised, the results indicate that some of the underlying mechanisms in ICOs resemble those found in prior research into entrepreneurial finance, while others are unique to the ICO context. The study's implications are multifold and discussed in detail. Importantly, the results enable investors to more accurately understand crucial determinants of the amount raised (e.g., technical white papers, source code quality, token supply, Ethereum-standard). This reduces the considerable uncertainty that investors face when investing in ICOs and enables more informed decision-making.
•Empirical study of 423 ICOs carried out between 2016 and 2018•Draws on signaling theory to explore the role technological capabilities in ICOs•Technological white papers and high-quality sources code increase the amount raised.•Patents do not seem to have a significant influence on the amount raised.•Identifies various determinants of the amount raised unique to the context of ICOs
This article explores in depth the role of indigenous and foreign innovation efforts in technological change and catching up and their interactions in the emerging economies. It presents original ...evidence and argues that, despite the potential offered by globalization and a liberal trade regime, the benefits of international technology diffusion can only be delivered with parallel indigenous innovation efforts and the presence of modern institutional and governance structures and conducive innovation systems. This conclusion is compounded by the expected inappropriateness of Northern technology for countries in the developing South that calls for greater efforts to develop indigenous innovation. In this sense, indigenous and foreign innovation efforts are complementary.
Marketing and technological capabilities are primary drivers of a firm’s performance and thus of central interest to managers. Yet the way in which these two capabilities align with changing ...environments to secure superior performance remains unclear. Drawing on the dynamic capability view and data from a survey of 228 firms, this study proposes a model of how frequent dynamic capability utilization, assessed through its underlying processes of sensing and reconfiguring, relates to marketing and technological capabilities, as well as how market, technological, and competitor turbulence might affect these relationships. The results show that frequent sensing and reconfiguring have stronger positive effects in environments characterized by high competitor turbulence; however, frequent sensing can have negative relationships with marketing and technological capabilities in stable environments. Furthermore, marketing capabilities are positively associated with firm performance in highly competitive environments, whereas technological capabilities enhance performance in stable competitive environments.
This article evaluates the role of technological capabilities in moderating the relationship between competitive strategies and firm performance using a sample of 253 companies from the information ...and communications technology industry in Spain. The study tests the hypotheses that technological capabilities have a positive influence on performance. However, unlike previous research, the study gives specific consideration to how the relationship between competitive strategies and performance is moderated by technological capabilities. The findings indicate that technological capabilities enhance the relationships between quality orientation and performance, and cost orientation and performance, respectively. The obtained results suggest that the theoretical prescriptions of RBV and competitive strategy must be strategically combined within the firm for maximum effect.
In this paper, a new saturable absorber (SA) based on Lanthanum Hexaboride (LaB6) is used to produce Q-switched and mode-locked laser pulses. In constructing the SA, the prepared LaB6 powder is ...dispersed in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution before the mixture is dried to form a thin film. A small piece of the film is placed between two fiber ferrules to form a LaB6 PVA SA and added to a laser cavity of an erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) to produce Q-switched and mode-locked pulses. The Q-switched laser operates at 1531 nm. The pulse width of the pulses can be varied between 4.32 to 2.46 μs with a corresponding repetition rate of 62.0 to 89.6 kHz when the pump power is increased from 45.4 to 97.6 mW. At the maximum output power of 4.31 mW, the highest pulse energy of 48.1 nJ was obtained. A passively mode locked EDFL was also successfully realized with LaB6 SA by adding 100 m long single mode fiber inside the cavity. A stable mode-locked laser operating at 1559.1 nm was achieved at the threshold pump power of 102.8 mW with a pulse rate of 1.88 MHz. The pulse energy of 5.6 nJ and output power of 10.54 mW were obtained at a maximum pump power of 144.6 mW. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of utilizing LaB6 material as SA to produce pulses in the 1.5 μm region.
•Lanthanum Hexaboride (LaB6) as saturable absorber to produce Q-switched and mode-locked pulses.•The prepared LaB6 powder is dispersed in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution.•The SA has a modulation depth of 4.2%.•The Q-switched and mode-locked laser operated at 1531 nm and 1559.1 nm, respectively.•The mode-locked pulse has 157.8 ns pulse width and 1.88 MHz repetition rate.
This paper examines how market learning (both explorative and exploitative) interacts with organizational capabilities (technological capabilities and marketing capabilities) to affect management ...innovation. Drawing upon data from a sample of 272 firms each of which contributed two key informants to the study (resulting in a total of 544 respondents), we find that both exploratory and exploitative market learning have a positive effect on management innovation. The effects of exploratory and exploitative market learning on management innovation are contingent on technological and marketing capabilities. Specifically, technological capabilities enhance the positive effect of exploratory market learning and weaken the positive effect of exploitative market learning on management innovation. Marketing capabilities enhance the positive effect of exploitative market learning and weaken the positive effect of exploratory market learning on management innovation. This study contributes to the literature by integrating organizational learning theory with the absorptive capacity perspective to explain management innovation.
•The management innovation literature is extended by identifying the effects of market learning on management innovation.•The organizational learning and absorptive capacity theories are integrated for explaining how firms succeed in management innovation.
One of the main challenges for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is how to leverage their R&D activities in the international markets but current literature offers mixed evidence and inconclusive ...models in this regard. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the role of international R&D activities in the impact of SMEs’ technological and marketing capabilities on their performance. The authors use in-depth interviews with five Italian SMEs recognized as particularly innovative firms in their own sectors (retail intelligence, business training, shoes, food, and sportswear) to identify the factors driving the success and performance of their international R&D efforts. Findings show that SMEs’ technological and marketing capabilities have dominant and positive effects on their performance in the international markets. Besides extending the literature on the internationalization of R&D by SMEs, these findings highlight the major challenges and opportunities for the managers of internationally active SMEs.
Despite large-scale financial support of the government, there is increasing criticism about the inefficiency of public R&D investment that fails to lead directly to technological innovation of ...technology-based start-ups. This paper analyzes the factors that influence technological innovation in Korean technology-based start-ups based on the resource-based view (RBV). The empirical analysis combines ordinary least squares and ordered probit analysis of data collected from 248 technology-based start-ups in Korea. The analysis results statistically confirm the effects of technological capabilities and entrepreneurship on technological innovation. First, a start-up’s technological capabilities measured by patents and technological competitiveness have significant positive effects on technological innovation, while the effect of having an in-house R&D department for technological innovation is not significant. Second, entrepreneurship has a significant positive effect on the technological innovation of a start-up, and this positive effect has a moderating effect that further promotes the positive effect of technological competitiveness on technological innovation.
With increase in the focus on environmental protection, firms are integrating sustainability issues in process and product innovations. Firms can contribute toward sustainability and also improve ...operational performance through green innovation practices. However, the adoption of green innovation practices depends on the proactivity of top managers toward environment management. In this paper, we study the relationships between proactive environment strategy, green process innovation (GPRI), and operational performance. Further, we examine the mediating effect of dynamic capabilities (DCs) (technological capabilities and organizational learning) between GPRI and operational performance. The proposed framework is tested by data collected from the Indian manufacturing industries and using partial least squares (PLS) technique. The findings demonstrate proactive environment strategy as an important antecedent for GPRI practices. Second, technological capabilities and organizational learning mediate between GPRI and operational performance. The results of the study are useful for managers in the manufacturing firms, who are interested to implement GPRI practices or who are in the early stage of implementing the GPRI practices.
Previous research has defined resilience as a desirable characteristic for an organization and its members to possess when circumstances adversely change. Resilience is analysed through different ...perspectives as organizational responses to external threats, organizational reliability or employee strengths. However, the role of resilience in enhancing organizational effectiveness is not fully understood. Grounded in organizational ambidexterity, the current research tests the value of resilience capabilities developed through specific Human Resource Practices (HRPs) in the context of ever-changing market conditions. This paper argues that as well as technological capabilities, HRPs that build resilience within an organization are needed to successfully implement technological change. Resilience capabilities are a mediating factor between technological capabilities and organizational effectiveness, whilst environment dynamism and competitive intensity are moderators of this relationship. Using a primary sample of 205 manufacturing firms, a model is presented and tested using Structural Equation Modelling. The results reinforce the importance of HRPs in building resilience which helps firms to continuously adjust to change and subsequently enhance their organizational effectiveness.
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