Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

How Business Opportunities Constrain Young Technology-Based Firms from Growing into Medium-Sized Firms

  • Published:
Small Business Economics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper analyses how the novelty of business opportunities at start-up constrains young technology-based firms from attaining substantial growth and becoming medium-sized. Data from 262 young Swedish technologybased firms are used to estimate a logit regression model relating different types of opportunities to the probability of becoming medium-sized. The results show that firms which seek to exploit opportunities based on new market knowledge are less likely to attain substantial growth than firms that seek to exploit opportunities based on existing market knowledge. The former class of firms can nevertheless increase the probability of such growth by actively seeking external financing.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • D. F. Abell (1980) Defining the Business: The Starting Point of Strategic Planning Prentice-Hall Englewood Cliffs, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • H. Aldrich C. M. Fiol (1994) ArticleTitle‘Fools Rush In? The Institutional Context of Industry Creation’ Academy of Management Review 19 IssueID4 645–670

    Google Scholar 

  • D. Audretsch (1995) ArticleTitle‘Innovation, Growth and Survival’ International Journal of Industrial Organization 13 441–457 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0167-7187(95)00499-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • E. Autio A. Lumme (1998) ArticleTitle‘Does the Innovator Role Affect the Perceived Potential for Growth? Analysis of Four Types of New, Technology-Based Firms’ Technology Analysis & Strategic Management 10 IssueID1 41–54

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Barber S. Metcalfe M. Porteous (1989) ‘Barriers to Growth: The Acard Study’ J. Barber M. MetcalfeS.and Porteous (Eds) Barriers to Growth in Small Firms. Routledge London 1–19

    Google Scholar 

  • G. N. Chandler (1996) ArticleTitle‘Business Similarity as a Moderator of the Relationship between Pre-Ownership Experience and Venture Performance’ Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice 20 IssueID(Spring 51–65

    Google Scholar 

  • A. C. Cooper (1986) ‘Entrepreneurship and High Technology’ L. D. Sexton R. W. Smilor (Eds) The Art and Science of Entrepreneurship. Ballinger Cambridge, MA 153–168

    Google Scholar 

  • P. Davidsson (1989) ArticleTitle‘Entrepreneurship - and After? A Study of Growth Willingness in Small Firms’ Journal of Business Venturing 4 211–226 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0883-9026(89)90022-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • F. Delmar (1997) ‘Measuring Growth: Methodological Considerations and Empirical Results’ R. Donckels A. Miettinen (Eds) Entrepreneurship and SME Research: On its Way to the Next Millennium. Ashgate Aldershot 199–215

    Google Scholar 

  • Delmar, F., P. Davidsson and W. Gartner, W. (forthcoming), ‘Arriving at the High-Growth Firm’, Journal of Business Venturing.

  • K. M. Eisenhardt C. B. Schoonhoven (1990) ArticleTitle‘Organizational Growth: Linking Founding Team, Strategy, Environment, and Growth among U.S. Semiconductor Ventures, 1978-1988’ Administrative Science Quarterly 35 504–529

    Google Scholar 

  • H. R. Feeser G. E.. Willard (1990) ArticleTitle‘Founding Strategy and Performance: A Comparison of High and Low Growth High Tech Firms’ Strategic Management Journal 11 87–98

    Google Scholar 

  • E. Garnsey (1995) ArticleTitle‘High Technology Renewal and the U.K. Investment Problem’ Journal of General Management 20 IssueID4 1–22

    Google Scholar 

  • E. Garnsey (1998) ArticleTitle‘A Theory of the Early Growth of the Firm’ Industrial and Corporate Change 13 IssueID3 523–556

    Google Scholar 

  • M. Gibbons C. Limoges H. Nowotny S. Schwartzman P. Scott M. Trow (1994) The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies SAGE Publications London

    Google Scholar 

  • C. W. Hofer R.. Charan (1984) ArticleTitle‘The Transition to Professional Management: Mission Impossible’ American Journal of Small Business 9 IssueID1 1–11

    Google Scholar 

  • D. W. Hosmer S. Lemeshow (2000) Applied Logistic Regression John Wiley & Sons New York

    Google Scholar 

  • B. A. Kirchhoff (1994) Entrepreneurship and Dynamic Capitalism Praeger Westport

    Google Scholar 

  • S. Klepper E. Graddy (1990) ArticleTitle‘The Evolution of New Industries and the Determinants of Market Structure’ RAND Journal of Economics 21 27–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Klofsten, M., 1992, Tidiga utvecklingsprocesser i teknikbaserade företag. Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Management and Economics. Linköping, Linköping University.

  • Lindmark, S., 2002, Evolution of Techno-Economic Systems. Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Industrial Management and Economics. Göteborg, Chalmers University of Technology. 129

  • A. Lockett G Murray M. Wright (2002) ArticleTitle‘Do U.K. Venture Capitalists Still Have Bias against Investment in New Technology Firms’ Research Policy 31 1009–1030 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0048-7333(01)00174-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • G. C. Murray J. Lott (1995) ArticleTitle‘Have U.K. Venture Capitalists a Bias against Investment in New Technology- Based Firms?’ Research Policy 24 283–299 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0048-7333(93)00767-N

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • R. R. Nelson (1994) ArticleTitle‘The Co-Evolution of Technology, Industrial Structure and Supporting Institutions’ Industrial and Corporate Change 3 IssueID1 47–63 Occurrence Handle1:STN:280:ByqC283osFU%3D

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • R. Oakey (1994) New Technology-Based Firms in the 1990s Paul Chapman Publishing Company London

    Google Scholar 

  • R. P. Oakey S. Y. Cooper (1991) ArticleTitle‘The Relationship between Product Technology and Innovation Performance in High Technology Small Firms’ Technovation 11 IssueID2 79–92 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0166-4972(91)90039-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • E. T. Penrose (1959) The Theory of the Growth of the Firm Basil Blackwell Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Rickne, A., 2000, New Technology-Based Firms and Industrial Dynamics. Ph.D. Thesis, Industrial Dynamics. Göteborg, Chalmers University of Technology.

  • A. Rickne S. Jacobsson (1999) ArticleTitle‘New Technology-Based Firms in Sweden: A Study of Their Direct Impact on Industrial Renewal’ Economics of Innovation and New Technology 8 197–223

    Google Scholar 

  • E. B. Roberts (1991) Entrepreneurs in High Technology: Lessons from MIT and Beyond Oxford University Press New York

    Google Scholar 

  • G. L. S. Shackle (1955) Uncertainty in Economics and Other Reflections Cambridge University Press Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • S. Shane (2000) ArticleTitle‘Prior Knowledge and the Discovery of Entrepreneurial Opportunities’ Organization Science 11 IssueID4 448–469 Occurrence Handle10.1287/orsc.11.4.448.14602

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • P. Westhead D. J. Storey (1997) ArticleTitle‘Financial Constraints on the Growth of High Technology Small Firms in the United Kingdom’ Applied Financial Economics 7 197–201 Occurrence Handle10.1080/096031097333763

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rögnvaldur Saemundsson.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Saemundsson, R., Dahlstrand, Å.L. How Business Opportunities Constrain Young Technology-Based Firms from Growing into Medium-Sized Firms. Small Bus Econ 24, 113–129 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-003-3803-6

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-003-3803-6

Keywords

Navigation