موفقیت توسعه محصول از طریق همکاری : مطالعه شرکت های کارآفرینی

In this paper we examine the moderating affect of age on the relationship between cooperation and new product success for entrepreneurial firms in the high technology region in and round Jena in the former East Germany. Cooperative strategy has already been shown in a variety of research settings to be an important strategic alternative for entrepreneurial firms to support growth strategies. We develop hypotheses that such cooperative relationships will also lead to higher new product development success; however, the type of successful cooperation will vary with the age of the start-up firm. Younger firms are shown to be more successful when they cooperate with other firms, while older firms will profit more from cooperation with research institutions. This study adds to a growing literature on the importance of cooperative strategy for entrepreneurial firms.

The factors influencing the survival, performance, and development of high-technology entrepreneurial firms has been an important research theme in both the United States and Europe over the last twenty years (Bygrave and Hofer, 1991, Gartner, 1985, Shane and Venkataraman, 2000 and Venkataraman, 1997). Some of the important characteristics of entrepreneurial firms are the lack of internal resources, and other handicaps, that have been described in the literature as the ‘liability of newness’ (Stinchcombe, 1965) and the ‘liability of smallness’ (Baum, 1996). These liabilities are particularly acute for high-technology firms attempting to enter industries that are dominated by large incumbents One way for high-technology entrepreneurial firms to overcome these liabilities is to develop partnerships and cooperative strategies. Growth and firm performance from internal resources alone is difficult for most entrepreneurial firms. An important alternative is the use of external networks as an alternative model of organization (Richardson, 1972). In fact, a variety of empirical research has shown that networking can improve growth and success in such firms (Chell and Baines, 2000, Huggins, 2000, Jarillo, 1988 and Jarillo, 1989). The research of Lechner and Dowling, 2000 and Lechner and Dowling, 2003 has shown the importance of networking for start-up companies in high-tech industries. Their studies were based on empirical analyses of the growth and development of the bio-technology region in the 1990s in the suburb of Martinsried/Munich, Germany, and the development of the cluster of computer firms in Munich in the 1980s and 1990s. In particular, this research showed how entrepreneurial firms use a different relational mix at different development stages, leading to the development of a richer theoretical framework of entrepreneurial firm growth. The research reported here examines a related but different measure of firm success: the ability to generate marketable new products. Data is gathered and analyzed from the cluster of high technology entrepreneurial firms in the region in and around Jena, in the former East Germany. Jena has developed into one of the most successful high technology clusters in the former East German states.

This study adds to the growing literature on the importance of cooperative relationships for the success of entrepreneurial firms in regional networks. Whereas earlier research has shown that cooperative strategies can lead to faster growth, in this study we focused on the use of such strategies to improve the success rate of product ideas, i.e. the relationship between the total number of product ideas and the number of successful new products of a firm. We developed theoretical arguments from the literature suggesting that new firms can cooperate most effectively with other firms in order to improve the chance of success for new products. New firms are founded because they had some good ideas for new and really innovative products and many times there is a lack of management and marketing capabilities. During the early years of the firm's development, cooperative relationships with other companies, especially when the products of the partners are complementary, increase the chances of market success. Through cooperation with other firms they are able learn from the partners, and also take advantage of their partners reputation and customer relationships. These bilateral learning effects are found in earlier research to be a precondition for stable cooperative relationships (Cavusgil and Zou, 1994 and Makino and Delios, 1996). Older firms are more likely to cooperate with research institutions rather than other firms because these kinds of relationships are more important for long term success. Older firms have already developed market experience and they can use research cooperative relationships with research institutions in order to gain access to new technologies which they then can form to new products with their own development capabilities and their own market knowledge. As we know from previous research, successful firms need a mixture of radical and incremental innovations (Butler et al., 1996 and Calantone et al., 1994). Older firms will tend to have already built a reputation on initial innovative ideas and to further develop they seek additional innovative inputs. Cooperative relationships with research institutions should increase the probability of getting this input. In summary, we conclude that it is an important strategic option for high technology entrepreneurial firms to cooperate with others in order to be more successful in bringing new products to market. As the firms develop, the strategic focus of cooperative relationships should shift from relationships with other firms to relationships with research institutions. This study suggests to the managers of start-up firms in high tech regions that they should develop the capabilities to create and develop cooperative relationships early on in their firm's life cycle.