Cardiff University | Prifysgol Caerdydd ORCA
Online Research @ Cardiff 
WelshClear Cookie - decide language by browser settings

Evaluating innovation investment outcomes of government venture funding: a longitudinal, multi-level, multi-source analysis of small firms in the U.S.

Scedrova, Ana 2016. Evaluating innovation investment outcomes of government venture funding: a longitudinal, multi-level, multi-source analysis of small firms in the U.S. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.
Item availability restricted.

[thumbnail of PhD Thesis]
Preview
PDF (PhD Thesis) - Accepted Post-Print Version
Download (11MB) | Preview
[thumbnail of Publication form] PDF (Publication form) - Supplemental Material
Restricted to Repository staff only

Download (362kB)

Abstract

The study examines the role of government venture funding in facilitating entrepreneurship and innovation. In particular, the study integrates financial and behavioural perspectives in a unified framework to analyse the determinants and outcomes of innovation investments designed to help small firms commercialise their research and development activities. On the one hand, it draws upon real options reasoning theory to understand the effects of various resource allocation strategies on investment yield and firm performance. On the other hand, it uses signalling theory and the attention- based view to examine which individual-, project- and firm-level characteristics affect early- and late- stage funding allocation decisions, and whether these signals are also accurate predictors of investment yield and firm performance. To investigate government investment patterns, 367 projects from 275 firms that participated in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programme administered by the National Health Institute in the U.S. were analysed over a seven-year period from 2006 to 2012 using a combination of statistical and econometric techniques. First, the study finds that the formal real options reasoning (ROR) structure evident in the composition and execution of the government venture funding programme is only intuitively underpinned by the real options logic of decision-making. The results reveal that high initial funding commitment and continuation of government venture funding have a diminishing effect on return on investment, whereas consistent matching of funding decisions in line with ROR allows to extract value from staged investments. Second, drawing on signalling theory and attention-based view helps uncover discrepancies between prescribed and actual investment behaviour. Third, to benefit from options-like investments, firms require different combinations of skills and capabilities depending on their experience and the target performance outcome. In sum, the study adds to the empirical body of literature analysing the tension between economic logic of efficient resource allocation and behavioural and cognitive effects on rational sense- making. The analysis delineates boundary conditions of real options reasoning in the context of government venture funding, which provides important implications for strategic management theory and research policy.

Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
Date Type: Completion
Status: Unpublished
Schools: Business (Including Economics)
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 22 February 2017
Last Modified: 08 Jul 2021 11:08
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/98469

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item Edit Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics