M13 - New Firms; StartupsReturn

Small firms are faced with the challenges of competing with larger firms. This has given birth to utilising different strategies to enhance the small firms’ capacity to achieve their corporate goals. This study examines the nature of coopetition among small firms and how it has influenced their ability to create value. Employing the survey research design, the study sampled 1119 small firms and established the interaction between coopetition and value creation in small firms using the partial least square-structural equation model. The results reveal entrepreneurial orientation is the most prevalent type of coopetition among small firms and that coopetition is a significant driver of value creation among small firms. The study recommends that small firms should integrate coopetition into their strategy to remain relevant, increase their revenue, customise their services through value-added services and create new products and services.

In the context of business performance assessment, current research often focuses on evaluating effects of innovation projects with start-ups. Subsumed as corporate venturing (CV), investigating the impact of these projects is becoming increasingly important. Thus, the number of studies on the ex-post value of corporate venturing projects (CVP) has steadily increased over the last years. In contrast, this research attempts to cover the evaluation of CVP in the period between from the contract conclusion to termination. By conducting interviews, this research primarily aims at identifying indicators applied for evaluating CVP performance during the cooperation of subjects in the automotive industry. The results obtained show that evaluation is mostly based on subjective criteria and that no formal indicators are implemented to manage CVP during the collaboration phase. This research contributes to literature by revealing practically applied CVP performance indicators during the collaboration phase and by discussing their weaknesses.