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April sbr 2007

Nonlinear Effects In Brand Choice Models: Comparing Heterogenous Latent Class To Homogenous Nonlinear Models
Marion Schindler/Bernhard Baumgartner/Harald Hruschka

We investigate whether the latent class multinomial logit choice model with segmentspecific linear utility functions implies effects that are similar to those of parametric homogeneous nonlinear models given that this latent class model performs at least as well. The two nonlinear models have higher-order polynomial (i.e. quadratic and cubic) and piecewise linear utility functions, respectively. Piecewise linear functions are represented by linear splines and can reproduce threshold, saturation and asymmetric effects. We evaluate models and their variants using a tenfold cross-validation. As criterion we use the geometric mean of choice probabilities across all purchases for the brand actually chosen. We measure the similarity of effects between two models by the absolute differences of choice probabilities implied by these models for varying values of a predictor. Logits of choice probabilities provide a more detailed insight into the effects implied by models. For the data set we analyze, the latent class model with linear utility is clearly superior to the two homogeneous nonlinear models. Overall, the effects implied by the latent class models are similar to those of the two parametric nonlinear models.
pp. 118 - 137

Management Support and the Performance of Entrepreneurial Start-ups – An Empirical Analysis of Newly Founded Companies in Germany
Stephan Stubner/Torsten Wulf/Harald Hungenberg

We analyze the relationship between management support offered by venture capital firms and the performance of entrepreneurial start-ups. based on the reasoning of the resource-based view, we use a sample of 106 german start-up companies to derive and empirically test several hypotheses. our results show that the quality of management support offered by venture capital firms has an impact on start-up performance. However, we cannot find clear moderating effects of founder team and company-specific variables. We discuss and interpret these results and their implications for practice.
pp. 138 - 159

An Empirical Study of Reward and Incentive Systems in German Entrepreneurial firms
Frank Bau/Michael Dowling

In this paper we present the results of a study analyzing the impact of an entrepreneurial company’s initial organization on the structure of its reward and incentive systems, using data from entrepreneurial firms in Germany. the results suggest that the educational level of employees has the strongest impact on the application of different financial and nonfinancial rewards. Our findings also suggest that entrepreneurial companies in Germany rarely implement sophisticated financial reward systems.
pp. 160 - 175

What is "Business Development"? The Case of Biotechnology
Sonja Kind/Dodo zu Knyphausen-Aufseß

"Business development" (BD) is an often used, but not well defined, term in the business world. Taking a strategy-as-practice perspective as a background, we explore the daily activities of BD in the German biotechnology industry. We show how BD tasks are defined and how they are fulfilled, what resources are used for this function and how it is organized. We compare our results with insights from the strategic management literature and show that business development is an example of what a modern type of planning might look like, but that it may be misleading to see the BD function in biotech firms in the same way as the dynamic capability the literature assumes. By doing this analysis, we contribute to an understanding of how entrepreneurial biotechnology ventures operate, and how they do their "strategizing" and "organizing" work.
pp. 176 - 198