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Research Article The success of new ventures can hinge on obtaining venture capital (VC) funding. Virtually every successful IT venture has depended on VC funding early in its history. However, obtaining venture capital is difficult. Unlike earlier studies on VC funding that consider new ventures to be homogeneous, this study seeks to identify factors that VCs consider when they make funding decisions for IT ventures. Building on prior research in the area of agency and business risk, we develop a theoretical model that draws on work in finance and entrepreneurship. The model suggests that VCs consider two types of risk: business risk and agency risk. The relative importance of these two types of risk may be different across industries. We test this model using data from 139 business plans for IT startups that were considered for funding by VCs. Traditional structural equation modeling (SEM) does not accommodate non-normal data or dichotomous outcome variables. Using the Robust Weighted Least Squares approach, we test our model with non-normal data and dichotomous outcomes. In addition, we use Tetrad analysis to check model fit against alternative models, floor and ceiling analysis to test sample frame validity, relative effect size comparison to test relative elasticity of effects, and a Monte Carlo estimation approach to test overall model power and power of individual paths. We find that business risk is an important factor in startup funding for IT ventures. We do not find agency risk to be an important consideration in start-up funding for IT ventures.

1 This study examines why firms fail or survive in the volatile software industry. We provide a novel perspective by considering how software firms ’ capabilities and their competitive actions affect their ultimate survival. Drawing on the resource based view (RBV) we conceptualize capabilities as a firm’s ability to efficiently transform input resources into outputs, relative to its peers. We define three critical capabilities of software producing firms: Research and Development (RD), Marketing (MK) and

This paper has not undergone formal review or approval of the faculty of the ILR School. It is intended to make results of Center research available to others interested in preliminary form to encourage discussion and suggestions. Page 2In The Trenches At The Talent Wars CAHRS WP03-05 In this study, I attempted to extend strategic human resource management theory by developing and testing a model of inter-firm competition for human resources. Using the phenomenon of talent raiding as a vehicle to test the model, I examined how degree of threat and firm capability affected firms ’ propensities to respond to rivals ’ actions. Results suggest that attributes of the raiding firm, attributes of the raided human capital, and attributes of the target firm were associated with target firms ’ propensity to defend or retaliate in response to a successful talent raid. The findings have implications for a tactical theory of human resource management and the origins of intra-firm differences in human resource systems.

Acknowledgement: The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding provided by

Management Institute at the University of Western Ontario. We would like to thank Connie

Little is known about how companies compete during market meltdowns-- a period of significant decline in economic activity spread across companies competing in an identifiable market, lasting more than 11 months, normally visible in stock price indices, sales, employment, and asset disposal. The objective of this thesis is to develop and test a model that relates competitive aggressiveness and company performance during market meltdowns and explains how top management heterogeneity, liquidity, and past performance affect company aggressiveness. A set of seven hypotheses is tested using 71 action years drawn from 36 suppliers of telecommunications equipment during 2001-2003. Company performance is measured in three ways: sales per employee, change in sales, and return on assets. The results show that action diversity is the only dimension of competitive aggressiveness that affects all three measures of company performance. The greater action diversity, the lower company performance. This thesis also provides a method to examine the antecedents and consequences of competitive aggressiveness using

impact of new product launch strategies

We examine the timing of foreign market entry by extending neoinstitutional theory's predictions about imitative influences on market entry rates, to include elements of a firm's competitive environment. Our focal construct is a bunched entry, which we define as a foreign market entry made as a timely response to a rival's entry. We find that the likelihood of a bunched entry is influenced by the density of prior entry activity of other home country firms and by industry rivals. Bunched entry is also influenced by conditions in the home country in terms of seller concentration in a firm's industry, and the characteristics of the entering firm and the preceding entrant. These findings, which are based on 18 years of data collected for 2,572 foreign market entries of 608 Japanese firms in 64 countries, support the idea that home rivalry is an important aspect of international strategy. Foreign market entry is a strategic action that has important consequences for the international competitiveness and profitability of a firm. It also has consequences and ramifications for the competitive position of a firm compared to its home country rivals. Although early depictions of foreign investment considered rivalry and competition to be important drivers of a firm's foreign investment decisions (Flowers, 1976; Hymer, 1976; Knickerbocker, 1973), competitive considerations have given way to examination of foreign entry as a response to market failure,