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Hello I wanted to give a general overview of some of the entrepreneurship research I've been working on
and this overview is meant for a general audience so I have in mind prospective Ph.D. applicants
and and just kind of explain things in
a more general terms
so overall i been working on the influence of the broader environment on
entrepreneurship
so there's been a lot of talk recently especially in silicon valley about the
business model
and how you need to know about the value proposition customer segments you're
talking about
key activities and key partners
and so one way to think about the research that i've been working on his
own been trying to
looked a bit that the
arm
broader environment and how that impacts the optimal type of business model and
to accounting team
so this could include the institutions universities
social norms
or could also include the industry or the market stage
as well as things like social movements are stakeholders
and how these external environmental influences shape
the search for a business model
So in looking at this broader environment
i'm looking at things that range from the formal to the informal
so under the formal category we're talking about things like policies
informal category were talking about things more like culture and social
norms
the internet in between these two categories of also been looking at how
the industry context
shapes entrepreneurship
so these things obviously all have influences on one another as well
and so there's a complex interplay here around trying to take
sort of one piece of this at a time and i understand it
one thing i've been looking at is environment mental influences on what
type of business model you might get
and how this works so one aspect is attracting talent to opt for russia
through series of papers here
where i look at how the policy environment can actually shape
the characteristics of those who choose to become much printers
and so it shows through a series of papers both in the
chinese context the japanese contacts and also in the u_s_
how certain policies either at the national of all over at the university
level
can actually encourage more of the best and brightest to become entrepreneurs
plus a look at how the broader environmental influences business models
that are more based on innovation and technology
rather than business models that are more low-tech or small business
secure got some work with pc students including general reno's sanjay and
really
that look at the role of home
government institutions such as science parks and public funding for university
are indeed
as well as a study of the US context that looks at MIT in
particular
and finally hear also down a bit of work looking at business models that are
based on a new technology verses business models that are more based on
relationships
and it turns out the broader institutional environment can play a
role in this as we move from
more centrally planned in controlled economies
do more free-market institutions you see a corresponding change in business models
in start-ups that are based more on relationships or other government
connection
to business models that are more based on a nation in the new technology and
competing in the market
also looked at how the environment influences the optimal configuration of
the business model in a startup
so this might include influences on the optimal founding team
when things have looked at here is first time on turner's versus serial trainers
search has out there certain circumstances and environments where
first time on turner's actually do better
if it's a brand new market or there's been an industry disruptions such as the
dot com boom
then everyone's on a more local playing field and
first-time entrepreneurs out more of an advantage
however if the entrepreneurs in the same market
and uh... industry in the markets relatively stable technologies
relatively stable
them prior to your instead if it's you more and serial entrepreneurs have a greater
advantage
have also been looking at how the diverse skills or
technology focus of the founding team
can be optimal
and so here are using data from a set of MIT alumni in with co-authors that
Wharton and MIT we find that
the optimal founding team composition depends on the industry context
so if you're doing something high-tech or in an industry where you typically
partner with the existing incumbents
then it can be better to have more technically focus on the founding team where they
have all engineers
on the other hand if you're competing in the product market at with incumbents or
pursuing more of a low-tech ur imitator strategy
the new more diverse founding team that has
not only engineers but people who have expertise in sales and marketing or
in distribution partnerships
Finally, I look at innovation and we look at the context in which
having a business model that includes
good new technical ideas is complimentary to having individuals on
the founding team that also have experience in organisational
arrangements and partnerships that you need to bring innovation in the market
so we've been looking at these
complimentary relationships between the different aspects of the business model
in the literature
named final stream of work that i tom had been working on is the influence of
stakeholders in social movements on the business model
and so it could take your own been interested in how
stakeholders and social movements
can pressure continues in their business models to direct your attention to
innovation in completion clean energy
cleaning up the the environmental impact
and so is a stream of papers here showing that it is possible for the
stakeholders to put pressure on firms actually innovate more in the direction
of clean energy
and create business models that have less of a negative impact on the
environment
so for all the prior working or international
roughly had mainly focused on who becomes an entrepreneur looking for a
kind of a set of criteria and my work is showing that you can't find one single
set of criteria that it depends in part on
the broader environment in institutional environment that shapes
which characteristics of people become entrepreneurs
most of the literature had also been in a very well developed US or
European context and so i try to push that morning the direction of
developing markets an emerging economies like china
and looking at whether these types of economies have a different startup
process or what the role of that on changing institutional context it is
and then a lot of the previous work had also been correlational rather than
looking for causal factors and most of my work tends to use
natural experiments or
policy changes where we can try and get more at what they're causal
factors are here
and so again i've looked at the influence of the broader environmental
international can business models
and conclusion
i found that start-ups are influenced by the broader industry in policy
environment
or institutions can increase high-tech
high-growth
forms of startups
and that the business model search is shaped by the environment that surrounds the
entrepreneur in important ways that we can influence.