One of the institutions in which the gender gap remains a contestable issue is the board of directors, where the proportion of female directors is still low. While some countries have achieved higher proportions of female directors on their corporate boards, others have not registered even a single one. Drawing on social role theory, that places emphasis on traditional gender activities, this study starts by arguing that board directorship is an agentic role and more suitable for men. The study shows that key social institutions have the potential to alleviate such stereotypical attitudes or to maintain the status quo. Employing a robust statistical technique in two-stage least squares (2SLS), this study finds that the representation of women in other key national institutions, such as in politics, positively affects the appointment of female directors on boards. On the other hand, religiosity has a negative causal effect on female board appointments.

This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. 1 Permanent repository link Network Embeddedness and New Product Development in the Biopharmaceutical

The proliferation of new sources of entrepreneurial finance potentially makes it easier for ventures to raise capital and grow. To date, entrepreneurial finance literature has developed a rich tradition of research on venture capital and angel finance. However, the emergence of "new" sources of finance, such as crowdfunding and the limited attention paid to "traditional" debt financing and financial bootstrapping, offers opportunities to explore, from different points of view and theoretical perspectives, the challenges that ventures face. The objective of this Special Issue is to explore these new and traditional sources of finance and suggest how these phenomena can extend entrepreneurial finance literature and guide new theory building. This paper outlines the new sources of entrepreneurial finance, and in comparing them with more traditional sources, we propose theoretical and empirical challenges that these new and traditional sources present to entrepreneurship scholars. We also provide a brief summary of papers in the Special Issue and outline promising avenues for future research.

a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f oThis paper explores the interaction between a prominent board of directors and the network of inter-firm relationships on new product development. Specifically, we posit a positive interaction effect between a prominent board and the inter-firm network and structural holes positions on the number of new products developed by the firm. We test the theoretical framework on a sample of 1758 agreements among 1890 biopharmaceutical firms over the period 2006-2010. We find that by filtering, complementing and legitimizing information coming from the inter-firm network, a prominent interlocking directorate network can improve the inter-firm network's effects on new product development. We discuss important implications for how inter-personal networks (such as the board interlock directorate network) help to develop the effectiveness of inter-firm relationship networks in achieving new product development outcomes.

This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link AbstractThis paper provides a comprehensive theoretical and empirical literature review of venture capital contracts. The paper outlines differences between theoretical and practical uses of contract designs, that is, (1) how does the choice of securities give rise to different adverse selection problems in terms of attracting different types of entrepreneurial companies; How does the choice of securities in conjunction with cash flow and control rights provisions affect (2) the effort levels by the entrepreneur and the investor; and (3) ultimately affect entrepreneurial outcomes. The paper highlights the major discrepancies between theory and practice and points out potential avenues for further research.3

Citation: Bellavitis, C., Filatotchev, I. and Kamuriwo, D. S. (2014). The effects of intraindustry and extra-industry networks on performance: A case of venture capital portfolio firms. Managerial and Decision Economics, 35(2), pp. 129-144. doi: 10.1002/mde.2647 This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. However, interaction effects show that once a firm establishes a sufficient number of extra-industry ties, it is able to profit from the network in its industry of operation. PermanentOverall, these findings show that an optimal balance of ties is achieved through a diverse set of connections incorporating both intra-and extra-industry ties.

Compared to large established firms, technology-based new firms (TBNF) seem well placed to produce breakthrough innovations although questions remain as to their adeptness at subsequent exploitation. Building on the innovation and strategy literatures, the study identifies two different knowledge-development approaches or modes (business models) in TBNFs-internal versus external-and examines their relation to breakthrough innovation and subsequent progression of the product to market. The internal mode assembles knowledge inside the firm to generate its innovations, whereas the external mode relies heavily on alliances to develop and assemble knowledge among firms embedded in a creative network. The study uses a unique panel dataset of 69 UK new biotechnology firms over an 11-year period to explore this issue empirically. The findings show that the external knowledge-development mode is associated with more breakthrough innovations and a faster movement of innovations to market. The externally focused mode is not impeded by its relative lack of internal knowledge; it uses partners to access, assemble, and develop a wide scope of knowledge in a flexible manner. In addition, partners provide deep domain expertise to undertake the requisite deep-dives. In contrast, the internal mode has the huge challenge of assembling knowledge resources internally and suffers from a quicker onset of path dependence that impedes the generation of breakthroughs. This study provides a choice of business models (internal or external) that is associated with different breakthrough and speed to market performance outcomes. Going forward, policy makers and managers seeking breakthrough innovations, and speedy progression of the innovations to market should consider the potential resource efficiency of the external mode and the vital role played by collaborations-small firm versus large firm and private versus public entities.

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