This article applies the lens of the knowledge exploration/exploitation dilemma to the renewal of Celltech Plc. From a theoretical perspective it has often been argued that as a firm matures, exploitation of current organizational knowledge drives out exploration of new ideas, and that this increases the likelihood of firm failure. This same literature gives few clues as to how balance can be maintained, or decline reversed. Our case study documents the decline of Celltech, its rejuvenation from near bankruptcy in 1990, and its subsequent ability to prosper to become the eighth largest biotech firm in the EU in terms of market capitalization. Through the Celltech case we show empirically that renewal based on exploration is possible even in a firm where exploitation has come to dominate. This case also illustrates how a balance between exploration and exploitation can be maintained for over half a decade, despite the theoretical tendency stated in the literature for exploitation to dominate. We offer insights into the process of maintaining a balance, including reorganization to release internal diversity to stimulate exploration, creation of a common language, and building systems to institutionalize the maintenance of a balance between exploration and exploitation.

a b s t r a c tOur study investigates the outbound open innovation of firms engaged in technological venturing. Leveraging insights from the sociology theory and innovation literatures, we clarify whether social status helps entrepreneurial ventures overcome market imperfection and information asymmetry in outlicensing and illustrate the importance of specific aspects of social status building in this context. We also examine the effect of failure experiences on out-licensing. We take a dynamic view of desorptive capacity by studying an entrepreneurial venture's learning process, both internally, in terms of its own technology trajectory, and externally, through inter-organizational alliances. We apply a negative binomial model to our novel panel of 180 firms studied over an 18-year period with controls for stocks of clinical development activities, patenting and prior licensing activities. Empirical analysis enables us to observe the impact which the firms' technological and development status, reputation and desorptive capacity exert upon out-licensing volume. Prior outbound open innovation studies do not account for the heterogeneity of technology and R&D success and failure experiences observed in our study. We also demonstrate the contingency effect of external learning from alliances during the building-up of a firm's desorptive capacity, or the way in which the number of co-authoring partners in scientific publications negatively moderates the positive effect of the number of commercial alliances on the volume of its outlicensing deals. Our findings contribute to the understanding of external knowledge exploitation and complement important aspects of the literatures on outbound open innovation and desorptive capacity, offering empirically rich insights for bio-pharmaceutical firms into the drivers behind volumes of outlicensing deals.Crown

This article integrates the business model concept with an understanding of industry recipes to show how competing business models can co-exist in a competitive market. Drawing on data from the English Premier League, we show that alternative models -based on the acquisition of talent on one dimension and the internal development of shared team experience on the other -lead to differing value creation and value capture outcomes. Drawing on the time series nature of our data, we also show that transitioning between business models can involve a decline in performance (which may be temporary), and draw some implications for managers faced with the challenge of changing their business models.Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. IntroductionThe central strategy problem for managers is relatively simple: how to formulate and implement strategies that create value for customers and capture profits for the firm. There are a multitude of possible resource and capability configurations a firm can choose to create value, but also many uncertainties that can prevent them from converting these configurations into products that create value for customers and thus profits for the firm. Industry recipes and business models are complementary concepts that can assist managers in understanding the range of resource and capability configurations and uncertainties they face in selecting a strategy with a realistic probability of generating value for customers and capturing profits for their firm.The essence of an industry recipe, as espoused by Spender, is as "the shared knowledge base that those socialized into an industry take as familiar professional common sense" which can be used as aids in the management of strategic uncertainties (Spender, 1989: 63). A challenge in researching industry recipes is that the process by which an industry recipe is identified and the links between resource configuration options, value creation for customers and value capture for the firm is not only particular to the industry and firm, but also must be measured qualitatively to account for the unique perspectives of both managers and the industry. While in their broadest form recipes are shared, taken for granted understandings of the industry, in practice they are overlaid by the specific assumptions and practices of individual decision makers and firm contexts, thus moving the focus from general guidelines towards the challenge noted above. Teece (2010) notes that one of the key contributions of the business model approach is that it offers clear guidance as to "how a firm delivers value to customers and converts payment into profit" a point captured by Baden-Fuller and Morgan's (2010) business models definitions table in their overview of the contributions to this journal's Business Models Special Issue. In this article we outline the essential recipe that applies to English Premiership Football industry -which we term a 'talent-based recipe' -and use the business model approach to define four business model types based on two value creat...

We examine the resource mobilization efforts undertaken by a social venture to organize the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games and bring about a change in social attitudes towards the cause of learning and intellectual disabilities. In contrast to previously advanced views of social ventures as powerless actors, we find instead that they are able to leverage the visibility afforded by large-scale events to create positions of mutual dependence, which allow them to access broad support bases and assert themselves in relationships with external parties. Specifically, we find that resource mobilization involves six distinct tactics rooted in the softer forms of power, namely, attraction and inducement. The use of these soft-power tactics depends upon the social venture's goal at different moments of the relationship with its partners and the level of support available from each external party. Our elaborated theory highlights both the role and limitations of soft power in mobilizing resources and managing relationships.

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