Knowledge Acquisition Strategies and Company Performance in Young High Technology Companies

Abstract

Research on knowledge strategies argues that the configuration of activities used by companies to acquire new and leverage existing knowledge is an important influencing factor of company performance. However, we do not know very much about how companies actually structure knowledge acquisition. In addition, we do not know which configurations of knowledge acquisition are conducive to company performance. Furthermore, knowledge strategies have largely been neglected in the context of young and entrepreneurial companies. Drawing on an explorative analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, we investigate strategies and activities for knowledge acquisition in the context of young biotechnology companies in Germany. The study reveals four distinct knowledge acquisition strategies (low key, mid range, focus and explorer) and shows that these strategies differ in their relation to company performance as a result of their configuration of knowledge acquisition activities and the type of knowledge acquired.

Distance to Customers, Absorptive Capacity, and Innovation in High‐Tech Firms: The Dark Face of Geographical Proximity

“…This idea was supported by the characteristics of the larger and younger key customers of our sample; innovation opportunities could be better accessed through relationships with innovative and highly active customers located far from the cluster. The diversity associated with distant contacts can be essential for innovative contexts such as the investigated cluster (Friesl ; Hendry, Brown, and De Fillippi 2000). This idea is very much in line with what specifically happens in our empirical setting, where high‐tech firms require primary exploration activities to capture new ideas and improvements beyond the exploitation of the elements/resources/products they already have.…”

“…For example, studying the case of firms based in Hong Kong, Wu (2008) empirically demonstrates that repeated transactions among partners promote knowledge exchange, leading to a positive impact on firm performance. The literature has emphasized the complementarities between external knowledge provided by customers or knowledge providers and a company's resources and capabilities (Friesl 2012;Tether and Tajar 2008).…”

Toward a Differentiated Understanding of the Value‐Creation Chain

“…Configuration theory has a long history in the study of organizations (Ketchen and Shook, 1996) and is frequently applied in marketing and management research (Ambrosini et al, 2011;Bowman and Ambrosini, 2003;Friesl, 2012;Hughes, Hughes and Morgan, 2007). The theory supports the study of complex organizational phenomena through the investigation of coherent, holistic patterns of multiple variables rather than through selected variables and their bivariate relationships.…”

Entrepreneurial Orientation and External Technology Acquisition: An Empirical Test on Performance of Technology-Based New Ventures

“…Although technology-based new ventures tend to become pioneers in introducing new product or technology to the market, a firm's internal R & D often requires not only hefty resource and capability development investments, but also with high uncertain outcomes (Zahra 1996;Friesl 2012). Therefore, external technology acquisition, including purchasing technology/ patents, licensing and technology-based alliances, is often an advantageous strategy for TBNVs as a way to increase their technological knowledge (Cohen, Levinthal 1990;Buckley, Park 2014) and strengthen their technological capabilities (Jones et al 2000;Lichtenthaler 2010) with minimum uncertainty.…”