Objectives for the theoretical framework development

This exploratory field-work started with a study on the technology entrepreneurship following a process perspective, from this point, the subsequent research questions were explored providing a more general perspective of how technology entrepreneurship unfolds and the linkages between resources and actions. The analyses and results presented offer evidences and insights on some of the potential sources of variance and complexity that the technological component introduces in the entrepreneurship process.

In this sense, the different field studies have helped to better understand how technological ideas are transformed into opportunities, how different individual cognitive traits could impact on the opportunity development, as well as how entrepreneurs used resources as symbolic elements, regardless of their direct, short term, functionality or value.

This qualitative exploratory work provides valuable insights to engage in an extension of the initial theoretical framework, with the intention to bring theories and perspectives that can help to better understand the technology entrepreneurship phenomenon.

In line with the mixed method approach (Venkatesh et al. 2013) the exploratory qualitative field-work provides the insights to define the objectives to extend the initial theoretical framework, and build the hypotheses for the confirmatory quantitative section. The objectives are the following:

a) Find theoretical concepts that fit with the observation that the technology entrepreneurship process requires a lengthy process of development; capturing the changes in the evolution of the new technology-based firm (NTBF) and the frequent setbacks in its development (Miralles & Giones 2011; Giones et al. 2013).

b) Assess whether the Resource-based View (RBV) can provide a complete explanation of the evidences and cases observed in the qualitative field work. In particular, on the value of resources like individual's experience in entrepreneurship or knowledge on the market (Giones & Miralles 2013).

c) Establish the linkages and complementarities between the RBV and other theories that could help to theorize from the findings of the exploratory work, for example the

function as quality signals of some of the entrepreneurs actions or resources (Giones &

Miralles 2015).

d) Identify theories or theoretical perspectives that could help to understand the impact of entrepreneurs’ actions, regardless of their initial resource configurations, and their influence on the opportunity exploitation (or market performance). The objective is to have a reference theoretical framework to explain that some of the initial resources that influence on the opportunity identification, might not be enough to explain the opportunity exploitation and the further development of the entrepreneurship process (Giones et al. 2013; Giones & Miralles 2015).

In order to deal with the proposed research opportunities, a further revision of the literature has been conducted with the intention to support an extended theoretical framework that captures the qualitative insights and allows to further develop them into a testable set of hypotheses.

6. Extended theoretical framework and hypothesis development for venture emergence in technology entrepreneurship.

This section has a central position in the thesis workflow, it links the initial exploratory work results with the quantitative study (see Figure 6). The results of the exploratory work point towards different opportunities to extend our understanding on the differential elements of technology-based entrepreneurship. In the exploratory work we have found evidences on the complex process of enacting and exploiting opportunities in technology entrepreneurship. In addition, it has also been observed that the process of technology entrepreneurship is highly dependent on both the resources and actions taken by the entrepreneurs and their context.

Figure 6. Detail on the section position in the thesis workflow

Thus, the insights gathered in the exploratory work guide the definition of the objectives for the theoretical framework extension, the table below provides a conceptual linkage between the two parts (see Table 11).

Table 11. From exploratory work to theoretical framework development

Objectives from exploratory work Theoretical framework development a) Need for a theoretical concept to describe the

organizational development of the new firm in the long and complex development process of technology entrepreneurship.

Introduce venture emergence as a theoretical perspective to describe the changes in the development of the new technology-based firm.

b) Explore whether established theories such as the RBV can provide an explanation for the factors observed to influence in the technology entrepreneurship process

Review prior research using RBV in similar context, and explore whether individual level theories such as human capital can also provide support for the hypotheses development.

c) Explore theoretical linkages between resource-based theories and other theoretical perspectives on the influence of resources in hands of the firms or the entrepreneur.

Building on RBV, aim to extend this perspective

Assess whether complementary views to the RBV, could actually offer further understanding on the market creation efforts (such as marketing or demand-side perspectives) could further support the hypotheses development.

Therefore, this section starts with a detailed introduction of the venture emergence concept and a review of the prior literature on this concept. Then, different options to extend the existent theoretical framework are proposed. Starting with a description of the insights from the resource-based view on the influence of human capital. It follows with a description of possible factors related to technology resources value and technology commercialization.

Finally, using a market creation perspective, that combines marketing theory and demand-side view, additional factors are introduced. This section concludes with a presentation of the complete theoretical framework, including the hypotheses that are brought to the quantitative analysis.