Study on leadership and innovation: clues for success in technology-related startups
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Published
10-12-2020
Alberto Abadía
Abstract
This article tests different theories, as proposed by the author (Abadia 2016) and by reputed researchers such as Porter (1985), Christensen (1997) and Tellis (2006), on why some technology-related startups are successful in fast-changing environments, while well-established firms are not. To this end, the author conducted (i) four different database statistical analyses – data aggregation, segmentation, time comparison, and linear regression/correlation – on the financial statements of a large sample population of technology-related startups, in two countries, the United States of America (USA) and Spain, and (ii) nine cases studies of particularly successful technology-related startups in four countries, the USA, Spain, China and Japan. The combination of the statistical and case studies concludes that (1) visionary leadership is a necessary condition for ‘disruptive success’, (2) disruptive or, at least, revolutionary innovation is a necessary condition for disruptive success, (3) location in specialized clusters is a critical factor in determining the rate and level of success of technology-related firms. On the other hand, the study concluded that entrepreneurs and executives should seek and exploit these three competitive elements in the stages of introduction and growth. However, in the case of the maturity stage, the emphasis should be directed towards other elements that are less elitist and volatile.
How to Cite
Abadía, A. (2020). Study on leadership and innovation: clues for success in technology-related startups. Cuadernos De Gestión, 21(2), 109–118. https://doi.org/10.5295/cdg.191140aa
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Keywords
entrepreneurship, disruptive innovation, technology-related startup, visionary leadership, clustering, corporate strategy
References
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Bureau Van Dijk, 2019. Business data - Spain & Portugal - Sabi | Bureau van Dijk. Available at: https://www.bvdinfo.com/en-us/our-prod- ucts/data/national/sabi (Accessed: 26 January 2019).
Christensen, C. M., 1997. The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Tech-nologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
Christensen, C. M. y Bower, J. L., 1995. Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave, Harvard Business Review, January-February, 43-53.
CNMV, 2019. CNMV - Estadísticas de emisores y cotizadas, Publicaciones CNMV. Available at: https://www.cnmv.es/Portal/Publicaciones/estadisticas-emisores.aspx (Accessed: 4 February 2019).
Danneels, E., 2004. Disruptive technology reconsidered: A critique and research agenda. Journal of product innovation management, 21(4), 246-258.
European Commission, 2019. What is an SME?, European Commis- sion Official Website. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/enter- prise/policies/sme/facts-figures-analysis/sme-definition/index_ en.htm (Accessed: 6 June 2015).
FTSE Russel, 2019. Mergent Online - About Mergent Online, Mer- gent Online. Available at: https://www.mergentonline.com/noti- cescm.php?pagetype=about (Accessed: 29 January 2019).
Govindarajan, V. y Kopalle, P. K., 2006. Disruptiveness of innova- tions: measurement and an assessment of reliability and validity. Strategic Management Journal, 27(2), 189-199.
Gustafsson, J., 2017. Single case studies vs. multiple case studies: A comparative study. Available at: http://www.diva-portal.org/ smash/get/diva2:1064378/FULLTEXT01.pdf (Accessed: 17 Feb- ruary 2020).
Hayes, A., 2016. Facebook’s Most Important Acquisitions, Investo- pedia.com. Available at: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/ investing/021115/facebooks-most-important-acquisitions.asp (Accessed: 20 May 2016).
Hoeffding, W. y Robbins, H., 1948. The central limit theorem for depen- dent random variables. Duke Math. J., 15(3), 773-780. https://doi.org/10.1215/ S0012-7094-48-01568-3.
Instituto de Estadística de la Comunidad de Madrid, 2018. Mortalidad y esperanza de vida de las empresas. Madrid. Available at: http://www. madrid.org/iestadis/fijas/efemerides/descarga/evempresa18anot. pdf.
JPMorgan Chase Institute, 2014. Small Business Longevity | JPMorgan Chase Institute, JPMorgan Chase Institute. Available at: https://www. jpmorganchase.com/corporate/institute/small-business-longevity. htm (Accessed: 30 January 2019).
Keeley, L. et al., 2015. Global Top 100 Companies by market capitalisa- tion. London: PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
Lepore, J., 2014. The Disruption Machine: What the gospel of innovation gets wrong. The New Yorker, June. Available at: https://www. newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/23/the-disruption-machine.
Mauboussin, M. J., Dan Callahan, C. y Majd, D., 2017. Corporate Lon- gevity.
Miller, D. y Friesen, P. H., 1984. A longitudinal study of the corporate life cycle. Management science, 30(10), 1161-1183.
Moore, G. A., 1991. Crossing the chasm: Marketing and selling high-tech products to mainstream consumers. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Patrick, M., 2015. Characteristics of Visionary Leadership, Chron.com. Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/characteristics-vision- ary-leadership-31332.html (Accessed: 30 May 2015).
Porter, M. E., 1985. Competitive advantage : creating and sustaining su- perior performance. 1st Free P. New York: Free Press. Available at: https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/10001440 (Accessed: 19 June 2019).
Ridder, H.-G., 2017. The theory contribution of case study research designs. Business Research. Springer, 10(2), 281-305. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s40685-017-0045-z.
Rutgers, 2012. Edison’s Patents, The Thomas A. Edison Papers Project. Available at: http://edison.rutgers.edu/index.htm (Accessed: 18 May 2016).
S&P Global, 2019. S&P 500 (CNY) - S&P Dow Jones Indices, S&P Dow Jones Indeces. Available at: https://asia.spindices.com/indices/equi- ty/sp-500-cny (Accessed: 4 February 2019).
Sen, P., 1996. Triumph of the Nerds. The United States of America. Tellis, G. J., 2006. Disruptive Technology or Visionary Leadership? Jour-
nal of Product Innovation Management, 23(1), 34-38.
Thurston, T., 2014. Christensen Vs. Lepore: A Matter Of Fact, TechCruch. com. Available at: http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/30/christensen- vs-lepore-a-matter-of-fact/ (Accessed: 23 May 2015).
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