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Are You Experienced? Prior Experience of Managers and the Survival of New Organisations
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Michael S. Dahl and Toke Reichstein
This paper investigates the relationship between the experiences of managers and the likelihood of survival of their new firms. We take advantage of a comprehensive data-set covering the entire Danish labour market from 1980-2000. This is used to trace the activities of top ranked members of new firms prior to the founding and follow the fate of their firms after the founding.
Michael S. Dahl and Toke Reichstein (2007), “Are You Experienced? Prior Experience and the Survival of New Organizations“, Industry and Innovation. Vol. 14, No. 5, pp. 497-511. ISSN: 1366-2716. [DOI Link]
Whether social networks diffuse knowledge across firm boundaries has been the topic of much debate. To inform these theories, this article considers two questions. First, who has contacts across firm boundaries? And second, when do these relations diffuse knowledge? Our empirical evidence comes from a survey of 346 engineers in the wireless communication industry around Aalborg in Northern Denmark. Our analysis finds that social contact between these engineers is frequent and is used to diffuse knowledge that receivers find useful. More experienced engineers are more likely to receive valuable knowledge from their networks. These findings show that the long-term relationships, which are more likely based on trust and reputation, are also more likely to be a channel valuable knowledge.
The role of informal networks in the development of regional clusters has recently received a lot of attention in the literature. Informal contact between employees in different firms is claimed to be one of the main carriers of knowledge between firms in a cluster. This paper examines empirically the role of informal contacts in a specific cluster. In a questionnaire survey, we asked a sample of engineers in a regional cluster of wireless communication firms in Northern Denmark a series of questions on informal networks. We analyze whether the engineers actually acquire valuable knowledge through these networks. We find that the engineers do share even quite valuable knowledge with informal contacts. This shows that informal contacts represent an important channel of knowledge diffusion.
Denne artikel præsenterer den nyeste teoretiske forskning i sammenhængen mellem entreprenørers erfaringsmæssige baggrund og deres fremtidige succes og innovationsevne. En række studier tyder nemlig på, at disse faktorer er tæt forbundet i kraft af nedarvede organisatoriske rutiner, som entreprenøren har med fra sin tidligere arbejdsplads. Denne teoretiske påstand undersøges gennem et detaljeret studie af udviklingen af den trådløse kommunikationsindustri omkring Aalborg samt gennem referencer til et kvantitativt studie af 3.500 opstartsvirksomheder i den danske fremstillingssektor. Begge studier peger i retningen af, at knopskydende virksomheder med erfaringer fra gode virksomheder har større sandsynlighed for succes, samt at disse virksomheder også er mere innovative i deres første tid end andre ældre virksomheder.