The Parent's Legacy: Firm Founders and Technological Choice

40 Pages Posted: 19 May 2016

See all articles by Arvin Sahaym

Arvin Sahaym

Washington State University - Carson College of Business

Mike Howard

Texas A&M University - Mays Business School

Sandip Basu

City University of New York (CUNY) - Narendra Paul Loomba Department of Management

Warren Boeker

University of Washington - Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Date Written: May 15, 2016

Abstract

Central to research in innovation and entrepreneurship is the argument that new ventures are influenced by the prior experiences of their founders. This study investigates how differences in founders’ work experiences and prior career positions affect a new venture’s technological choices at the time of founding. We argue that individual founders use their influence to guide the venture toward adopting their parent firms’ technologies, and that founders with more valuable expertise will have a greater influence on the venture’s technological choices. Our results illustrate that the structural and social influence of individual founders affect the degree to which founding teams of new ventures mimic the technologies of their parents.

Keywords: Knowledge Transfer, Innovation, Technology Overlap, Founder Characteristics, Institutional Theory, Patents

JEL Classification: M1, O3

Suggested Citation

Sahaym, Arvin and Howard, Mike and Basu, Sandip and Boeker, Warren, The Parent's Legacy: Firm Founders and Technological Choice (May 15, 2016). Journal of Business Research, Vol. 69, No. 8, 2016, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2780199

Arvin Sahaym (Contact Author)

Washington State University - Carson College of Business ( email )

PO Box 644750
Pullman, 99164-4750
United States

Mike Howard

Texas A&M University - Mays Business School ( email )

Wehner 401Q, MS 4353
College Station, TX 77843-4218
United States

Sandip Basu

City University of New York (CUNY) - Narendra Paul Loomba Department of Management ( email )

NY
United States

Warren Boeker

University of Washington - Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship ( email )

Seattle, WA
United States

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