Academic literature on the topic 'New Venture Management'

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology, Management, and Policy Program, 2007.<br>"June 2007."<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 245-250).<br>Clean energy technologies lower harmful emissions associated with the generation and use of power (e.g. CO2) and many of these technologies have been shown to be cost effective and to provide significant benefits to adopters. Examples of clean energy technologies include renewable and/or efficient distributed generation (e.g. solar, wind, geothermal, fuel cells, cogeneration); energy efficiency technologies; intelligent energy management; efficient energy storage; green building technologies; biofuels; and ancillary products and services that reduce emissions associated with power generation, transmission and distribution. This thesis examines why new ventures founded to commercialize these technologies have failed to achieve widespread adoption. Based on interviews with clean energy entrepreneurs and other stakeholders and on case studies of clean energy technology ventures, a new venture simulation model was developed that models the cash flow, labor force, market, competition, and product development for a prototypical clean energy technology venture. When the model is parameterized to correspond to a venture that starts with superior technology at an attractive price its behavior corresponds to the experience of many of the companies interviewed.<br>(cont.) The modeled venture takes many years to achieve profitability due to long sales cycles, limits to market growth, and the time needed to gain experience producing and selling its products, and therefore has a high probability of failure. Analysis of the model results in a set of guidelines for what these ventures, investors, and policy makers should do to increase their odds of success. The venture is better off starting with more sales and marketing personnel and expertise rather than engineers, and should develop no more product features than are necessary to sell the product. The venture should forego recurring revenue and instead receive payments up front whenever possible. A single initial equity investment in the venture is considerably more valuable than a series of investments. Government policies that raise the cost of carbon emissions; reduce barriers and increase incentives for adoption of clean energy technologies; and subsidize the development of these technologies can greatly increase the growth of these ventures and the odds of success.<br>by David S. Miller.<br>Ph.D.

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2018.<br>Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (page 76).<br>The development of a start-up creating physical products follows a different path than those working in the digital space. The process of creation requires multiple steps, with many disparate people involved in those steps. Kalani was created to work with artisans to promote their disappearing crafts, thus supporting their economies and providing an opportunity for the continuation of the craft. The first product was to create blankets in Portugal, with artisans in a village in Serra de Estrela. The blankets are ultrafine merino wool, with fabric manipulation done by hand that are techniques unique to the artisans. The thesis aims to provide an overview of the process for physical product development, and the way in which leadership as the CEO of an international startup functions. Creating a physical product requires many iterations in concept development before actual product development is launched. Managing both product development and working with artisans in a different country and culture provided many challenges and rewards. The thesis aims to prove that products can be made that meet the demands of the luxury market, while maintaining high social and ethical standards.<br>by Attia Qureshi.<br>S.M. in Engineering and Management

This study investigates variability in the importance of investment decision criteria used by venture capitalists in assessing new technology-based ventures and relates the criteria to the subsequent performance of the investment in the new venture. Variability was measured using interval and ordinal scale approaches for both criteria ratings and rankings. The analyses found that the criteria used by venture capitalists form a general hierarchy that is consistently ranked across ventures. However, there are some criteria that do not form part of this hierarchy and whose importance varies depending on the specific venture being evaluated. The criteria that are consistently considered important by venture capitalists can be thought of as necessary conditions for investment. The hypotheses concerning the relationship between the criteria and subsequent deal performance are that:· deal performance can be assessed by venture capitalists earlier for Internet-related ventures than for other-technology based ventures (H1);· Internet-related ventures have more extreme levels of deal performance (H2);· a small number of criteria will distinguish between successful and unsuccessful deal performance (H3);· criteria that do distinguish have above average variability (H4); and· criteria related to first-mover advantage distinguish between successful and unsuccessful deals (H5). The study was conducted in two parts. The original study (n=100) conducted by Bachher (2000) gathered information about the importance of the investment criteria using a web-based survey. The follow-up study (n=40) gathered information about the success of the investments by surveying the original participants and gathering information from the Internet. Limitations of the study include a nonrandom sample, a small sample size for the follow-up survey and the very small number (n=5) of unsuccessful investments identified. Evidence for hypotheses H1 and H2 was in the predicted direction but failed to achieve statistical significance. The evidence is supportive of H3. Evidence for H4 and H5 was not found. Additional analysis of the results suggests that venture capitalists whose investments were ultimately unsuccessful placed less importance on technology-related criteria than did venture capitalists investing in the other ventures. This finding implies that venture capitalists need to perform detailed assessments of the technology of new ventures.

New ventures started by entrepreneurs need access to the right amount of financial resourcesin order to grow and expand businesses. Venture capital financing and partnerships withventure capital firms is a common route for entrepreneurial companies to acquire the neededfinancing for growing the venture, which in turn benefits a country’s economy as a whole.The partnership between the venture capital firm and the entrepreneur may involve conflicts,due to different goals and objectives towards the business, difference in management stylesand personal background as well as task and contextual conflicts, to mention some examples.We discovered a knowledge gap regarding conflicts between venture capital firms andentrepreneurs in Sweden and hence our aim with this study is to provide an answer on howventure capital firms and entrepreneurs are dealing with these potential conflicts in Sweden.To find out the answer, we reviewed selected and relevant literature on the subject andadapted a theoretical framework, based on existing literature. In terms of methodologicalapproach, we chose to be constructionists by following the abductive approach, in order toeffectively answer our research question and be able to add and complement our theoreticalframework, based on our empirical findings.Our empirical findings consists of four valuable interviews with venture capital firmmanagers and another four interviews with entrepreneurial CEOs and/or company founders,to get the view of both parties involved in venture capital partnerships. Based on ourempirical findings, our main conclusion is that the venture capital partnership often suffersfrom lacking communication from either or both parties, which could start or worsen theconflicts. Many of these problems are also derived by the vastly different backgrounds ofventure capital firm managers compared to entrepreneurs.Additionally, our study notes a tendency for less patience for conflicts among venture capitalfirms compared to entrepreneurs, as venture capital firms are willing to replace the currentCEO or make an early exit the venture or even liquidate its shares, if they deem problems assevere. On the other hand, entrepreneurs want to keep the dialogue going and seem to havemore patience. To mitigate the conflicts in the venture capital partnership, based on ourfindings, we propose that venture capital firms should hire managers or consultants with amore technical background when evaluating and working with certain entrepreneurs.Furthermore, venture capital firms may need to be more dynamic in terms of their controlmeasurements as opposed to being overly static on a long-term business plan which may getoutdated or lose relevancy.Entrepreneurs, nonetheless, need training and support in many cases, to understand how tocommunicate in business contexts and write business plans in order to facilitate thecollaboration with their venture capitalists.

New Ventures projects emerge in response to the growing need of countries to develop and grow economically in an environment characterized by rapid changes. The importance of these projects is such that during the last decades they have played a role not only as drivers of the economy but also as sources of new jobs and innovation (Chen, 2009). Due to this importance, there have been multiple studies related to the efficient management of such projects. However, it is not sufficient for these projects to be managed properly, but the presence of limited resources makes necessary to select, prioritize and control these projects strategically within a portfolio.   This strategic management can be carried out by using the theory developed in Project Portfolio Management (PPM). The importance of PPM is the ability to integrate the world of projects with the operation of organizations, helping to minimize failures such as making unnecessary effort to undertake these projects in an appropriate manner when in fact these are not the right projects.  However, there is a lack of knowledge in the application of PPM theory for New Ventures projects, because their characteristics differ from those of any other type of projects in terms of high level of risk and, in many cases, high technical uncertainty (Mac Millan &amp; Gunther, 2000).  This knowledge gap can be minimized using two different approaches. The first one consists in employing the theory developed by PPM in R&amp;D projects, applying it for New Venture projects, as suggested by Mac Millan &amp; Gunther (2000). The second approach corresponds to using the theory developed around the management of projects within Business Incubators (BIs) and Venture Capital firms (VC) in every stage of the PPM process.   This study describes how BIs and VCs in Sweden manage their New Venture projects portfolios in issues such as selection, prioritization and monitoring and control. To achieve an adequate depiction of this process, the study seeks primarily to identify the role of BIs and VCs in the PPM and the proper relationship that should exist between both organizations to ensure an ideal flow of projects at each stage of their development. In addition, it also seeks to find whether tools outlined in the literature are often used in practice.   Among the main findings of the study, the major contribution of the BIs is mainly in the feasibility analysis of projects and the support they give in their development, while VC firms are usually more focused on the selection, prioritization and monitoring and control of their portfolios. In practice there have been shortcomings in the transition of New Venture projects between BIs and VCs. These can be solved by creating a single organization that integrates the entire process of PPM between BIs and VCs, or other alternative is for VCs to start investing mainly in early stage projects.  Another important finding corresponds to the use of the expertise of BIs and VCs members as the most important tool when making strategic decisions. And although there is general satisfaction with the success of these projects in Sweden, some authors have argued that this industry is not totally mature. Therefore, this study suggests using some tools, proposed in a conceptual model, developed to achieve the maturity that New Venture projects industry requires.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2006.<br>1 electronic text (111 p. : ill. (some col.)) : digital, PDF file. Title from title screen. Dr. Ben Oviatt, committee chair; Brett Anitra Gilbert, Detmar W. Straub, William C. Bogner, committee members. Description based on contents viewed Mar. 28, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-111).