The Discovery Process: External Influences on Refinement of the Venture Idea

Abstract

In this paper we use institutional theory for examining how and to what extent external pressure leads to changes in the venture idea during the start-up and early life of new, knowledge-intensive ventures. From a population of 321 young, knowledge-intensive firms that underwent a training program at Linköping University, we have telephone interview data on 167. The results confirmed that the venture idea had undergone more change in ventures that had more external owners, a dominant customer, and an incubator location. Our results imply that institutional theory is a meaningful tool for understanding why and how venture ideas change over time.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship

JEL Classification: M13