Browsing by Author "Junkunc, Marc"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    The Effects of Firm Experience and Relational Resources on Firm Product Development Capabilities
    Thornblad, David Bengt (Virginia Tech, 2014-06-16)
    Given that the focus of strategic management research is understanding the determinants of firm performance, and that product development capabilities have been shown to influence firm performance, the research question this dissertation attempts to answer is: what factors influence a firm's product development capabilities? Building on the resource based view and evolutionary theory, this dissertation proposes that firms leverage knowledge generating resources to modify or develop their routines. Firm level routines are theorized to influence the capabilities of the firm. This dissertation focuses on two firm-level product development capabilities: effectiveness and efficiency. Effectiveness refers to a firm's ability to develop desirable products and efficiency refers to the firm's ability to develop those products quickly. The knowledge generating resources this dissertation examines is the firm's prior experience in product development and the firm's relational resources pertinent to product development. Specifically, this dissertation develops theory on four types of experience: market niche, component technology, platform technology, and general product development. Additionally, theory is developed regarding the effects of platform relational resources, as well as the breadth and depth of co-developers a firm utilizes in the development of their products. Using the videogame development industry as the empirical context, few hypothesized relationships are statistically or substantively significant. Prior experience with component technologies lowered the effectiveness of a firm' product development capabilities, but were found to increase efficiency. In addition, older firms tended to create more desirable products despite controlling for the four types of experience which may suggest that the age of the firm contributes something to the firm's ability to create desirable products beyond specific types of experience. This dissertation makes contributions to the theory on how capabilities are developed and enhanced by introducing mechanisms regarding how firms can leverage knowledge generating resources to improve their capabilities. More specifically, this dissertation provides contributes to the product development literature as well as the literature on how experience and relational resources influence a firm's product development capabilities.
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    Innovation Pathways Minor
    Fralin, Scott; McNair, Lisa D.; Junkunc, Marc; Baum, Liesl M.; Zacharias, Kari (Virginia Tech, 2016-03-25)
    Informative exhibit featuring courses from the Innovation Pathways minor. The Innovation Minor is a step towards an interdisciplinary learning experience where students can study innovation and ideation techniques and be immersed into the entrepreneurial process through courses in multiple colleges and disciplines – mirroring the experiences they will be facing in the industrial sector. The courses featured in this exhibit, Innovation: Collaboration, Culture, Context, CREATE!, and Startup: Managing Technology Commercialization, are the core of the Innovation minor.
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    The Role of Firm Capability, Managerial Cognition, and Ecosystem on Innovation: Investigation of The Satellite Industry
    Song, Yue (Virginia Tech, 2017-06-22)
    In this dissertation, I systematically explore the nature and role of two firm capabilities: absorptive capacity (or external learning capability) and technological capability. I examine how firm capability interacts with intra-firm and industry factors, and how it impacts organizational outcomes. In the first paper, I review literature on absorptive capacity and distill its distinct effect on various organizational outcomes. I identify key theoretical underpinnings behind the diverse conceptualizations of absorptive capacity and their corresponding measures, and use meta-analytical techniques to synthesize the effects of absorptive capacity. The second and third papers of my dissertation examine how technological capability interacts with certain internal and external contingency factors in influencing firm innovation and industry evolution. In the second paper, I take an intra-firm focus, and I identify managerial cognition as an important internal factor that impacts the relationship between technological capability and innovation. More specifically, I study how a firm's technological competence interacts with managerial experience in shaping that firm's innovation choices. Using data from the satellite industry, I show that diversity and relatedness of technological resource, as well as CEO experience, work differently in shaping product versus application innovations. In the third paper, I investigate how capabilities beyond focal technology producers influence industry evolution. Based on longitudinal analyses of the evolution of the satellite industry, I show that complementors, component suppliers, and customers are important external factors that shape industry evolution. Overall, my dissertation demonstrates the interrelated roles of firm capability, managerial cognition, and innovation ecosystem on firm and industry-level outcomes.