Advisory Boards in Startups: Investigating the Roles of Advisory Boards in German Technology-Based Startups

252 Pages·2017·159.568 MB·English

by  Eric Weber (auth.)

Eric Weber
Advisory Boards
in Startups
Investigating the Roles of Advisory
Boards in German Technology-Based
Startups
Advisory Boards in Startups
Eric Weber
Advisory Boards
in Startups
Investigating the Roles of Advisory
Boards in German Technology-Based
Startups
Eric Weber
Leipzig, Germany
Leipzig, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Dissertation, 2016
ISBN 978-3-658-15339-7 ISBN 978-3-658-15340-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-15340-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016948813
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Preface
Das Themenfindung für die vorliegende Dissertation wurde maßgeblich beeinflusst
durch ein Praxisprojekt während meiner Zeit als Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am
Stiftungsfonds Deutsche Bank Lehrstuhl für Innovationsmanagement und
Entrepreneurship. Die hohe praktische Relevanz des Themas und die Lücke in der
akademischen Literatur motivierten mich zur Anfertigung der Arbeit. Mein Dank gilt
daher zunächst Markus H. Michalow als Initiator dieses Praxisprojekts sowie der
gesamten HHL-Community und dem Gründernetzwerk SMILE, welche mein
Interesse am Thema Unternehmertum erst richtig weckten.
Ich bedanke mich bei meinem akademischen Betreuer und Lehrstuhlinhaber
Professor Dr. Andreas Pinkwart nicht nur für die Betreuung und die hilfreichen
Hinweise zur Anfertigung dieser Arbeit, sondern auch für das Vertrauen, welches mir
in verschiedenen anderen Projekten am Lehrstuhl und darüber hinaus zu Teil wurde.
Weiterhin insbesondere danke ich insbesondere Vivek Velamuri, Christian Comberg
und Philipp Veit für den akademischen Austausch sowie meinen Lehrstuhlkollegen
Franziska Greim, Anja Hagedorn und Dorian Proksch für die moralische, inhaltliche
und adminstrative Unterstützung. Die wertvolle und enge Zusammenarbeit mit den
studentischen Hilfskräften des Lehrstuhls, insbesondere Alice Riedel und Lars
Radscheidt, leistete dankenswerterweise einen wichtigen Beitrag zu dieser
Dissertation. Ebenso mein Korrekturleser Stewart Tunnicliff.
Den größten Anteil an der Fertigstellung dieser Arbeit hat jedoch meine liebe Frau
Anne Weber, welche mich während der Promotion immer angetrieben und motiviert
hat sowie oft großes Verständnis für meine zeitlichen Verpflichtungen aufbringen
musste. Danke!
Herzlichen Dank auch für die Unterstützung meiner Eltern.

V
I Contents
I Contents ......................................................................................................... VII(cid:3)
III List of tables ................................................................................................ XIII(cid:3)
IV Abbreviations .............................................................................................. XV(cid:3)
1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1(cid:3)
1.1 The underlying problems of startups .................................................... 1(cid:3)
1.2 Motivation, goal and research questions ............................................ 12(cid:3)
1.3 Structure of the thesis and applied research methods ....................... 20(cid:3)
2 Basic concepts and terms ............................................................................. 25(cid:3)
2.1 Technology-based startups ................................................................ 25(cid:3)
2.2 Governing boards in one- and two-tier corporate
governance systems .......................................................................... 27(cid:3)
2.3 Voluntary and forced advisory boards in both one-tier and two-tier
systems .............................................................................................. 29(cid:3)
2.3.1 Voluntary advisory boards .......................................................... 32(cid:3)
2.3.2 Forced advisory boards.............................................................. 33(cid:3)
2.4 Boards of directors in one-tier systems .............................................. 34(cid:3)
2.5 Supervisory boards in two-tier systems .............................................. 35(cid:3)
2.6 Different types of advisory board members ........................................ 37(cid:3)
3 Contributions of research on governing boards ............................................. 41(cid:3)
3.1 Literature review on advisory boards .................................................. 41(cid:3)
3.1.1 Academic literature on advisory boards in startups .................... 41(cid:3)
3.1.2 Academic literature on advisory boards in other companies ...... 44(cid:3)
3.1.3 Practice-oriented literature on advisory boards .......................... 52(cid:3)
3.2 Roles and functions of governing boards ........................................... 54(cid:3)
3.2.1 Agency theory related control role ............................................. 55(cid:3)
3.2.2 Resource dependency related service role ................................ 58(cid:3)
3.2.3 Stewardship theory and strategic role ........................................ 62(cid:3)
VII
3.2.4 Stakeholder theory and coordination role................................... 64(cid:3)
3.2.5 Institutional theory and maintenance role .................................. 67(cid:3)
3.2.6 Managerial hegemony and support role ..................................... 68(cid:3)
3.2.7 Critical reflection of explaining theories especially in the
context of technology-based startups ....................................... 69(cid:3)
3.3 Governing board size ......................................................................... 75(cid:3)
3.4 Independence and outsider discussion .............................................. 77(cid:3)
3.5 Impact of venture capitalists ............................................................... 79(cid:3)
3.6 Determinants of governing board involvement ................................... 82(cid:3)
4 Exploring the role of advisory boards in technology-based startups
using qualitative methods.............................................................................. 87(cid:3)
4.1 Research goal .................................................................................... 87(cid:3)
4.2 Research Design ................................................................................ 89(cid:3)
4.2.1 Methodology .............................................................................. 89(cid:3)
4.2.2 Data collection and sampling method ........................................ 89(cid:3)
4.2.3 Data analysis method (grounded theory) ................................... 94(cid:3)
4.3 Results ............................................................................................. 102(cid:3)
4.4 Summary and critical reflection ........................................................ 132(cid:3)
5 Exploring the role of advisory boards in technology-based startups using
quantitative methods ................................................................................... 141(cid:3)
5.1 Research goal .................................................................................. 141(cid:3)
5.2 Research design .............................................................................. 143(cid:3)
5.2.1 Methodology ............................................................................ 143(cid:3)
5.2.2 Data collection and sampling method ...................................... 143(cid:3)
5.3 Questionnaire design and variables ................................................. 146(cid:3)
5.4 Results ............................................................................................. 154(cid:3)
5.4.1 Sample description .................................................................. 154(cid:3)
5.4.2 Descriptive statistics ................................................................ 156(cid:3)
5.4.3 Correlation analysis ................................................................. 161(cid:3)
VIII
5.4.4 Linear multivariate regression analysis....................................168
5.5 Summary and critical reflection........................................................176
6 Summary and implications..........................................................................179
6.1 Management summary.....................................................................179
6.2 Implications for research..................................................................182
6.3 Implications for practice....................................................................185
6.4 Overall critical reflection and future research possibilities................189
V References..................................................................................................191
VI Appendices................................................................................................211
IX
II List of figures
Figure 1: Focus area of the thesis........................................................................12
Figure 2: Theoretical approaches explaining governing board roles....................55
Figure 3: Governing board roles in different phases of entrepreneurial
development.........................................................................................................72
Figure 4: Saturation effects ..................................................................................93
Figure 5: Overview of grounded theory process as adopted in the current study.96
Figure 6: Adaption of theoretical approaches to explain AB roles......................133
Figure 7: Proposed model to investigate AB roles..............................................135
Figure 8: Sample cases by type, by industry and with/without VC.....................155
Figure 9: Cases by number of employees and sales volume.............................155
Figure 10: Cases by firm age .............................................................................156
Figure 11: Occassion for establishing ABs.........................................................157
Figure 12: Institutionalization of ABs ..................................................................158
Figure 13: Origin of AB members .......................................................................159
Figure 14: Importance of AB roles ......................................................................160
Figure 15: Drawbacks of ABs .............................................................................161
XI
III List of tables
Table 1: Usage of advisory boards in different countries and companies ............ 13
Table 2: Structure of the thesis ............................................................................. 23
Table 3: Features of different board types in one- and two-tier systems .............. 29
Table 4: Governing board sizes ............................................................................ 75
Table 5: Share of outside governing board members ........................................... 78
Table 6: Overview of interview partners ............................................................... 92
Table 7: Final set of codes and reliability ........................................................... 100
Table 8: Case-ordered descriptive meta-matrix .................................................. 106
Table 9: Overview of proposed relations due to a qualitative assessment ......... 135
Table 10: Quality assessment of applied grounded theory approach ................. 137
Table 11: Variables measuring the importance of AB roles ................................ 147
Table 12: Additional variables performance-related variables ............................ 149
Table 13: Additional variables (satisfaction) to answer research question 2.4 ... 149
Table 14: Additional variables (moderators) ....................................................... 151
Table 15: Additional variables (drawbacks) to answer research question 2.6 .... 152
Table 16: Additional variables (descriptive analysis) .......................................... 153
Table 17: Descriptive analysis and correlation matrix (Pearson's R) .................. 167
Table 18: Linear multivariate regression models ................................................ 170
XIII