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This case describes the evolution of an entrepreneur's venture-capital fund-raising from seed-stage financing through later-round efforts. The case focuses on where the “action” is in venture finance: the exploitation of social capital by an entrepreneur and investors. Much of the teaching materials on venture finance focus on the economics of financing; while these materials provide useful information about the mechanics of valuation and how to structure venture-capital agreements, they miss the social side of venture-capital investing. The case illustrates the theoretical concept that social capital (i.e., a person's relationship to other people in society) influences venture finance. The case can be used in a class on entrepreneurship or venture finance.

Although many recognize China’s vast market potential, the challenges of doing business in an economy that was largely closed to market forces for a half century must be recognized. This paper examines the role of venture capital in China’s economic development. The potential impact of a healthy venture capital market is immense, but this healthy market is far from the reality in China. The major obstacles that must be addressed include the state control of vital institutions and regulation of economic activity, including restrictions on the flow of capital and currency.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the venture capital industry evolves in Korea. The paper also compares the venture capital industry growth of Korea with that of the USA.

This paper forecasts the growth of the Korean venture capital industry using the Bass Model. The authors apply the Bass Model to both Korean and US data to compare the model estimates of Korean and US data, and to make use of the US case by taking the “guess by similarity” approach to analyze Korean venture capital industry growth.

The authors find that the innovative fund inflows in Korea are stronger than those in the USA, while inertial reinvestments are weak. The study forecasts that new investments in Korea grow at a 5-7 percent rate each year for the next five years, and the growth rate slows down over time. Peak investment is predicted around the year 2030.

Based on the forecasted venture capital investment schedule each year, this study derives the fundraising schedule and the implications for Korea fund-of-funds management to match the investment schedule.

The model estimates provide a guideline for forecasting venture capital industry development in countries with brief histories of venture capital, which lack data. The analysis can also be applied to cases when developing countries and emerging financial markets assess the impact of government interventions on venture capital industry growth, especially when they provide fund-of-funds.

The stratification of firms was a key component of Stinchcombe's (1965) pioneering essay and of other organizational sociologists in the 1960s. Since then, organizational theory has de-emphasized its focus on stratification in favor of more structural approaches that neglect the unequal distribution of resources within an industry. In this paper, I argue for the reintegration of the two traditions to better understand the dynamics of markets. Specifically, I focus on Stinchcombe's (1965) concept of the “liability of newness” and apply principles of stratification to theory about entrepreneurship. I analyze how social, financial and reputational capital produce a differential liability of newness for the firms within an industry. In other words, not all new organizations experience the liability of newness equally. Rather, disparities in social network access, finances, and reputational capital create advantages for some new firms over others. I study funding patterns in the venture capital industry to highlight the theoretical advantages of reintegrating the study of stratification into organizational sociology.

The psychological analysis of strategic management issues has gained a great deal of momentum in recent years. Much can be learned by entering the black box of strategic thinking of senior executives and bring new insights on how they see, make sense of, and interpret their everyday strategic experiences. This chapter will focus on a powerful cognitive mapping tool called the Repertory Grid Technique and demonstrate how it has been used in the strategy literature along with how a new and more refined application of the technique can enhance the elicitation of complex strategic cognitions for strategy and Board of Directors research.

The “fuzzy front end” of new product development (NPD) is characterized by considerable uncertainty and ambiguity, but detailed studies of ambiguity specifically related to NPD are missing. This paper aims to establish a classification of ambiguity in NPD processes.

The authors' research design is a holistic multiple‐case‐study design with the NPD project as the unit of analysis. A model is developed through a grounded theory approach, using qualitative analysis of case data from four medical‐device companies.

The authors present a model that classifies ambiguity along two dimensions: subject and source. The subjects of ambiguity include product, market, process, and organizational resources, whereas the sources of ambiguity include multiplicity, novelty, validity, and reliability.

As the study is based on just four case studies in a single industry segment, further research is needed to determine the model's wider applicability. Further research is also suggested, exploring how and in what contexts ambiguity should be managed as a balance between reducing or sustaining it.

The model presented helps practitioners to better understand the origins and character of ambiguity in NPD, thereby improving their ability to manage it in their NPD projects.

The model provides an improved theoretical understanding of ambiguity as a component of “fuzziness” in NPD by providing a detailed account of how ambiguity is related to specific elements of the NPD process in terms of where and why it occurs.

Investigates the planning, negotiation and setting up of a joint venture company (JVC) in Indonesia between a British multinational corporation, an Indonesian state‐owned company and an Indonesian private company. It explores the influence of cultural diversity on this process, the role of stakeholders and the management of their interest and power. The paper is organised around an analytical framework for such considerations and proposes a phased approach to the critical preparatory stage of joint‐venture based collaboration in SE Asia.

The purpose of this study was to use the Lussier (1995) generic success versus failure (S/F) prediction model to develop a real estate industry specific model (S/F = f[industry experience, age, advisors, planning, capital]). Using logistic regression analysis, the Lussier model (p = .028) and the real estate agency model (p = .001) are significant predictors of business success and failure. The Lussier model accurately predicted 84 percent of the surveyed successful and failed matched pairs agencies as being successful or failed and the real estate model predicted 74 percent. The Lussier model explained 68 percent of the variance of contributing factors to success versus failure and the real estate model explained 56 percent. Implications are discussed.

In The Times (10th July 1992) the following by line appeared on p1 ‘Body Shop wins unholy row with businesswoman’; announcing that Sir Peter Pain, sitting as a High Court judge, had granted an injunction restraining a Mrs Pauline Rawle, who was described as ‘an evangelical Christian woman’ from using the ‘Body Shop’ name in respect of six franchised shops in Bromley, Maidstone, Canterbury, Romford and Croydon (2 branches). It was alleged that the ‘close relationship’ essential to the franchise contract between Mrs Rawle and the Body Shop ‘had clearly broken down’. Mrs Rawle allegedly told staff to have nothing to do with Body Shop representatives and alleged a conspiracy against her and comparing herself with God and the Body Shop organisation to Satan! Mass dismissals of staff followed and the franchises were temporarily closed and re‐opened with inferior standards. This case is one of the few reported decisions on franchise operation in the UK.