Examining optimal exploitation mechanisms that enhance first product commercialisation in new technology ventures in India
Creators: name: Ahmadi, H
Publisher: name: University Of Tasmania
Year: 2023

description: The economic value of new technology ventures (NTVs) is substantial because they are often identified as sources of technological breakthroughs. Critically, the success of a first product is often a predictor of the ultimate survival of the NTVs. The limitations in product level resources, routines and structures, make commercialisation of the NTV's first product a serious challenge. The mainstream research investigating the antecedents of new product success has focused on established technology firms while neglecting NTVs' first product. Accordingly scholars and managers need to understand how NTVs configure their limited assets to enhance first product commercialisation activities. Drawing on Day and Wensley's influential model, this research proposes a theoretical model which examines the influence of exploitation mechanisms of marketing and technology assets on first product performance and the overall NTV performance via generating first product differentiation and cost-efficiency. By choosing India as an important emerging economy as the laboratory and through integrating configuration, complementarity and contingency theories with resource-based theory (RBT), this research shows that the effective (1) interplay of resources and capabilities in each product-focused functional area and (2) interplay between the capabilities in the two functional areas, enhances NTV's first product commercialisation outcomes. This research advances the argument that overall NTV's performance in terms of growth and development is dependent on first product success in achieving desired sales, profitability and customer satisfaction, which itself depends on the (1) marketing resource-capability (R-C) complementarity and technology R-C complementarity (2) complementarity between marketing and technology capabilities as bundles of processes and skills used to undertake commercialisation activities, and (3) the achievement of first product positional advantages including differentiation and cost-efficiency. Further, the influence of marketing and technology R-C complementarity is contingent upon the deployment of integration mechanisms, entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and political networking capabilities during first product commercialisation. And finally the influence of complementarity in first product capabilities is contingent on the possession of superior communication and information technology (ICT) capabilities to facilitate knowledge exchange and communication. The theoretical framework is tested using data from 142 Indian NTVs. The findings of the research reveal that for an effective and efficient first product commercialisation, NTVs need to accumulate the configuration of first product assets with optimal level of complementarity within marketing and product development areas; also they need to acquire a well-balanced cross-functional integration through achieving complementarity between the marketing and technology capabilities. The findings also enclose that possessing such a configuration of first product assets allow NTVs to achieve differentiation and cost-efficiency simultaneously. Besides, the findings offer insights into understanding why such complementary first product assets are positively related to first product outcomes, through revealing the role of other capabilities-as contingency factors- including supplier integration, customer integration, ICT capabilities, EO and political networking capabilities. The current research shows the importance of first product commercialisation as one of the most vital factors in enhancing the overall performance of new ventures in competitive technology-orientated markets. The model is tested in an important but understudied economy India, offering insights concerning the necessary antecedents utilised to commercialise a competitive first product.