Time: 9:00-11:00, 8 April 2025
Speaker: Dr. Shuangfa Huang is an Assistant Professor, PhD supervisor, and Director of Student Experience at the University of Sheffield Management School. Before joining the University of Sheffield, he was Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Portsmouth and Director of its Doctoral Programme in Business and Management. He received his PhD in Management from Lancaster University in 2018. Before beginning his academic career, he worked in industry for ten years. His current research interests include entrepreneurship, innovation, and sustainability in the context of SMEs and start-ups. His work has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Small Business Economics, Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Journal of Business Research, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, European Management Review, and European Management Journal.
Abstract:
This study advances resource-based theorizing of venture growth by examining how strategic resources, particularly intellectual property (IP), interact with versatile resources like human and financial capital across different environments. Using a configurational approach and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on a four-year longitudinal dataset of 825 ventures, the research identifies four distinct pathways to growth, demonstrating that IP alone is insufficient for success. Instead, growth depends on the complementary use of strategic and versatile resources. The study also highlights the critical role of environmental munificence, which can compensate for a lack of internal resources. This research reconciles inconsistencies in prior studies by showing that the interaction between different types of IP and versatile resources is essential for venture growth. It also contributes to the understanding of how environmental factors influence the effectiveness of resource portfolios. These findings offer significant implications for both entrepreneurs, who must strategically combine resources, educators, who should emphasize the importance of these resource interactions and environmental contexts in entrepreneurship curricula, and accelerator managers, who should assess ventures based on their resource portfolio and tailor support based on their specific resource needs.
