The innovator's dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail
The innovator's dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail
Organizational Cognition: Computation and Interpretation
Organizational Cognition: Computation and Interpretation
EDGAR-analyzer: automating the analysis of corporate data contained in the SEC's EDGAR database
Decision Support Systems - Web retrieval and mining
Inertia and Incentives: Bridging Organizational Economics and Organizational Theory
Organization Science
Mindfulness and the Quality of Organizational Attention
Organization Science
The Red Queen, Success Bias, and Organizational Inertia
Management Science
Attentional Triangulation: Learning from Unexpected Rare Crises
Organization Science
Applied Survival Analysis: Regression Modeling of Time to Event Data
Applied Survival Analysis: Regression Modeling of Time to Event Data
An Introduction to Survival Analysis Using Stata
An Introduction to Survival Analysis Using Stata
Organization Science
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Technological discontinuities pose serious challenges to top managers’ attention. These discontinuities, which often occur at the fringes of an industry, are usually driven by innovative and often venture capital-backed start-ups creating new products and transforming existing industries in ways that are difficult for incumbent managers to understand against the backdrop of their existing cognitive schemata. However, failing to appreciate and embrace successful technological discontinuities might endanger incumbents’ very existence. Extending the attention-based view, we explore whether and how interorganizational relationships guide top managers’ attention either to or away from technological discontinuities. We propose that homophilous relationships e.g., alliances with industry peers should exhibit a negative relationship with incumbents’ timely attention to technological discontinuities, whereas heterophilous relationships e.g., with venture capitalists as a result of coinvestments should exhibit a positive relationship. Furthermore, we hypothesize that the status of the partners strengthens the effect of homophilous and heterophilous relationships with the timely attention of top managers to technological discontinuities. Based on a longitudinal study of the incumbents in four information and communications technology industry sectors, we find that heterophilous ties through corporate venture capital CVC, coinvesting with high-status venture capital firms, exhibit a strong positive relationship with timely attention. CVC, when it connects senior management to high-status venture capitalists through coinvestments, has a special role in directing top managers’ attention to technological discontinuities and ensuing business opportunities. Implications for the understanding of the role of interorganizational ties as structural determinants of top managers’ attention are discussed.