Technology ventures' engagement of external actors in the search for viable market applications: On the relevance of Technology Broadcasting and Systematic Validation

Abstract

In order to succeed, technology ventures need to find a profitable market application for their technology. Although external market actors may provide important information for the identification and validation of potential technology-market combinations, it remains largely unclear how technology ventures can involve them in this process. Building on insights from organizational search literature, this study follows five university spin-offs trying to commercialize early-stage technologies. We find that ventures are cognitively constrained in proactively identifying and approaching external market actors. Interestingly, the better performing ventures in our sample engage in a previously undocumented market search process we label Technology Broadcasting. They communicate their technological competencies to a broad range of market actors and react to these actors' assessment and spontaneous expressions of interest, thereby overcoming their own cognitive constraints. Resource constraints require filtering these expressions of interest through Systematic Validation with additional market players. These results complement the existing insights on market search by entrepreneurial ventures and advance the literature on organizational search.