@article {556, title = {Applying the Theory of the Firm to Examine a Technology Startup at the Investment Stage}, journal = {Technology Innovation Management Review}, volume = {2}, year = {2012}, month = {05/2012}, pages = {23-27}, publisher = {Talent First Network}, address = {Ottawa}, abstract = {The investment stage of a new technology firm is when resources, opportunities, investors, and early customers first converge. Currently, technology entrepreneurs make many expensive mistakes. They invest in assets and develop capabilities that prove to have limited value. They take too long to discover and validate the product-market fit for their firms during the investment stage and run out of time and money. Understanding how theory can help entrepreneurs make decisions during the investment stage is important to accelerate new-firm formation and growth as well as to reduce the uncertainty of founders and stakeholders of technology firms. This article introduces a model developed to examine deal making during the investment stage of a new technology firm. It is an extension of a model of lateral firm scope proposed by Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom. The extensions come from considering a technology firm as being both a deal-making entity and a pool of resources during the investment stage. A deal is the result of a decision the entrepreneur and others make to coordinate (i.e., work together to achieve a common objective). Benefits from a deal include cash profits for the firm and private benefits for the entrepreneur. This extended model is then applied to examine the author{\textquoteright}s firm which is still in the investment stage. Application of the extended model to a real-life situation generated two important insights: i) when private benefits include learning from experimentation, the number of deals increases and ii) at the start of the investment stage, private benefits drive deal-making, whereas at the end of the investment stage, cash profits derived from asset ownership drive deal-making. }, keywords = {deals, investment, technology entrepreneurship, theory of the firm}, issn = {1927-0321}, doi = {http://doi.org/10.22215/timreview/556}, url = {http://timreview.ca/article/556}, author = {Michael Ayukawa} } @article {434, title = {Defining Good Deals in Business Collectives}, journal = {Open Source Business Resource}, year = {2011}, month = {04/2011}, publisher = {Talent First Network}, type = {Articles}, address = {Ottawa}, abstract = {In the context of a current project at Carleton University to create creating a deal-making platform, this article presents the results of a recent review of the literature to determine: What is a good deal? This is question is asked from the perspective of the stakeholders in the development of a software-based collaboration tool that is designed to help streamline deal development between members. The stakeholders include the creators, the users, and the investors. We answer this question by examining several streams in the literature, all centered on understanding deals and deal-making processes. These streams explore the concept of a win-win deal, how value may be seen differently, and the group processes involved in deal making. A key contribution from this review suggests that deal goodness can be separated based on a Me-We construct: the impact to each and every stakeholder of the deal and the impact to the entire collective (not just the deal stakeholders). This implies one can separate the platform management problem into actor-centric (Me) and linkage-centric (We) domains. This is consistent with the notion of players balancing their self interest with the other stakeholders in the deal (Me-We). This is also consistent with the prospect of managing ecosystem health based on player and network-based metrics.}, issn = {1913-6102}, url = {http://timreview.ca/article/434}, author = {Michael Ayukawa} } @article {410, title = {How Firms Relate to Open Source Communities}, journal = {Open Source Business Resource}, year = {2011}, month = {01/2011}, publisher = {Talent First Network}, type = {Articles}, address = {Ottawa}, abstract = {This article explores the relationship between firms and open source communities. Open source communities create, adopt, adapt, or disseminate innovation in a manner very different from a proprietary approach. To put this in context, we first define what is meant by open source community and then examine the roles members may play in these communities. Next, we illustrate that a firm can participate in an open source development community in different ways, depending on its level of sponsorship of that community. We assert that the degree of influence desired by the firm should connect to its business strategy and the firm needs to determine how its participation and support can be used to enhance its competitive position and provide new value to its customers. We next explore three main strategies to leverage and engage communities. We also examine how community interactions are affected by the degree of openness when engaging the community and how this relates to the firm{\textquoteright}s ability to protect the competitive advantage of its proprietary assets. This discussion will help firms with strategic planning when considering how to tap into this source of technical innovation that lies outside their boundaries.}, issn = {1913-6102}, url = {http://timreview.ca/article/410}, author = {Michael Ayukawa and Mohammed Al-Sanabani and Adefemi Debo-Omidokun} } @article {439, title = {Shifting an Entrepreneur{\textquoteright}s World View}, journal = {Open Source Business Resource}, year = {2011}, month = {05/2011}, publisher = {Talent First Network}, type = {Articles}, address = {Ottawa}, abstract = {As an entrepreneur, you continually test your decisions by gaining feedback: from your customers and your investors (or lack thereof). This process of ongoing feedback is how an entrepreneur learns to shape their opportunity to accommodate their new knowledge of the environment. But this activity is very dependent on the "world view framework" of the entrepreneur. What may seem to be important turns out to be noise and important signals are dismissed. This article describes the special value for an entrepreneur of frameworks grounded in theory in general and the value of the framework of business ecosystems from two perspectives: as a member of a business ecosystem and as a creator of a business ecosystem. These two perspectives fundamentally affected the direction of adaption for our product and reshaped how we approached our (ad)venture.}, issn = {1913-6102}, url = {http://timreview.ca/article/439}, author = {Michael Ayukawa} } @article {378, title = {Deals Without Borders: A Value Proposition for the Open Global Commerce Keystone}, journal = {Open Source Business Resource}, year = {2010}, month = {09/2010}, publisher = {Talent First Network}, type = {Articles}, address = {Ottawa}, abstract = {The Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI) and Carleton University have envisioned the creation of a keystone anchoring a global deal-generating business ecosystem centered in Ottawa, Canada. Through the support and common resources of the ecosystem, small and medium companies located in five international capital cities will be better able to construct and close more transnational deals through a process of collaborative and open co-creation. This is the Open Global Commerce (OGC) value proposition: "Deals Without Borders." }, issn = {1913-6102}, url = {http://timreview.ca/article/378}, author = {Michael Ayukawa} } @article {371, title = {OpenOttawaLibre: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Building Creative Cities}, journal = {Open Source Business Resource}, year = {2010}, month = {08/2010}, publisher = {Talent First Network}, type = {Articles}, address = {Ottawa}, abstract = {OpenOttawaLibre (OOL) is a multidisciplinary approach that is being developed to strengthen Ottawa{\textquoteright}s position as a creative city. Faced with stiff competition from globally dominant mega-centres, smaller cities like Ottawa can compensate for their size by actively bringing together people to exchange ideas, share perspectives, and form new partnerships to solve existing and emerging problems. OOL will make it easy to organize these events and lower the risk by developing an ecosystem with experienced facilitators, physical resources, and proven processes. OOL is anchored by Ottawa{\textquoteright}s cultural planning group and aims to make Ottawa a global magnet for creative industries and talent.}, issn = {1913-6102}, url = {http://timreview.ca/article/371}, author = {Michael Ayukawa and Julie Dupont} }