Publications
Publications
- 2011
From Farms to Fuel Tanks: Collective Actors and New-Venture Innovation in the U.S. Biodiesel Fuel Sector
By: Shon R. Hiatt
Abstract
Little is known about the influence of collective actors on innovative technological recombinations by new ventures. Using data from U.S. biodiesel producers, I examine how the efforts of multiple collective actors (farm associations) to promote varying types of technologies fostered new-venture innovation by bridging domains. Different farm associations transmitted various fuel-production technologies from the agricultural and academic domains to business arenas where entrepreneurs could evaluate and recombine them. A greater variety of collective actors in a given state resulted in higher founding rates for new ventures with recombinatorial technologies. The effect of multiple collective actors on new-venture innovation was also moderated by venture size, media coverage of collective-actor mobilization, the presence of knowledgeable university actors who could assist in firms' recombinatorial processes, and opposition to such technologies from environmental-movement organizations.
Keywords
Alliances; Agribusiness; Energy Sources; Innovation and Invention; Biotechnology Industry; Green Technology Industry; Energy Industry; United States
Citation
Hiatt, Shon R. "From Farms to Fuel Tanks: Collective Actors and New-Venture Innovation in the U.S. Biodiesel Fuel Sector." 2011.