Spawned by opportunity or out of necessity? Organizational antecedents and the choice of industry and technology in employee spinouts
研究员工创业企业的组织前因如何影响其行业与技术选择，发现机遇驱动型创业更可能进入不同但相关的行业与技术领域，而需求驱动型则更可能瞄准与原雇主相同的领域。
Abstract Research summary I examine how the organizational antecedents of spinouts shape the new firms' industry and technological trajectory choices compared to those of the parent firms. Building on prior research on employee entrepreneurship and integrating insights from the literature on opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship, I hypothesize that spinouts launched to exploit a new business opportunity shunned by the parent firm (i.e., opportunity spinouts) are more likely to enter a different but related industry and technological field to those of the parent firm. I hypothesize also that spinouts triggered by adverse developments in the parent firm (i.e., necessity spinouts) are more likely to target the same industry and technological field as the parent. Analysis of data from the European biotech industry supports these predictions. Managerial summary The prevailing view of employee entrepreneurship is that the established firm's unwillingness to commercialize an employee's ideas leads to the employee leaving to start a new firm. However, evidence suggests that spinout activity (new firm formation by former employees) can be also triggered by adverse developments in the established firm that disrupt an employee's job. This study examines how the organizational antecedents of spinouts shape the new firms' early‐stage strategic choices. Using data from the biotech industry, I show that opportunity driven spinouts are more likely to enter a different but related industry and technological field to those of their founders' prior employer and that necessity driven spinouts are more likely to target the same industry and technological field as the prior employer.