Browsing by Author "Topaler, Basak"

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Citation Count: 1
The Role of Signals in New Venture Financing in the Context of an Emerging Market: a Configurational Approach
(Emerald Group Publishing Ltd, 2023) Topaler, Basak; Adar, Gulcan
PurposeThis study proposes a portfolio of new venture signals that are likely to attract investors' attention in the context of an emerging market and examines how they work in combination to affect the likelihood of obtaining funding.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use data on early-stage venture capital investments for high-tech start-ups in Turkey. The authors adopt a configurational approach and use fuzzy QCA and regression analysis.FindingsThe findings suggest that financing of new ventures in an emerging economy is shaped by signals of context-specific capabilities that are required to survive and thrive in this market environment alongside and in interaction with signals of general capabilities required for business success. Different combinations of these signals provide equifinal pathways to obtain funding. Furthermore, signals that differ in type and content interact in complex ways to affect investors' decisions.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that entrepreneurs with no prior experience in the emerging market context can increase their chances of obtaining funding by affiliating with a venture development organization. Another promising strategy is to form a founding team that includes members affiliated with a developed country together with members who have emerging market experience. Finally, entrepreneurs may consider combining signals of context-specific capabilities with signals of general capabilities as they work in a complementary way to attract funding.Originality/valueThis study addresses two major shortcomings of the literature on new venture signaling, first, by positing the emerging market context as a unique signaling environment and, second, by demonstrating the value of considering signals as portfolios with potential interdependencies.
Citation Count: 0
Shared Identity Schemas Shape Incumbent Responses To New Entrants
(Informs, 2022) Kocak, Ozgecan; Topaler, Basak
An outstanding question in research on competitive strategy is what determines the strength and type of strategic response that incumbents deploy against new entrants. We argue that strategists' assessment of threat from new entrants and their choice of strategic reactions depend on the shared identity schema in their field. Position of new entrants across identity categories indicate whether they pose a competitive threat within the same identity based niche or outside it and whether they threaten to erode the incumbent's category's social value relative to other categories. Potential reactions to these threats can also be classified according to whether they protect or enhance the value that incumbents create and capture through their membership in their identity category. Matching identity-relevant strategic actions to the type of threat that new entries pose, we argue that incumbents (1) employ identity-deepening tactics in response to competition in their identity-based niche; (2) use identity-extending tactics in response to competition outside their niche; (3) respond to categorical identity threats by affirming their identities; and (4) are less likely to respond to either competitive or identity threats that originate from new entrants that do not clearly fit in the shared identity schema. We find support for our predictions in analyses using data on the population of Turkish universities over a 30-year period. We discuss theoretical implications for ecological and socio-cognitive studies of markets and practical implications for predicting patterns of strategic interaction and disruptive potential of new entrants.
Citation Count: 0
Universities Between Revenue and Status: a Typology of Organizational Responses
(Wiley Periodicals, inc, 2023) Topaler, Basak; Kayabasi, Akin
Prior research on behavioral responses to performance has provided limited attention to how different types of performance outcomes interact to affect organizational reactions. Focusing on the pursuit of revenue and status goals by private universities, we offer a typology of organizational responses (i.e., reducing ambitions, compensatory strategies, and complementary use of slack to pursue new opportunities) which are shaped by the set of challenges and capabilities that poor and superior performance in these goal dimensions present. When poor performance in both revenue and status leads to different types of liabilities that together result in a low likelihood of recovery, universities respond by reducing ambitions and diversifying into a lower status market segment, which offers a more promising path to survival. In response to a mixed performance outcome in revenue and status, universities employ compensatory strategies where they make use of the achievement in one goal dimension to repair the damage in the other. Finally, universities expand the scope of activities when they achieve superior performance in both goals, and the resulting slack in revenue and status provides complementary capabilities to pursue new opportunities. These findings extend the early Carnegie proposal and indicate that the portfolio of organizational responses to performance gaps may be broader than previously considered.