Browsing by Author "Topaler, Basak"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Citation - WoS: 5
Citation - Scopus: 6
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 - WoS: 1
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.
Signaling Shaped by the Context: Early-Stage Funding in the Turkish Startup Ecosystem
(Sciendo, 2025) Topaler, Basak; Khan, Hamza
Providers of early-stage financing tend to be highly selective due to significant uncertainty surrounding the future potential of new businesses. Since these ventures typically lack established performance records, potential investors focus on observable qualities of the founder as signals of the venture's viability and chances for success in the market. Despite extensive research on new venture signaling and financing, the impact of context on investors' decision-making has not been thoroughly explored. This oversight is significant because both firm performance and investor decision-making are influenced by economic, social, and institutional contexts. This study aims to address this gap in the literature by identifying sector-level, entrepreneurial ecosystem-level, and economy-level factors that serve as contextual influences on new venture signaling. We examine early-stage angel and venture capital investments in Turkey, which is an emerging economy with a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem. Our results on the sample of 2,231 startups show that returnee founders are more likely to obtain early-stage financing than local entrepreneurs, and investors tend to hold particularly favorable views of returnee entrepreneurs in high-tech industries. Moreover, the likelihood of securing investment increases with the diversity of the founder's prior work experience, a trend that has been amplified during the heightened turbulence caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, investors' evaluations of female entrepreneurs slightly improve as women-led startups become more prevalent in the ecosystem and gain legitimacy. These findings indicate that finance providers have a significantly broad attention span for context-specific influences, and their decisions are shaped by both rational and socio-cognitive processes.