Catalyzing New Ventures: The Role of Strategic Human Capital Analytics & Digital Leadership Capabilities

Abstract

The thesis conducts two studies analyzing factors contributing to improvement of new ventures. The first study (Model 1) focuses on strategic human capital analytics and new venture performance. Strategic human capital analytics has proven to be promising for improved organizational performance. However, research remains unclear about its influence on new venture performance. To address this gap, this study investigates the relationship between strategic human capital analytics and new venture performance relationship via generative capabilities with the moderating role of dual nationality founding members. The second study (Model 2) focuses on digital leadership capabilities and business model innovation. Research has shown that business model innovation can facilitate most ventures to innovate and remain competitive, yet there has been limited work on how digital leadership capabilities influence business model innovation. Building on the dynamic capabilities view, we address this gap by linking digital leadership capabilities with business model innovation via managerial decision-making through provision of grants received by new ventures. Building on the dynamic capabilities view (DCV), our analyses for both the studies are based on a sample of 313 founding members of new tech ventures. SPSS Process MACRO has been used in order to analyze the moderated mediation in both the studies. Research results, for study 1, show that the generative capability mediates the relationship between strategic human capital analytics and new venture performance. Whereas, the dual nationality of a founding member strengthens the relationship between strategic human capital analytics and generative capability due to their diverse perspective, larger networks, cognitive flexibility, and resilience which are important for generative capabilities and strategic human capital analytics. This study concludes that having a founding member with dual nationality proves to be beneficial for the new ventures and enhances their performance as dual nationality founding member tends to have a moderating impact on the relationship between strategic human capital analytics and new venture performance with the mediating effect of generative capability. The study provides useful implications for policymakers and new venture founders by highlighting the importance of generative capability and SHCA. The study contributes to the management literature via focusing on new venture context. In study 2, it is found that digital leadership capabilities foster the business model innovation of the new ventures because they enable new ventures to capitalize on digital technologies and create new ways of generating value for the customers and themselves. Moreover, managerial decision-making mediates digital leadership capabilities and business model innovation relationship. We found that grants tend to be an influencer in the interplay between digital leadership and business model innovation through managerial decision-making. From a managerial point of view, our results suggest that digital leadership capabilities amongst the leaders are integral for new venture business model innovation and leaders need to invest in digital-specific leadership development programs.