Feedback approaches and knowledge intensity in new ventures

Abstract: New ventures face difficulties as they often lack the market information required to make well-founded decisions. While all new ventures suffer the increased likelihood of failure, feedback could be a technique to minimize knowledge gaps between the new venture and the market. The aim of this study is to explore feedback in an entrepreneurial context and contribute to the term feedback in new venture literature. The study analyzes feedback behavior, different types of feedback from various feedback sources in new ventures. The study takes a “grounded like” approach focusing on iterations between emerging theoretical findings and established theories with the purpose of finding and bridging research gaps. Data for this study were collected through semi-structured interviews with the founders of nine selected new ventures. The results suggested that there may be a relationship between the factors entrepreneurial openness, feedback types, and feedback sources. Moreover, it was revealed that current entrepreneurship literature could not explain the complexity of the term feedback in new ventures. The interconnection between the factors were thus conceptualized into the new factor and model “Feedback approach”. The study concluded that, that understanding the factors behind “Feedback approach” could support ventures’ awareness of feedback’s value. It may also aid new ventures in accelerating the process of knowledge acquisition from different knowledge domains. Hence the study has initiated an extension of the theoretical understanding of the term feedback, describing its driving forces, content and origin in a new venture setting. The shortage of existing literature on this subject has increased the study’s relevance.