Founder–inventors and their investors: Spurring firm survival and growth

The role of founders and founder competences is critical as firms progress along their life cycles, whereby founders face decisions about which tasks deserve their attention and which ones they can delegate to their employees, middle-management, and/or new hires. One key strategic choice for founders is whether to engage in inventive activities themselves and remain engaged. Based on a large firm dataset, we find that founders’ inventive activities spur survival and growth. Furthermore, venture capital investors leverage the effect on growth because they often bring in their own industry expertise, turn attention to the core capabilities, and revitalize the top management team. These investor activities enable founders to focus their attention on areas in which their involvement best supports the firm’s performance, namely inventive activities.