Entrepreneurial and established firms form collaborative relationships to commercialize products. Through such ties, entrepreneurs seek (1) development help to hone ideas into marketable products and (2) access to markets. In most cases, entrepreneurs face a trade-off: they can be a big fish in a small pond, getting more attention and development help from a smaller firm with less market access; or a small fish in a big pond, getting less attention and help from a larger firm with more market access. Our study investigates what goes into choosing between these options. Drawing from resource dependence theory and an empirical study of tie formation between developers and publishers of PlayStation2 video games, we develop and test a framework that identifies the key decision variables and focuses on two moderators—resource need evolution and resource uncertainty related to competition—that explain whether big fish (more development help) or big pond (more market access) drives tie formation. Our findings point to prospective peers as one of the significant decision criteria at tie formation and highlight the dynamic nature of resource dependence. Altogether, the results give resource dependence theory a dynamic element it has lacked in the past.

中文翻译：

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大鱼对比 大池塘？企业家、老牌公司和领带形成的前因

创业公司和老牌公司形成合作关系以将产品商业化。通过这种联系，企业家寻求 (1) 发展帮助，将想法磨练成适销对路的产品，以及 (2) 进入市场。在大多数情况下，企业家面临着一种权衡：他们可以成为小池塘里的大鱼，从市场准入较少的小公司那里获得更多的关注和发展帮助；或者是大池塘里的一条小鱼，从拥有更多市场准入的大公司那里得到较少的关注和帮助。我们的研究调查了在这些选项之间进行选择的原因。借鉴资源依赖理论和 PlayStation2 视频游戏开发商和发行商之间关系形成的实证研究，我们开发并测试了一个框架，该框架确定了关键决策变量并侧重于两个调节因素——资源需求演变和与竞争相关的资源不确定性——这解释了是大鱼（更多的发展帮助）还是大池塘（更多的市场准入）推动了关系的形成。我们的研究结果指出，潜在的同行是关系形成的重要决策标准之一，并突出了资源依赖的动态性质。总而言之，这些结果为资源依赖理论提供了过去所缺乏的动态元素。