Pub Date : 2025-09-11DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00568
Johannes Hagen , Lucia Naldi , Charlie Karlsson
This study contributes to the growing body of research on the relationship between founders' age and new venture performance, addressing existing gaps regarding founders approaching or surpassing retirement age. By analyzing comprehensive Swedish administrative data covering all newly incorporated firms and their founders, we first document an inverse U-shaped relationship between founders' age at founding and firm survival, as well as between founders' aging and employment growth. However, our findings reveal significant disruptions in these patterns between ages 60 and 70. Specifically, the relationship between founders' age at founding and firm survival temporarily improves at the conventional retirement age of 65, transitioning into a more nuanced, bimodal M-shaped pattern. In contrast, the relationship between founders' aging and employment growth plateaus around age 65. Using abductive analysis and a regression discontinuity design, we show that the increased firm survival observed after age 65 is influenced by a different selection of entrepreneurs, as individuals with enhanced financial security from pension access, along with previous industry experience and high levels of education, are more likely to start businesses at this stage.
{"title":"Aged to perfection? Unpacking the curvilinear relationship between founder age and new venture performance","authors":"Johannes Hagen , Lucia Naldi , Charlie Karlsson","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00568","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00568","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study contributes to the growing body of research on the relationship between founders' age and new venture performance, addressing existing gaps regarding founders approaching or surpassing retirement age. By analyzing comprehensive Swedish administrative data covering all newly incorporated firms and their founders, we first document an inverse U-shaped relationship between founders' age at founding and firm survival, as well as between founders' aging and employment growth. However, our findings reveal significant disruptions in these patterns between ages 60 and 70. Specifically, the relationship between founders' age at founding and firm survival temporarily improves at the conventional retirement age of 65, transitioning into a more nuanced, bimodal M-shaped pattern. In contrast, the relationship between founders' aging and employment growth plateaus around age 65. Using abductive analysis and a regression discontinuity design, we show that the increased firm survival observed after age 65 is influenced by a different selection of entrepreneurs, as individuals with enhanced financial security from pension access, along with previous industry experience and high levels of education, are more likely to start businesses at this stage.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"24 ","pages":"Article e00568"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145048322","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-09DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00569
Jacob A. Waddingham , Debby Osias , Phillip E. Davis
A growing area of interest in the entrepreneurship literature examines the communal spaces where maker entrepreneurs interact, create, and sell their novel artifacts. However, we know surprisingly little about how these individuals communicate their entrepreneurial endeavors to their local community, and how this communication affects key stakeholder engagement. Using a unique social media dataset of 48 maker entrepreneurs who participated in a community-based event, we find support for our theorizing. Our results reveal a negative relationship between agentic language and online stakeholder engagement, whereas communal language is positively related to stakeholder engagement. Interestingly, the negative relationship between agentic language and online stakeholder engagement is stronger for local maker entrepreneurs. Supplemental interviews with maker entrepreneurs provide additional insights into their feedback-seeking behaviors and networking within the maker community.
{"title":"The effect of maker entrepreneur's agency and communion language on stakeholder engagement","authors":"Jacob A. Waddingham , Debby Osias , Phillip E. Davis","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00569","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00569","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A growing area of interest in the entrepreneurship literature examines the communal spaces where maker entrepreneurs interact, create, and sell their novel artifacts. However, we know surprisingly little about how these individuals communicate their entrepreneurial endeavors to their local community, and how this communication affects key stakeholder engagement. Using a unique social media dataset of 48 maker entrepreneurs who participated in a community-based event, we find support for our theorizing. Our results reveal a negative relationship between agentic language and online stakeholder engagement, whereas communal language is positively related to stakeholder engagement. Interestingly, the negative relationship between agentic language and online stakeholder engagement is stronger for local maker entrepreneurs. Supplemental interviews with maker entrepreneurs provide additional insights into their feedback-seeking behaviors and networking within the maker community.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"24 ","pages":"Article e00569"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145019081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-22DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00567
Ewald Kibler , Eero Vaara , Lauri Laine
We have witnessed a proliferation of theory-building qualitative research in entrepreneurship and management studies over the past two decades. While this overall trend is worth celebrating, we argue that it is time to pause and reflect on the broader theoretical and practical impact of this body of work. Although methodological sophistication and the use of structured templates have enhanced rigor, the theoretical models generated through qualitative inquiry are rarely revisited or extended in subsequent research or practice. Thus, we suggest moving beyond the production of ‘stand-alone’ theoretical models toward what we call insightful theory-building, a mode of inquiry that prioritizes the development of clear, actionable insights that others can build upon, thereby enabling stepwise, cumulative theory development. To support this shift, we offer seven interrelated development strategies: clarifying, zooming in, connecting, situating, sharing, countering, and experimenting. These strategies are intended to foster more substantive, reflexive, and generative theorizing within qualitative research in entrepreneurship and management studies.
{"title":"Cultivating insightful theory-building in qualitative research","authors":"Ewald Kibler , Eero Vaara , Lauri Laine","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00567","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00567","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We have witnessed a proliferation of theory-building qualitative research in entrepreneurship and management studies over the past two decades. While this overall trend is worth celebrating, we argue that it is time to pause and reflect on the broader theoretical and practical impact of this body of work. Although methodological sophistication and the use of structured templates have enhanced rigor, the theoretical models generated through qualitative inquiry are rarely revisited or extended in subsequent research or practice. Thus, we suggest moving beyond the production of ‘stand-alone’ theoretical models toward what we call <em>insightful theory-building</em>, a mode of inquiry that prioritizes the development of clear, actionable insights that others can build upon, thereby enabling stepwise, cumulative theory development. To support this shift, we offer seven interrelated development strategies: clarifying, zooming in, connecting, situating, sharing, countering, and experimenting. These strategies are intended to foster more substantive, reflexive, and generative theorizing within qualitative research in entrepreneurship and management studies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"24 ","pages":"Article e00567"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144886283","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-22DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00564
Karina Kappe , Diemo Urbig , Stephan Lengsfeld , Jon C. Carr , Christian Rupietta
{"title":"When entrepreneurship and employment collide: Conflicts of hybrid entrepreneurs and their impact on wage employment satisfaction","authors":"Karina Kappe , Diemo Urbig , Stephan Lengsfeld , Jon C. Carr , Christian Rupietta","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00564","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00564","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"24 ","pages":"Article e00564"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144886435","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-21DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00565
Marilla G. Hayman , Shane W. Reid , Jessica F. Kirk , Devalina Nag
Sexual harassment continues to be a common yet understudied problem that occurs in entrepreneurial environments. Although prior studies have clarified its impacts in conventional organizations, the distinct effects of harassment in the informal, high-pressure realm of entrepreneurship remain largely overlooked. We address this gap by investigating how both anticipated and experienced sexual harassment may influence women's participation, actions, and success in entrepreneurship. Adapting insights from the organizational behavior and sexual harassment literatures, we examine the effects of harassment not only on individual women entrepreneurs but also on stakeholders and broader ecosystems. Anticipated harassment may discourage women from entering high-growth sectors or participating in vital networking and fundraising efforts, while experienced harassment experiences can result in psychological stress, diminished visibility, and early departure from ventures. Stakeholders—including mentors, investors, and family—may also shift their engagement in response to perceived risks, limiting access to essential support. At the ecosystem level, harassment likely reinforces exclusionary norms and creates structural barriers that impede gender equity and innovation. Through this multilevel perspective, we provide a framework for better understanding the compounding effects of harassment on women in entrepreneurship and propose new directions for future research.
{"title":"Exploring the impact of sexual harassment in entrepreneurial contexts: A call to action and research roadmap","authors":"Marilla G. Hayman , Shane W. Reid , Jessica F. Kirk , Devalina Nag","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00565","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00565","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sexual harassment continues to be a common yet understudied problem that occurs in entrepreneurial environments. Although prior studies have clarified its impacts in conventional organizations, the distinct effects of harassment in the informal, high-pressure realm of entrepreneurship remain largely overlooked. We address this gap by investigating how both anticipated and experienced sexual harassment may influence women's participation, actions, and success in entrepreneurship. Adapting insights from the organizational behavior and sexual harassment literatures, we examine the effects of harassment not only on individual women entrepreneurs but also on stakeholders and broader ecosystems. Anticipated harassment may discourage women from entering high-growth sectors or participating in vital networking and fundraising efforts, while experienced harassment experiences can result in psychological stress, diminished visibility, and early departure from ventures. Stakeholders—including mentors, investors, and family—may also shift their engagement in response to perceived risks, limiting access to essential support. At the ecosystem level, harassment likely reinforces exclusionary norms and creates structural barriers that impede gender equity and innovation. Through this multilevel perspective, we provide a framework for better understanding the compounding effects of harassment on women in entrepreneurship and propose new directions for future research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"24 ","pages":"Article e00565"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144879895","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-21DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00563
Adam K. Frost , Shuang L. Frost , Christian Garmann Johnsen
{"title":"Status entrepreneurship: The entrepreneurial pursuit of social distinction","authors":"Adam K. Frost , Shuang L. Frost , Christian Garmann Johnsen","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00563","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00563","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"24 ","pages":"Article e00563"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144886284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-19DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00561
Marisa C. Gonzales , Jeremy C. Short
For female student-athletes in the US, the advent of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) possibilities represents a distinct form of entrepreneurship that demands two often competing forms of labor: athletic and aesthetic. Unlike professional athletes, college athletes typically lack the same resources, experience, and institutional support, making their NIL engagement both more precarious and more revealing of the structural dynamics at play. Some female athletes face a dilemma where monetary gain might come at the perceived cost of promoting their aesthetic beauty rather than their athletic prowess to maximize NIL opportunities. The motivation for this study was to better understand how student-athletes are navigating the NIL space and how they perceive themselves, their labor, and the efforts of others engaged in similar work.
Our work suggests young athletes should be encouraged to build and manage their social media platforms strategically, while proactively addressing potential obstacles related to NIL participation, branding, and personal boundaries. Universities should support female athletes by fostering interdisciplinary partnerships that encourage collaboration between athletic departments and programs, such as business, mass media, or communications, to help student-athletes develop entrepreneurial skills and explore new NIL opportunities. Athletes can also be supported by creating spaces for peer-to-peer engagement, such as regular meetups or workshops, where student-athletes can share NIL experiences and strategies. Regional NIL conferences could explore area-specific opportunities and challenges to help support the early development of digital presence. Individuals can support female student-athletes by engaging with crowdfunding websites such as Opendorse and purchasing an autograph or shout-out from a female athlete. Finally, individuals could support university collectives that provide NIL opportunities for women, and make their support felt by attending women's sporting events.
{"title":"The female athlete's dilemma in the age of Name, Image, and Likeness","authors":"Marisa C. Gonzales , Jeremy C. Short","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00561","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00561","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>For female student-athletes in the US, the advent of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) possibilities represents a distinct form of entrepreneurship that demands two often competing forms of labor: athletic and aesthetic. Unlike professional athletes, college athletes typically lack the same resources, experience, and institutional support, making their NIL engagement both more precarious and more revealing of the structural dynamics at play. Some female athletes face a dilemma where monetary gain might come at the perceived cost of promoting their aesthetic beauty rather than their athletic prowess to maximize NIL opportunities. The motivation for this study was to better understand how student-athletes are navigating the NIL space and how they perceive themselves, their labor, and the efforts of others engaged in similar work.</div><div>Our work suggests young athletes should be encouraged to build and manage their social media platforms strategically, while proactively addressing potential obstacles related to NIL participation, branding, and personal boundaries. Universities should support female athletes by fostering interdisciplinary partnerships that encourage collaboration between athletic departments and programs, such as business, mass media, or communications, to help student-athletes develop entrepreneurial skills and explore new NIL opportunities. Athletes can also be supported by creating spaces for peer-to-peer engagement, such as regular meetups or workshops, where student-athletes can share NIL experiences and strategies. Regional NIL conferences could explore area-specific opportunities and challenges to help support the early development of digital presence. Individuals can support female student-athletes by engaging with crowdfunding websites such as <em>Opendorse</em> and purchasing an autograph or shout-out from a female athlete. Finally, individuals could support university collectives that provide NIL opportunities for women, and make their support felt by attending women's sporting events.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"24 ","pages":"Article e00561"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144863583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-15DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00560
Hans Rawhouser , Felipe Symmes , Alessia Argiolas
Existing research on the social impact of entrepreneurship lacks theory that adequately incorporates the subjective experience of social impact. We build from Mexican philosopher Katya Mandoki's comprehensive everyday aesthetics model to broadly understand various subjective experiences of social impact. This everyday aesthetics view of social impact allows understanding social impact through those whose voice has largely been missing in research, such as social entrepreneurs, vulnerable communities, and beneficiaries. We outline various ways in which social impact is manifested using Mandoki's four modalities of everyday aesthetics (proxemics, kinetics, emphatics, and fluxion), illustrating using examples from social entrepreneurs in Latin America. We show how four visual methodologies (researcher-led photography and video, photo elicitation, photovoice, and participant drawings) can be used to visually capture these aesthetic manifestations of social impact, illustrating with examples from Africa and Asia.
现有关于创业社会影响的研究缺乏充分纳入社会影响主观经验的理论。我们从墨西哥哲学家Katya Mandoki的综合日常美学模型出发，广义地理解社会影响的各种主观体验。这种关于社会影响的日常美学观点可以通过那些在研究中基本上被忽视的人来理解社会影响，比如社会企业家、弱势群体和受益者。我们概述了使用Mandoki的四种日常美学模式（proxemics, kinetics, emphasis, and fluion）来表现社会影响的各种方式，并使用拉丁美洲社会企业家的例子来说明。我们展示了如何使用四种视觉方法（研究人员主导的摄影和视频，照片引出，照片语音和参与者绘图）来视觉捕捉这些社会影响的美学表现，并举例说明了来自非洲和亚洲的例子。
{"title":"Everyday aesthetics and visual methods for enlarging our approach to social impact","authors":"Hans Rawhouser , Felipe Symmes , Alessia Argiolas","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00560","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00560","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Existing research on the social impact of entrepreneurship lacks theory that adequately incorporates the subjective experience of social impact. We build from Mexican philosopher Katya Mandoki's comprehensive <em>everyday aesthetics</em> model to broadly understand various subjective experiences of social impact. This <em>everyday aesthetics</em> view of social impact allows understanding social impact through those whose voice has largely been missing in research, such as social entrepreneurs, vulnerable communities, and beneficiaries. We outline various ways in which social impact is manifested using Mandoki's four modalities of everyday aesthetics (proxemics, kinetics, emphatics, and fluxion), illustrating using examples from social entrepreneurs in Latin America. We show how four visual methodologies (researcher-led photography and video, photo elicitation, photovoice, and participant drawings) can be used to visually capture these aesthetic manifestations of social impact, illustrating with examples from Africa and Asia.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"24 ","pages":"Article e00560"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144841444","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-13DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00562
Pamela Nowell, Peter Kalum Schou
Being an entrepreneur is often a very emotionally intense experience as entrepreneurs are often driven by strong passion and face many ups and downs in their journey. While prior research has explored relational dynamics in entrepreneurial teams, less is known about how emotional interdependence shapes team functioning over time. Drawing on family systems theory, this paper conceptualizes early-stage entrepreneurial teams as emotionally interdependent systems, offering new insights into why some teams thrive under pressure while others fracture. We argue that team emotion, as well as many team processes and outcomes—such as conflict, turnover, and well-being—emerge not only from individual traits, states, or events, but from underlying and patterned emotional dynamics. In doing so we connect literature on psychological ownership, bonding, and co-founding relationships, offer new conceptual insights, and suggest novel ways of studying early-stage entrepreneurial teams. We conclude with potential research questions to encourage future theory development in the field.
{"title":"The promise of family systems theory in understanding the emotional and interpersonal dynamics of early-stage entrepreneurial teams","authors":"Pamela Nowell, Peter Kalum Schou","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00562","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00562","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Being an entrepreneur is often a very emotionally intense experience as entrepreneurs are often driven by strong passion and face many ups and downs in their journey. While prior research has explored relational dynamics in entrepreneurial teams, less is known about how emotional interdependence shapes team functioning over time. Drawing on family systems theory, this paper conceptualizes early-stage entrepreneurial teams as emotionally interdependent systems, offering new insights into why some teams thrive under pressure while others fracture. We argue that team emotion, as well as many team processes and outcomes—such as conflict, turnover, and well-being—emerge not only from individual traits, states, or events, but from underlying and patterned emotional dynamics. In doing so we connect literature on psychological ownership, bonding, and co-founding relationships, offer new conceptual insights, and suggest novel ways of studying early-stage entrepreneurial teams. We conclude with potential research questions to encourage future theory development in the field.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"24 ","pages":"Article e00562"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144831443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-31DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00558
Shoon Chan Timothy Hor
“Let's manage entrepreneurial ecosystems the way ecologists manage habitats”—that is the challenge posed by Andreas Kuckertz. Yet the literature still lacks concrete guidance for actors who seek to build such habitats in practice. Addressing this gap, I present the Acorns-to-Oak-Trees (A2OT) framework, a design-science artefact that embeds ecosystem sustainability—defined here as the ability of entrepreneurial ecosystems to remain adaptive, inclusive, and supportive of a variety of venture types over time—into their structural design. Using Romme and Dimov's iterative design-science logic, I distil research on ecosystem configuration, resilience, and practitioner wisdom into four design principles: Diverse Seed Bank, Nutrient-Rich Soil, Supportive Climate, and Ecosystem Maintenance. These principles are coupled with a dynamic feedback-loop model and a Context–Agency–Mechanism–Outcome (CAMO) table that identifies actionable levers for policymakers, investors, and support organizations. This design science paper translates Kuckertz's ecological metaphor into a practitioner-ready framework, extending entrepreneurial ecosystem theory by making sustainability and entrepreneurial diversity core design objectives. It also illustrates how design-science methods can generate testable and actionable knowledge. The paper's key insight is that sustainability in ecosystems can be structurally designed by embedding mechanisms that support venture diversity, adaptability, and long-term resilience.
{"title":"Acorns to Oak Trees: Designing entrepreneurial ecosystems for sustainability and diversity","authors":"Shoon Chan Timothy Hor","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00558","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00558","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>“Let's manage entrepreneurial ecosystems the way ecologists manage habitats”—that is the challenge posed by Andreas Kuckertz. Yet the literature still lacks concrete guidance for actors who seek to build such habitats in practice. Addressing this gap, I present the Acorns-to-Oak-Trees (A2OT) framework, a design-science artefact that embeds ecosystem sustainability—defined here as the ability of entrepreneurial ecosystems to remain adaptive, inclusive, and supportive of a variety of venture types over time—into their structural design. Using Romme and Dimov's iterative design-science logic, I distil research on ecosystem configuration, resilience, and practitioner wisdom into four design principles: <em>Diverse Seed Bank</em>, <em>Nutrient-Rich Soil</em>, <em>Supportive Climate</em>, and <em>Ecosystem Maintenance</em>. These principles are coupled with a dynamic feedback-loop model and a Context–Agency–Mechanism–Outcome (CAMO) table that identifies actionable levers for policymakers, investors, and support organizations. This design science paper translates Kuckertz's ecological metaphor into a practitioner-ready framework, extending entrepreneurial ecosystem theory by making sustainability and entrepreneurial diversity core design objectives. It also illustrates how design-science methods can generate testable and actionable knowledge. The paper's key insight is that sustainability in ecosystems can be structurally designed by embedding mechanisms that support venture diversity, adaptability, and long-term resilience<strong>.</strong></div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"24 ","pages":"Article e00558"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144749583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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