Pub Date : 2025-03-06DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2025.106485
Oana Branzei, Jeffery S. McMullen, Scott L. Newbert, Christian Schwens
When various forms of crisis hit, they can stimulate changes in entrepreneurial agency – the capacity to act (or choose not to) – and the actions entrepreneurs take to mitigate the threats and pursue the new opportunities those crises create. While assessing articles for the Journal of Business Venturing's annual “Best Paper” award, we observed this to be a recurring theme across a significant number of the studies published in 2024. Inspired by this research, we summarize the 17 articles that explored this theme and develop a framework that highlights material, relational, and discursive concerns brought about by crises. In response entrepreneurs across individual or collective levels take action to preserve or cultivate distinct forms of entrepreneurial agency – adaptive, allied, and censored – and to resolve various paradoxes of entrepreneurial agency. We close with a brief discussion of the growing relevance of a social symbolic lens in reconciling how entrepreneurs construe and respond to crises and how the specific forms of agency and paradox identified could inform theory both within and beyond entrepreneurship.
{"title":"Journal of Business Venturing 2024 year in review: The year of exercising entrepreneurial agency in response to crises","authors":"Oana Branzei, Jeffery S. McMullen, Scott L. Newbert, Christian Schwens","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2025.106485","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2025.106485","url":null,"abstract":"When various forms of crisis hit, they can stimulate changes in entrepreneurial agency – the capacity to act (or choose not to) – and the actions entrepreneurs take to mitigate the threats and pursue the new opportunities those crises create. While assessing articles for the <ce:italic>Journal of Business Venturing</ce:italic>'s annual “Best Paper” award, we observed this to be a recurring theme across a significant number of the studies published in 2024. Inspired by this research, we summarize the 17 articles that explored this theme and develop a framework that highlights material, relational, and discursive concerns brought about by crises. In response entrepreneurs across individual or collective levels take action to preserve or cultivate distinct forms of entrepreneurial agency – adaptive, allied, and censored – and to resolve various paradoxes of entrepreneurial agency. We close with a brief discussion of the growing relevance of a social symbolic lens in reconciling how entrepreneurs construe and respond to crises and how the specific forms of agency and paradox identified could inform theory both within and beyond entrepreneurship.","PeriodicalId":51348,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing","volume":"59 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.7,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143583086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-03-04DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2025.106484
Tatevik Harutyunyan , Bram Timmermans , Lars Frederiksen
Most research on entrepreneurship focuses on entrepreneurs' human and social capital as the drivers of new venture performance. However, less is known about how much the endowments of other strategic human resources, namely board directors, influence new venture performance. To generate new insights on this topic, we theorize and empirically investigate to what extent, and under which conditions, the experience of outside board directors affects new venture growth. Our analysis of Norwegian registry data on 15,594 new ventures does not provide immediate evidence that the presence of outside board directors or their experiences drive new venture growth. However, post hoc analysis suggests that the timing of board entry, combined with industry and directorial experience, plays a significant role in shaping growth outcomes. Additionally, the impact of industrial and directorial experience varies depending on the industry environment.
{"title":"Outside board director experience and the growth of new ventures","authors":"Tatevik Harutyunyan , Bram Timmermans , Lars Frederiksen","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2025.106484","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2025.106484","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Most research on entrepreneurship focuses on entrepreneurs' human and social capital as the drivers of new venture performance. However, less is known about how much the endowments of other strategic human resources, namely board directors, influence new venture performance. To generate new insights on this topic, we theorize and empirically investigate to what extent, and under which conditions, the experience of outside board directors affects new venture growth. Our analysis of Norwegian registry data on 15,594 new ventures does not provide immediate evidence that the presence of outside board directors or their experiences drive new venture growth. However, post hoc analysis suggests that the timing of board entry, combined with industry and directorial experience, plays a significant role in shaping growth outcomes. Additionally, the impact of industrial and directorial experience varies depending on the industry environment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51348,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing","volume":"40 3","pages":"Article 106484"},"PeriodicalIF":7.7,"publicationDate":"2025-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143580357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-11DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2025.106482
Vilma Chila , Koen van den Oever
Despite the significant interest in the composition and dynamics of new venture boards, our understanding of when directors exit the boards of new ventures is limited. Drawing on the organizational life cycles framework and resource dependence arguments, we posit that key life cycle events alter a venture's resource needs and dependencies on the board, occasioning director exit. Specifically, we argue that SBIR funding, Venture Capital rounds of funding, and first alliance act as markers of new venture evolution that render existing dependencies obsolete, increasing the likelihood of director exit. Interviews with board members in the semiconductor industry informed and substantiated our theoretical claims. The results show that SBIR funding and subsequent rounds of VC funding are linked to an increased likelihood of director exit, whereas a venture's first alliance is not. The paper sheds light on the interdependencies between the board's life cycle and the life cycle of the new venture.
{"title":"Time to say goodbye? The role of SBIR funding, VC rounds, and initial alliance for director exit in new ventures","authors":"Vilma Chila , Koen van den Oever","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2025.106482","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2025.106482","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite the significant interest in the composition and dynamics of new venture boards, our understanding of when directors exit the boards of new ventures is limited. Drawing on the organizational life cycles framework and resource dependence arguments, we posit that key life cycle events alter a venture's resource needs and dependencies on the board, occasioning director exit. Specifically, we argue that SBIR funding, Venture Capital rounds of funding, and first alliance act as markers of new venture evolution that render existing dependencies obsolete, increasing the likelihood of director exit. Interviews with board members in the semiconductor industry informed and substantiated our theoretical claims. The results show that SBIR funding and subsequent rounds of VC funding are linked to an increased likelihood of director exit, whereas a venture's first alliance is not. The paper sheds light on the interdependencies between the board's life cycle and the life cycle of the new venture.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51348,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing","volume":"40 3","pages":"Article 106482"},"PeriodicalIF":7.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143388012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-17DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106431
Sam Garg , Michael Howard , Emily Cox Pahnke
<div><div>In the emerging literature on venture boards, little research examines the association between different categories of venture directors and strategic firm outcomes. We conduct an empirical inquiry into how founder-directors, venture capitalist investor-directors and corporate venture investor-directors are related to inter-organizational alliances, innovation, and exits. In our longitudinal study based on hand-collected data on 156 medical device ventures in the US, we find that founder-directors are positively associated with patents and negatively associated with supply chain agreements. VC-directors are positively associated with exits but are negatively associated with R&D, supply chain agreements and patents. CVC-directors are negatively associated with patents and first product introductions. Adopting an abductive approach, we suggest potential mechanisms based on interviews with venture directors and CEOs and suggest future directions for venture boards scholarship.</div></div><div><h3>Executive summary</h3><div>Scandals at private firms such as Theranos and Uber (when it was private) have highlighted both the influence that boards of directors have on these firms and the relative opacity with which they operate. While there is a considerable literature, both theoretical and empirical, on the boards of public companies, there is a relative paucity of research on governance in private firms. At the same time, the distinctive features of private firm governance may limit the applicability of insights from public boards; one difference is that in venture boards, directors often have significant ownership stakes in the companies as founders and representatives of venture capital firms (VCs) or the investment arms of other corporations (CVCs). As part of this special issue on the boards of private firms, we undertake an empirical investigation of the impact that these types of directors have on a variety of firm outcomes.</div><div>We build on research on venture investing which hints at, but does not disentangle, the distinct impact of investors that have board seats versus investors that do not. Our analyses explores the impact that three types of venture directors- Founder-directors, VC-directors and CVC directors- have on strategic firm outcomes they are likely to influence in our context: inter-organizational ties, innovation and exit events.</div><div>We conduct our study within a sector of the US medical device industry, where both venture-directors and venture-investors are prevalent and where previous research indicates they are likely to impact ventures. We take an abductive approach to analyze hand-collected longitudinal data on the directors of ventures and on the firms in this industry between 1997 and 2018. Overall, the results suggest that different types of directors can be significantly associated with ventures strategic outcomes, with each type of director bringing their unique focus and expertise to the table.
{"title":"Directors in new technology-based ventures: An empirical inquiry","authors":"Sam Garg , Michael Howard , Emily Cox Pahnke","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106431","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106431","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the emerging literature on venture boards, little research examines the association between different categories of venture directors and strategic firm outcomes. We conduct an empirical inquiry into how founder-directors, venture capitalist investor-directors and corporate venture investor-directors are related to inter-organizational alliances, innovation, and exits. In our longitudinal study based on hand-collected data on 156 medical device ventures in the US, we find that founder-directors are positively associated with patents and negatively associated with supply chain agreements. VC-directors are positively associated with exits but are negatively associated with R&D, supply chain agreements and patents. CVC-directors are negatively associated with patents and first product introductions. Adopting an abductive approach, we suggest potential mechanisms based on interviews with venture directors and CEOs and suggest future directions for venture boards scholarship.</div></div><div><h3>Executive summary</h3><div>Scandals at private firms such as Theranos and Uber (when it was private) have highlighted both the influence that boards of directors have on these firms and the relative opacity with which they operate. While there is a considerable literature, both theoretical and empirical, on the boards of public companies, there is a relative paucity of research on governance in private firms. At the same time, the distinctive features of private firm governance may limit the applicability of insights from public boards; one difference is that in venture boards, directors often have significant ownership stakes in the companies as founders and representatives of venture capital firms (VCs) or the investment arms of other corporations (CVCs). As part of this special issue on the boards of private firms, we undertake an empirical investigation of the impact that these types of directors have on a variety of firm outcomes.</div><div>We build on research on venture investing which hints at, but does not disentangle, the distinct impact of investors that have board seats versus investors that do not. Our analyses explores the impact that three types of venture directors- Founder-directors, VC-directors and CVC directors- have on strategic firm outcomes they are likely to influence in our context: inter-organizational ties, innovation and exit events.</div><div>We conduct our study within a sector of the US medical device industry, where both venture-directors and venture-investors are prevalent and where previous research indicates they are likely to impact ventures. We take an abductive approach to analyze hand-collected longitudinal data on the directors of ventures and on the firms in this industry between 1997 and 2018. Overall, the results suggest that different types of directors can be significantly associated with ventures strategic outcomes, with each type of director bringing their unique focus and expertise to the table. ","PeriodicalId":51348,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing","volume":"40 2","pages":"Article 106431"},"PeriodicalIF":7.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142989755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-16DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106472
Eva Weissenböck , Nicola Breugst , Anna Brattström
This study offers novel insights into how team structure and flexibility affect pivoting. It details how founding team coordination practices shape individual and collective sensemaking of feedback and efforts to improve a venture idea. Following seven founding teams, we identified how teams with overlapping responsibilities enjoyed the flexibility of both fragmented and holistic sensemaking. This enabled them to pivot when needed but otherwise persevere with their venture idea. In contrast, teams with clear separation of responsibilities engaged in fragmented sensemaking and only persevered with their idea. Our findings advance research on founding team coordination, pivoting, and teams' understanding of their venture ideas.
{"title":"Coordination, sensemaking, and idea work: How founding teams pivot their venture ideas","authors":"Eva Weissenböck , Nicola Breugst , Anna Brattström","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106472","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106472","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study offers novel insights into how team structure and flexibility affect pivoting. It details how founding team coordination practices shape individual and collective sensemaking of feedback and efforts to improve a venture idea. Following seven founding teams, we identified how teams with overlapping responsibilities enjoyed the flexibility of both fragmented and holistic sensemaking. This enabled them to pivot when needed but otherwise persevere with their venture idea. In contrast, teams with clear separation of responsibilities engaged in fragmented sensemaking and only persevered with their idea. Our findings advance research on founding team coordination, pivoting, and teams' understanding of their venture ideas.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51348,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing","volume":"40 2","pages":"Article 106472"},"PeriodicalIF":7.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142989823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-10DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106471
David Bendig , Colin Schulz , Maximilian Möhwald , Patrick Pollok
This study draws on the behavioral agency model to investigate how stock options incentivize CEO risk-taking related to investments in external clean technology (cleantech) ventures. Using longitudinal data from 540 publicly traded firms, we find that current option wealth is negatively associated with corporate cleantech investments while prospective option wealth is positively associated. The results show that founder CEOs, who exhibit different endowment and risk-bearing patterns than hired CEOs, do not perceive cleantech investments as mixed gambles. These findings advance understanding of the interplay between equity-based incentives, CEO characteristics, and incumbents' pursuit of sustainable business practices.
{"title":"Fear the loss or welcome the gains? How stock options influence CEO risk-taking in corporate cleantech investments","authors":"David Bendig , Colin Schulz , Maximilian Möhwald , Patrick Pollok","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106471","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106471","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study draws on the behavioral agency model to investigate how stock options incentivize CEO risk-taking related to investments in external clean technology (cleantech) ventures. Using longitudinal data from 540 publicly traded firms, we find that current option wealth is negatively associated with corporate cleantech investments while prospective option wealth is positively associated. The results show that founder CEOs, who exhibit different endowment and risk-bearing patterns than hired CEOs, do not perceive cleantech investments as mixed gambles. These findings advance understanding of the interplay between equity-based incentives, CEO characteristics, and incumbents' pursuit of sustainable business practices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51348,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing","volume":"40 2","pages":"Article 106471"},"PeriodicalIF":7.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142975133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-04DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106470
Yasmin O. Schwegler , Jeffrey S. Petty
<div><div>Environmental awareness and concern are implicit in virtually the entire environmental-entrepreneurship literature but typically not explicitly analyzed. To better understand what makes environmental entrepreneurs start their ventures, we need to understand those omnipresent variables. We therefore deconstruct environmental awareness and concern into different aspects, which we manipulate separately in two experimental studies. Our main finding is that key stakeholders' environmental awareness and concern are drivers of environmental entrepreneurship, as they signal to entrepreneurs that stakeholders are ready to support it. We thus identify a way of increasing environmental entrepreneurial intent in order to transform environmental problems into economic opportunities.</div></div><div><h3>Executive summary</h3><div>There is a growing belief among scholars and practitioners that environmental entrepreneurs can play a crucial role in addressing global environmental degradation by developing and providing innovative solutions that lead the way toward a more sustainable business world (Dean and McMullen, 2007; Hockerts and Wüstenhagen, 2010; Johnson and Schaltegger, 2019). A growing literature is investigating the drivers of such entrepreneurship (e.g., Muñoz and Cohen, 2018; Schaltegger, 2002; Shepherd et al., 2013; York et al., 2016), but two drivers — environmental awareness and concern — are typically only implicit in this literature, even though they are underlying most drivers that are investigated explicitly (e.g., Cohen and Winn, 2007; Dean and McMullen, 2007; Markman et al., 2019). Explicitly analyzing the role of environmental awareness and concern is crucial to better understand what makes environmental entrepreneurs start their ventures.</div><div>In this paper, we deconstruct environmental awareness and concern. The experimental method is ideally suited for that aim (Grégoire et al., 2019; Stevenson et al., 2020; Williams et al., 2019), as it allows us to manipulate several forms of awareness and concern in different experimental groups with slightly different pre-tested articles about an environmental problem. We then measure participants' intent to start a venture that addresses that problem, relative to their intent to start similar ventures that do not address the problem. In this way, we test the effect of the following types of environmental awareness and concern on environmental entrepreneurial intent (EEI): entrepreneurs' personal awareness, awareness of a solution to the problem, and awareness of other entrepreneurs addressing the problem; public awareness; entrepreneurs' own concern; public concern; customers' concern; and investors' concern.</div><div>The results indicate that especially customers' and investors' awareness of and concern about environmental problems increase entrepreneurs' intent to start environmental ventures. One explanation is that information about stakeholder concern, customers' willingness to
{"title":"How environmental awareness and concern affect environmental entrepreneurial intent","authors":"Yasmin O. Schwegler , Jeffrey S. Petty","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106470","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106470","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Environmental awareness and concern are implicit in virtually the entire environmental-entrepreneurship literature but typically not explicitly analyzed. To better understand what makes environmental entrepreneurs start their ventures, we need to understand those omnipresent variables. We therefore deconstruct environmental awareness and concern into different aspects, which we manipulate separately in two experimental studies. Our main finding is that key stakeholders' environmental awareness and concern are drivers of environmental entrepreneurship, as they signal to entrepreneurs that stakeholders are ready to support it. We thus identify a way of increasing environmental entrepreneurial intent in order to transform environmental problems into economic opportunities.</div></div><div><h3>Executive summary</h3><div>There is a growing belief among scholars and practitioners that environmental entrepreneurs can play a crucial role in addressing global environmental degradation by developing and providing innovative solutions that lead the way toward a more sustainable business world (Dean and McMullen, 2007; Hockerts and Wüstenhagen, 2010; Johnson and Schaltegger, 2019). A growing literature is investigating the drivers of such entrepreneurship (e.g., Muñoz and Cohen, 2018; Schaltegger, 2002; Shepherd et al., 2013; York et al., 2016), but two drivers — environmental awareness and concern — are typically only implicit in this literature, even though they are underlying most drivers that are investigated explicitly (e.g., Cohen and Winn, 2007; Dean and McMullen, 2007; Markman et al., 2019). Explicitly analyzing the role of environmental awareness and concern is crucial to better understand what makes environmental entrepreneurs start their ventures.</div><div>In this paper, we deconstruct environmental awareness and concern. The experimental method is ideally suited for that aim (Grégoire et al., 2019; Stevenson et al., 2020; Williams et al., 2019), as it allows us to manipulate several forms of awareness and concern in different experimental groups with slightly different pre-tested articles about an environmental problem. We then measure participants' intent to start a venture that addresses that problem, relative to their intent to start similar ventures that do not address the problem. In this way, we test the effect of the following types of environmental awareness and concern on environmental entrepreneurial intent (EEI): entrepreneurs' personal awareness, awareness of a solution to the problem, and awareness of other entrepreneurs addressing the problem; public awareness; entrepreneurs' own concern; public concern; customers' concern; and investors' concern.</div><div>The results indicate that especially customers' and investors' awareness of and concern about environmental problems increase entrepreneurs' intent to start environmental ventures. One explanation is that information about stakeholder concern, customers' willingness to","PeriodicalId":51348,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing","volume":"40 2","pages":"Article 106470"},"PeriodicalIF":7.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142929205","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-30DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106468
Corinna Vera Hedwig Schmidt , Patrick Sven Gaßmann , Nele McElvany , Tessa Christina Flatten
<div><div>While external funding is indispensable for most entrepreneurs to scale their ventures, entrepreneurship literature highlights the additional benefits of investors' continued involvement, such as access to their expertise and network. Angel investors, whose primary value-add often emerges through their relationship with the entrepreneurs, generate particularly pronounced benefits. Entrepreneurship research has established that bringing angel investors on board comes at the cost of relinquishing partial equity, which restricts entrepreneurs' control over their ventures; however, the individual-level consequences of funding for entrepreneurs remain largely unexplored. To address this gap, we study how angels' funding and their post-investment involvement in the venture affect entrepreneurs' eudaimonic well-being in the long term. Drawing on self-determination theory, we explore further how the psychological need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness mediates the relationship between angel funding and entrepreneurs' well-being. Self-determination theory states that individuals' verbalized language reflects their needs; accordingly, we use Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) analysis on a unique dataset of almost 125 million words derived from the tweets of 1667 entrepreneurs on X (formerly Twitter). As hypothesized, we find a positive association between angel funding and entrepreneurs' well-being. Autonomy negatively mediates this relationship, while competence and relatedness mediate it positively. We advance research on entrepreneurs' eudaimonic well-being and extend the literature on self-determination theory and individual-level consequences of angel funding.</div></div><div><h3>Executive summary</h3><div>Entrepreneurs often face a difficult trade-off: They must decide whether to accept funding from angel investors or relinquish some control over their venture. While much research centers on the business implications of this trade-off (Davila et al., 2003; Politis, 2008), the personal impact on entrepreneurs' eudaimonic well-being remains underexplored (Collewaert and Sapienza, 2016). This knowledge gap is concerning because entrepreneurs' well-being closely relates to their ventures' performance (Stephan et al., 2020b; Wach et al., 2016).</div><div>Recent calls for research (Stephan et al., 2023) emphasize the need to understand how external factors, like investor involvement, affect entrepreneurs' well-being by influencing the extent to which their psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are satisfied, as outlined by self-determination theory (SDT) (<span><span>Deci and Ryan, 1985</span></span>, 2000). Despite the recognized importance of these factors, the impact of angel investors, who often form close relationships with entrepreneurs and engage deeply in their ventures (Fairchild, 2011; Politis, 2008), has been largely overlooked.</div><div>Our study addresses this gap by examining how angel funding
{"title":"Angel funding and entrepreneurs' well-being: The mediating role of autonomy, competence, and relatedness","authors":"Corinna Vera Hedwig Schmidt , Patrick Sven Gaßmann , Nele McElvany , Tessa Christina Flatten","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106468","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106468","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While external funding is indispensable for most entrepreneurs to scale their ventures, entrepreneurship literature highlights the additional benefits of investors' continued involvement, such as access to their expertise and network. Angel investors, whose primary value-add often emerges through their relationship with the entrepreneurs, generate particularly pronounced benefits. Entrepreneurship research has established that bringing angel investors on board comes at the cost of relinquishing partial equity, which restricts entrepreneurs' control over their ventures; however, the individual-level consequences of funding for entrepreneurs remain largely unexplored. To address this gap, we study how angels' funding and their post-investment involvement in the venture affect entrepreneurs' eudaimonic well-being in the long term. Drawing on self-determination theory, we explore further how the psychological need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness mediates the relationship between angel funding and entrepreneurs' well-being. Self-determination theory states that individuals' verbalized language reflects their needs; accordingly, we use Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) analysis on a unique dataset of almost 125 million words derived from the tweets of 1667 entrepreneurs on X (formerly Twitter). As hypothesized, we find a positive association between angel funding and entrepreneurs' well-being. Autonomy negatively mediates this relationship, while competence and relatedness mediate it positively. We advance research on entrepreneurs' eudaimonic well-being and extend the literature on self-determination theory and individual-level consequences of angel funding.</div></div><div><h3>Executive summary</h3><div>Entrepreneurs often face a difficult trade-off: They must decide whether to accept funding from angel investors or relinquish some control over their venture. While much research centers on the business implications of this trade-off (Davila et al., 2003; Politis, 2008), the personal impact on entrepreneurs' eudaimonic well-being remains underexplored (Collewaert and Sapienza, 2016). This knowledge gap is concerning because entrepreneurs' well-being closely relates to their ventures' performance (Stephan et al., 2020b; Wach et al., 2016).</div><div>Recent calls for research (Stephan et al., 2023) emphasize the need to understand how external factors, like investor involvement, affect entrepreneurs' well-being by influencing the extent to which their psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are satisfied, as outlined by self-determination theory (SDT) (<span><span>Deci and Ryan, 1985</span></span>, 2000). Despite the recognized importance of these factors, the impact of angel investors, who often form close relationships with entrepreneurs and engage deeply in their ventures (Fairchild, 2011; Politis, 2008), has been largely overlooked.</div><div>Our study addresses this gap by examining how angel funding","PeriodicalId":51348,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing","volume":"40 2","pages":"Article 106468"},"PeriodicalIF":7.7,"publicationDate":"2024-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142929207","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-27DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106469
Thomas Standaert , Veroniek Collewaert , Tom Vanacker
Regulatory institutions are double-edged swords: stricter regulations can improve entrepreneurs' access to key resources but also constrain their discretion. Past research has focused on the individual and/or independent influence of regulatory institutions, calling for stricter regulation or deregulation. However, institutional theory suggests that the full configuration of regulatory institutions, including their possibly complex interactions, drives the trade-off between resource access and the constraints imposed by resource providers. Using an inductive approach and fsQCA analysis, we aim to better understand how configurations of regulatory institutions and contextual conditions influence high-growth entrepreneurship (HGE) rates across European countries. We find that three distinct configurations explain high country-level HGE rates, which include different regulatory institutions that sometimes work in opposing ways and do not necessarily work universally across contexts. Overall, this study deepens research at the nexus of institutional theory and high-growth entrepreneurship.
{"title":"Regulatory institutions and cross-country differences in high-growth entrepreneurship rates: A configurational approach","authors":"Thomas Standaert , Veroniek Collewaert , Tom Vanacker","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106469","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106469","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Regulatory institutions are double-edged swords: stricter regulations can improve entrepreneurs' access to key resources but also constrain their discretion. Past research has focused on the individual and/or independent influence of regulatory institutions, calling for stricter regulation <em>or</em> deregulation. However, institutional theory suggests that the full configuration of regulatory institutions, including their possibly complex interactions, drives the trade-off between resource access and the constraints imposed by resource providers. Using an inductive approach and fsQCA analysis, we aim to better understand how configurations of regulatory institutions and contextual conditions influence high-growth entrepreneurship (HGE) rates across European countries. We find that three distinct configurations explain high country-level HGE rates, which include different regulatory institutions that sometimes work in opposing ways and do not necessarily work universally across contexts. Overall, this study deepens research at the nexus of institutional theory and high-growth entrepreneurship.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51348,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing","volume":"40 2","pages":"Article 106469"},"PeriodicalIF":7.7,"publicationDate":"2024-12-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142901954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-18DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106467
Jacob A. Waddingham , Jeffrey A. Chandler , Katherine C. Alexander , Sana Zafar , Aaron Anglin
Drawing from neo-institutional theory, we examine how entrepreneurs' disclosure of leisure activities influences the performance of their crowdfunding campaigns. We propose that entrepreneurs' disclosure of leisure activities in their campaigns negatively impacts crowdfunding performance because an institutional norm exists pressuring early-stage entrepreneurs to conform to workaholism. Using a sample of 8511 Kickstarter campaigns and a randomized experiment (n = 436), we find evidence that entrepreneurs who disclose leisure activities are viewed as less workaholic. This, in turn, hurts backers' perceptions of the entrepreneurs' legitimacy, leading to lower crowdfunding performance. We also find women backers are more tolerant of entrepreneurs disclosing their leisure activities than men.
{"title":"The leisure paradox for entrepreneurs: A neo-institutional theory perspective of disclosing leisure activities in crowdfunding pitches","authors":"Jacob A. Waddingham , Jeffrey A. Chandler , Katherine C. Alexander , Sana Zafar , Aaron Anglin","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106467","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106467","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Drawing from neo-institutional theory, we examine how entrepreneurs' disclosure of leisure activities influences the performance of their crowdfunding campaigns. We propose that entrepreneurs' disclosure of leisure activities in their campaigns negatively impacts crowdfunding performance because an institutional norm exists pressuring early-stage entrepreneurs to conform to workaholism. Using a sample of 8511 Kickstarter campaigns and a randomized experiment (<em>n</em> = 436), we find evidence that entrepreneurs who disclose leisure activities are viewed as less workaholic. This, in turn, hurts backers' perceptions of the entrepreneurs' legitimacy, leading to lower crowdfunding performance. We also find women backers are more tolerant of entrepreneurs disclosing their leisure activities than men.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51348,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing","volume":"40 2","pages":"Article 106467"},"PeriodicalIF":7.7,"publicationDate":"2024-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142874742","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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