Journal of Business Venturing最新文献

This paper uses system dynamics modelling to explore processes through which entrepreneurial initiatives within firms lead to firm growth. Our model captures the interplay among various sub-processes and finds these processes form a complex system involving multiple interacting feedback processes. Simulation analysis shows that minor changes in firm conditions could lead to qualitatively different growth trajectories. They involve growth dynamics such as better before worse and worse before better scenarios. These findings prompt us to move beyond linear understanding of how entrepreneurship contributes to firm growth.

Entrepreneurial action only rarely results in the full transition to venture creation. Yet, extant research has focused almost exclusively on explaining how entrepreneurial action influences venture performance outcomes such as emergence and growth. Therefore, to advance theory, there is a need to uncover other outcomes of entrepreneurial action by decoupling it from venture creation. In this study, we begin such decoupling by exploring how entrepreneurial action can create individual benefits irrespective of venture emergence and financial success. We collected longitudinal data from a group of individuals who, due to forced migration, experienced significant disruption and then engaged in entrepreneurial action with the general goal of adapting to a new (to them) context. From this data, we integrated theory on entrepreneuring to develop a grounded model of post-disruption entrepreneuring. This model has three main components: (a) disruption assessment impact—interpretation of how the disruption will influence one's ability to pursue tasks and goals that provide meaning in life; (b) use of entrepreneuring—function and application of entrepreneuring activities in addressing opportunities or threats; and (c) projected goals—anticipated outcomes that provide meaning, motivation, and purpose. These attempts at assessing the contextual conditions provide individuals with an objective way of framing their situation. Thus, entrepreneuring can serve as an accessible mental structure that facilitates adaptation. In elaborating on post-disruption entrepreneuring, this study contributes to the literature by demonstrating the generative capacity of entrepreneurial action even in the absence of venture creation.

Do employers perceive former entrepreneurs as suitable candidates for paid employment? We argue that (positive and negative) stereotypes and uncertainty drive employability perceptions regarding former entrepreneurs; these perceptions are contingent upon job type and the background of both the applicant and the person evaluating them. Two empirical studies yield broad support for our predictions. In Study 1 (a vignette study), we find lower employability perceptions regarding former entrepreneurs compared to other applicants, which are significantly mediated by positive and negative stereotypes as well as uncertainty perceptions. In Study 2 (conjoint experiments with two separate samples: recruiters and executives), we substantiate the results of Study 1, revealing that when former entrepreneurs apply for a job involving personnel responsibility or when there is evidence of a failure in their vita, they are less likely to face devaluations. Further, we find evidence for similarity effects; more specifically, entrepreneurs do not suffer from employability devaluation when the recruiter is a part-time entrepreneur or the executive is the business owner. We discuss the implications as part of the employability debate about former entrepreneurs.

As social enterprises seek to share knowledge, they must navigate social hierarchy. In this study, we examine social enterprises' efforts to share knowledge in rural areas and how they seek to mitigate some of the consequences of women's marginalization during this process. We use a two-step, multi-method approach. We begin with a quantitative study that explores outcomes for women, and how caste and patriarchy influence their ability to adopt new practices introduced by social enterprises. We then draw on data from a seven-year qualitative case study to unpack our quantitative findings and explore the actual mechanisms through which intersectionality shapes the social enterprises' efforts. Our qualitative efforts also uncover how social enterprises' practices, as well as women's activities, can mitigate some of the negative consequences of marginalization, even while the social setting is largely unchanged. We seek to contribute to theory by exploring how social enterprises can potentially mitigate some of the negative consequences of exclusion due to intersectionality.

As many new ventures are started by founding teams, it is these founding teams that likely engage in creating their venture's culture. We draw on theories of cultural dynamics and the literature on team cognitive diversity to investigate the creation of a new venture's culture. Specifically, we theorize how a founding team's cognitive diversity impacts the team's production of cultural information and the transmission of that information throughout the venture. Cognitive diversity directly influences the founding team's production of cultural information by shaping the diversity of the information set and the speed of its production. Moreover, cognitive diversity can give rise to faultlines within the venture, impacting how venture members interpret cultural information. Importantly, our model suggests a complex interplay between the production and interpretation of cultural information. Understanding culture creation in new ventures is important because a new venture's culture shapes its legitimacy and thus its access to stakeholder resources for venture emergence.

This editorial highlights the importance of a robust reviewer pool to the development of the field. We emphasize the role that authors play in ensuring the sustainability of that commons and consider both the field-level and individual-level consequences of failing to do so. In addition, we make a case for the long-term benefits of reviewing, while exploring strategic and tactical concerns such as where you should be reviewing, how much you should be reviewing, whether and when to review, who should review, and, finally, how to develop a reputation as a good reviewer.

The developmental psychology literature has linked childhood adversities to detrimental development outcomes that can undermine labor market participation and performance. In contrast, emerging entrepreneurship studies raise the possibility that childhood adversities may positively affect entrepreneurial action with some diverging findings. We reconcile these opposing theoretical perspectives in their effects on entrepreneurial entry by theorizing that childhood adversities are a mixed blessing for entrepreneurship and affect entry through two countervailing theoretical mechanisms. Childhood adversities increase the likelihood of entrepreneurial entry by promoting rule-breaking tendency and simultaneously decrease the likelihood of entry by negatively impacting individual ability (self-efficacy and educational attainment). We further theorized that childhood adversities have different implications for different types of entrepreneurial entry (incorporated and unincorporated) and for men versus women. We tested our hypotheses on a longitudinal sample of 4222 individuals from the NLSY79 child and young adult cohort data, which tracks the development of children born to a representative sample of U.S. young women from childhood through youth to adulthood. Our study offers new insight into the effects of childhood adversities on entrepreneurship, including gender-specific manifestations and outcomes of childhood adversities.

Linguistic attributes in entrepreneurs' funding campaign descriptions play an important role in attracting resources. Going beyond examining the effect of individual linguistic attributes, this study takes a portfolio approach by viewing a narrative as a portfolio or collection of linguistic attributes. Specifically, we posit a narrative as a portfolio of “speech acts” and examine the combined effects of select speech acts based on their variation within a narrative. Speech acts are actions that a communicator performs with their words, such as making an assertion, establishing a commitment, expressing feelings, and directing listeners to evoke certain behaviors. Drawing on the stimuli variation perspective and speech acts theory, we examine how the diversity of and changes in “speech acts” in a narrative can influence funding outcomes. Using a sample of 28,000 crowdfunding campaigns and a supervised machine-learning approach, we find that entrepreneurs who adopt a variety of speech acts and frequently change from one speech act to another in a narrative are more likely to achieve funding success. Results also support inverted U-shaped relationships of individual speech acts with funding success. This study contributes to both the entrepreneurial narratives and resource acquisition literatures.