The counter-conventional mindsets of entrepreneurs

These days, it seems, nearly everyone aspires to be an entrepreneur. But many entrepreneurs think and act differently than the way in which most other businesspeople do and the way much of today’s business education encourages them to think and act. My in-depth examination of dozens of entrepreneurs I’ve come to know well over the past 2 decades tells me that their unconventional—or, dare I say, counter-conventional—mindsets and behaviors are marked by six common patterns: (1) ‘Yes, we can;’ (2) beg, borrow, or steal; (3) think narrow, not broad; (4) problem-first, not product-first logic; (5) ‘No’ is something waiting to be turned into ‘Yes’; and (6) ask for the cash and ride the float. Thankfully, we now know that entrepreneurs are made, not born. These six patterns of entrepreneurial thought and action are eminently learnable. If you want to someday be an entrepreneur, or if you want the people in your company to become more entrepreneurial, then developing—or encouraging and incentivizing your people to develop—such a mindset might constitute a suitable first step toward preparing you to follow a more entrepreneurial path or to foster a more entrepreneurial culture in your company.     

A proclivity for entrepreneurship: A comparison of entrepreneurs,small business owners,and corporate managers

Despite intensive inquiry, relatively little is known about the entrepreneur, the central figure in entrepreneurship. The question of how an individual who operates his or her own business differs from a corporate manager remains unanswered. In addressing this question, the primary purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of psychological constructs to predict a proclivity for entrepreneurship. The research model includes three classic themes in the literature: achievement motivation, risk-taking propensity, and preference for innovation.A survey of 767 small business owner-managers and corporate managers was assembled from a 20-state region, primarily the southeastern United States. The participants completed a questionnaire composed of the Achievement Scale of the Personality Research Form, the Risk-Taking and Innovation Scales of the Jackson Personality Inventory and questions pertaining to numerous individual and organizational variables. Respondents were first divided into two groups, managers and small business owner-managers. Subsequently, due to the often cited variations in entrepreneurs, the owner-managers were further categorized as either an entrepreneur or small business owner, using the widely cited Carland et al. (1984) theoretical definitions. Entrepreneurs are defined by their goals of profit and growth for their ventures and by their use of strategic planning. Alternatively, small business owners focus on providing family income and view the venture as an extension of their personalities. In this study, both groups of owner-managers were simultaneously compared with managers using hierarchical set multinomial LOGIT regression.The results indicated that the psychological constructs are associated with small business ownership, but with some important caveats. As hypothesized, those labeled entrepreneurs were higher in achievement motivation, risk-taking propensity, and preference for innovation than were both the corporate managers and the small business owners. This profile of the entrepreneur as a driven, creative risk-taker is consistent with much of the classic literature concerning the entrepreneur. Nonetheless, not all of the owner-managers fit this profile. When compared with managers, the small business owners demonstrated only a significantly higher risk-taking propensity. In terms of the constructs studied, the small business owners were more comparable to managers than to entrepreneurs.In addition to theoretical and methodological implications, the results presented here have important implications for small business owner-managers of both types. A major issue is the connection between the owner’s psychological profile and the characteristics of the venture, including performance. It would appear that psychological antecedents are associated with owner goals for the venture. Some owners will be more growth oriented than will others, and performance should be assessed in light of the owner’s aspirations for the venture. Moreover, owners should be aware of their own personality sets, including risk preferences, which may be more or less suited to different venture circumstances, including those with relatively high levels of risk.Planning in small businesses appears to enhance venture performance. Research has demonstrated the connections between psychological factors and planning behaviors in small businesses. Those labeled entrepreneurs in this study have goals of profit and growth, and tend to engage in more planning. An awareness of these psychological preferences and concomitant attention to planning behaviors have the potential to improve the performance of the venture, irrespective of owner aspirations.Venture teaming is becoming more popular among entrepreneurs. Balanced venture teams appear to improve the chances of entrepreneurial success (Timmons 1990), but a common source of conflict among venture team members is inconsistent or ambiguous motives for the new venture. Awareness of venture partners’ psychological predispositions in areas such as risk-taking could be used to identify and reconcile areas of potential conflict, and enhance the planning process in the small firm. In sum, an individual’s awareness of his or her psychological profile provides a number of advantages, not only to existing entrepreneurs, but also to aspiring entrepreneurs who should assess their perceived entrepreneurial opportunities against the backdrop of their psychological proclivity for entrepreneurship.     

The private financial gains to entrepreneurship: Is it a good use of public money to encourage individuals to become entrepreneurs?

Recent evidence comparing earnings from entrepreneurship versus wage earning shows that, after allowing for obvious observable differences, most entrepreneurs in most developed countries earn less than similar wage-earning employees. Does this mean that the decision to become an entrepreneur should be discouraged? The answer depends in part on whether we believe that entrepreneurs report their income truthfully or not. Adjusting for what is considered to be underreporting by entrepreneurs lifts entrepreneurial earnings by between 10 and 40 %, reversing the fortunes of the entrepreneur such that they appear to be earning much more than their counterparts in a wage-earning job. If this adjustment should prove to be appropriate, then there is no obvious reason to increase the incentive for individuals to become entrepreneurs (such as with tax breaks or direct start-up subsidies) in developed countries, and there is reason, instead, to discuss decreasing these subsidies.     

Human capital signals and entrepreneurs’ success in equity crowdfunding

Grounding on research about the role of signals in the attraction of equity finance, this paper studies the effects of diverse human capital signals on entrepreneurs’ success in equity crowdfunding. We argue that the human capital of an entrepreneur, who launches (alone or with other teammates) an equity crowdfunding campaign to finance her start-up, constitutes a set of signals of the start-up quality. The impact of each human capital signal on entrepreneur’s success in equity crowdfunding depends on both signal fit with start-up quality and signal ambiguity. Empirical estimates on 284 entrepreneurs who launched equity crowdfunding campaigns indicate that only entrepreneurs’ business education and entrepreneurial experience, two human capital signals that have both a good fit with start-up quality and a low degree of ambiguity, significantly contribute to entrepreneurs’ success in equity crowdfunding.     

Does entrepreneurial self-efficacy distinguish entrepreneurs from managers?

Previous research on the psychology of entrepreneurs found that personality traits such as locus of control failed to distinguish entrepreneurs from managers. In search of an individual characteristic that is distinctively entrepreneurial, we proposed an entrepreneurial self-efficacy construct (ESE) to predict the likelihood of an individual being an entrepreneur. ESE refers to the strength of a person’s belief that he or she is capable of successfully performing the various roles and tasks of entrepreneurship. It consists of five factors: marketing, innovation, management, risk-taking, and financial control.We conducted two studies, one on students and the other on small business executives. Study 1 found that the total ESE score differentiated entrepreneurship students from students of both management and organizational psychology, and that across the three types of students, ESE was positively related to the intention to set up one’s own business. We also found the entrepreneurship students to have higher self-efficacy in marketing, management, and financial control than the management and psychology students. In study 2, we simultaneously tested effects of ESE and locus of control on the criteria of founders vs. nonfounders of current businesses. After controlling for individual and company background variables, the effect of ESE scores was significant, but the effect of locus of control was not. More specifically, it was found that business founders had higher self-efficacy in innovation and risk-taking than did nonfounders.The results of this study demonstrate the potential of entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a distinct characteristic of the entrepreneur. From these results, some important implications can be drawn on entrepreneurial assessment, education, counseling, and community intervention. First, ESE can be used to identify reasons for entrepreneurial avoidance. There may be many individuals who shun entrepreneurial activities not because they actually lack necessary skills but because they believe they do. This is especially true for sectors of the population such as women or those minority groups who are perceived as lacking entrepreneurial traditions. Communities and individuals could benefit from identifying sources of entrepreneurial avoidance by targeting their efforts toward enhancing ESE of particular groups or individuals for specific aspects of entrepreneurship.An additional use of ESE is to identify areas of strength and weakness to assess the entrepreneurial potential of both an individual and a community. Once entrepreneurial potential is identified, resources can be channeled and more effectively used to promote entrepreneurship. Finally, diagnosis and treatment of ESE can be performed on real entrepreneurs. The entrepreneur may be completely avoiding, or performing less frequently, certain critical entrepreneurial activities because s/he lacks self-efficacy. For example, the entrepreneur may be avoiding company growth for fear of losing control. Identification and removal of self-doubt will enable the entrepreneur to be actively engaged in entrepreneurial tasks, more persistent in the face of difficulty and setbacks, and more confident in meeting challenges.Overall, ESE is a moderately stable belief and requires systematic and continuous efforts to be changed. Two broad approaches can be taken toward desired change. One is the micro-approach that directly focuses on people’s beliefs. In designing and conducting entrepreneurship courses, training institutions should not just train students in critical entrepreneurial skills and capabilities but also strengthen their entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The current state of entrepreneurship courses in most management schools may fall short in both respects. Courses focus on commonly identified management skills, but often ignore entrepreneurial skills such as innovation and risk-taking. Furthermore, the teaching of entrepreneurial skills tends to be technical, with insufficient attention paid to the cognition and belief systems of the entrepreneur. Educators should take into account entrepreneurial attitudes and perceptions when designing or assessing their course objectives. Conscious efforts could be made to enhance ESE by involving the students in “real-life” business design or community small business assistance, by inviting successful entrepreneurs to lecture, and by verbal persuasion from the instructor and renowned entrepreneurs.The second approach to enhancing ESE is to work on the environment of potential and actual entrepreneurs. According to the reciprocal causation model, the environment may affect self-efficacy not only directly but also indirectly through performance. An environment perceived to be more supportive will increase entrepreneurial self-efficacy because individuals assess their entrepreneurial capacities in reference to perceived resources, opportunities, and obstacles existing in the environment. Personal efficacy is more likely to be developed and sustained in a supportive environment than in an adverse one. A supportive environment is also more likely to breed entrepreneurial success, which in turn further enhances entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Communities can work toward creating an efficacy enhancing environment by making resources both available and visible, publicizing entrepreneurial successes, increasing the diversity of opportunities, and avoiding policies that create real or perceived obstacles.     

The story and the storyteller: Strategic storytelling that gets human attention for entrepreneurs

As a captivating way to engage, inform, and persuade one’s audiences, storytelling can serve as a strategic skill in an entrepreneur’s arsenal. Although entrepreneurs often use storytelling to mobilize financial resources from external stakeholders, less attention has been paid to how entrepreneurs can leverage this powerful tool to gain strategic partnerships. As such, there is little practical guidance on utilizing storytelling to gain a competitive advantage. In this article, we use wisdom from the academic and practical world to illuminate the science of storytelling, identify the type of stories that entrepreneurs may narrate (or refrain from telling), and understand the mechanism through which stories engage and persuade external stakeholders. We also highlight Freytag’s Dramatic Arc, which can teach entrepreneurs how to frame profound stories that gain attention from external stakeholders. We offer practical guidelines for entrepreneurs interested in learning and harnessing the power of compelling storytelling for strategic partnerships.     

The Joint Effects of Justice Climate,Group Moral Identity,and Corporate Social Responsibility on the Prosocial and Deviant Behaviors of Groups

While research has focused on why certain entrepreneurs elect to create innovative solutions to social problems, very little is known about why some social entrepreneurs choose to scale their solutions while others do not. Research on scaling has generally focused on organizational characteristics often overlooking factors at the individual level that may affect scaling decisions. Drawing on the multidimensional construct of moral intensity, we propose a theoretical model of ethical decision making to explain why a social entrepreneur’s perception of moral intensity of the social problem, coupled with their personal desire for control, can significantly influence scaling decisions. Specifically, we propose that higher levels of perceived moral intensity will positively influence the likelihood of scaling through open as opposed to closed modes in order to achieve greater speed and scope of social impact. However, we also propose this effect will be negatively moderated by a social entrepreneur’s higher levels of desire for control. Our model has implications for research and practice at the interface of ethics and social entrepreneurship.     

Regional Guanxi Culture and Entrepreneurs’ Action Logic: A Multilevel Analysis

At the beginning of the reform period, though informal institutions as a substitute for formal institutions efficiently promoted the development of private enterprises, it eroded and destroyed the authority and execution efficiency of formal institutions with guanxi behaviors and implicit rules. With the progress of marketization, how to restrain and guide the evolution of informal institutions is an unavoidable obstacle for the development of private enterprises— transforming their competitive strategy from “non-market” dominance to “market” dominance. Based on survey data of 2,628 private enterprises from 31 provinces in China, we establish a regional commercial culture index to empirically investigate the different influences of guanxi behavior between entrepreneurs of different ages and regional guanxi culture. The results show that, compared with entrepreneurs who started businesses in recent years, i.e., after the 1990s, those who started businesses during the 1970s and the 1980s are more dependent on guanxi behaviors. Meanwhile, the higher the level of education, the less an entrepreneur is likely to be dependent on guanxi behaviors. However, compared with the constraint of the degree of regional marketization, regional guanxi culture promotes entrepreneurs’ guanxi behaviors. Further research indicates that the more enterprises depart from regional guanxi culture, the stronger the ability to innovation. This study can not only enrich the institutional analysis of entrepreneurs’ guanxi behaviors, but also provide a theoretical foundation for further expansion and deepening of reform.     

Entrepreneurial risk-taking in crowdfunding campaigns

This paper examines how different sources of risk in reward-based crowdfunding campaigns influence the entrepreneur’s choice of targeted crowdfunding goal. This form of crowdfunding helps entrepreneurs to obtain feedback on market demand (next to raising money), since the pre-purchase decision of the crowd generates useful public information about product demand. However, it may also lead to project discontinuation if not enough money is raised during the campaign. We therefore derive conditions under which the entrepreneur sets a higher target. At other times, this leads entrepreneurs to raise sometimes even more money than necessary when there is a risk that the idea is quickly replicated by others, leading to even larger campaigns but also to fewer projects offered on platforms. Conversely, the increased presence of professional investors (business angels, venture capitalists) on platforms reduces the entrepreneurs’ incentives in their crowdfunding campaign, which leads to more but on average smaller crowdfunding campaigns.     

Female‐Led High‐Growth: Examining the Role of Human and Financial Resource Management

We integrate research on upper echelons theory, the resource‐based view, and gender to explore conditions that facilitate high growth for female‐led firms. We argue that female entrepreneurs have certain advantages that help them leverage their firms’ human and financial capital to achieve high growth. In support, using a sample of U.S.‐based entrepreneurial firms, we found evidence that having a female lead entrepreneur positively moderated the positive relationships between indicators of firms’ human and financial capital and high growth. The findings have implications for programs, policies, and practices to encourage more high growth in firms with female lead entrepreneurs.     

A theory of serial entrepreneurship

The contribution of serial entrepreneurs to entrepreneurial activity is significant: in Europe, 18–30% of entrepreneurs are serial; in the US, their contribution is about one-eighth. Yet, theories of entrepreneurship and industry dynamics presume that all firms are launched by novice entrepreneurs and firm failure is synonymous with exit from entrepreneurship. We propose a theory of serial entrepreneurship in which an entrepreneur has three occupational choices: maintain his business in operation, shut it down to enter the labor market to earn an exogenous wage, or shut it down to launch a new venture while incurring a serial startup cost. In equilibrium, a high-skill entrepreneur shuts down a business of low quality to become a serial entrepreneur, launching and subsequently closing firms until a high quality business is found; a low-skill entrepreneur shuts down a business of low quality to enter the labor market, never to become a serial entrepreneur. A decrease in the wage or serial startup cost, or an increase in the startup capital, enhances the contribution of serial entrepreneurs to entrepreneurial activity and promotes new firm formation (by increasing entrepreneurship and the number of new firms that survive), but its effect on the exit rate of new firms is ambiguous. We show the model is consistent with evidence relating to the impact of an entrepreneur’s characteristics and prior experience in entrepreneurship on the survival of his firm and his entry into and survival in entrepreneurship.     

Entrepreneurship as a utility maximizing response

Research on entrepreneurship has investigated what entrepreneurs do, what happens when they act as entrepreneurs, and why they act as entrepreneurs. This paper contributes to the latter investigation, and specifically asks why some people choose to be entrepreneurs, while others choose to be employees. Responding to prior literature recognizing the lack of a coherent theory of entrepreneurship and calling for a rigorous examination of the decision to become an entrepreneur, this paper presents an economic model of the career decision. We postulate that the individual chooses an entrepreneurial career path, or a career as an employee, or some combination of the two, according to which career path promises maximal utility (or psychic satisfaction).We assume that the individual's utility from any particular occupation, whether self-employed or employed, depends on income (which depends in turn on ability), as well as working conditions such as decision-making control, risk exposure, work effort required, and other working conditions (net perquisites) associated with that occupation. Individuals will exhibit either preference or aversion towards each of the specified working conditions, and it is the degree of that preference or aversion, in conjunction with the quantum of each working condition, which determines the total utility that the individual will derive from each particular occupation.We show that all employees will have an incentive to be self-employed (if they could assemble the same resources as their employer). Also, the greater their managerial and entrepreneurial ability, the greater will be their incentive to be self-employed, other things being equal. Next, we show that a more positive attitude to work (i.e., a lesser aversion to work effort required) provides a greater incentive to be self-employed.The individual's degree of risk aversion also influences the choice to be an entrepreneur. The more tolerant one is of risk bearing, the greater the incentive to be self-employed. Similarly, the greater the preference for independence, or decision-making control, the greater the incentive to be self-employed. Finally, it is noted that perquisites (and avoidance of irksome elements) can potentially be controlled to a greater degree when self-employed, so the individual will consider the differences in these other working conditions when contemplating a career choice.But it is the sum of the utility and disutility from these sources which determines the career decision. Thus, we demonstrate that positive attitudes toward risk, work, and independence are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions for a person to want to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial abilities and attitudes are desirable in employment situations, therefore, an employer may choose to bribe an entrepreneurial individual to be an employee by offering more income and greater independence, for example.We demonstrate that firms recruiting employees, or venture capitalists considering funding an entrepreneur, should in their own best interests investigate the person's attitudes toward income, risk, work, and independence as well as their abilities, as these attitudes underpin the person's worth as an employee and their incentive to be self-employed. Management educators should design programs which enhance the entrepreneurial abilities and attitudes of individuals, and the individuals themselves should consider their `attitudinal' make-up before committing to entrepreneurship.     

Moderating effects of tolerance for ambiguity and risktaking propensity on the role conflict-perceived performance relationship: Evidence from singaporean entrepreneurs

This study investigates the effects of tolerance for ambiguity and risktaking propensity in mediating the relationships between role conflict and perceived performance among 70 entrepreneurs in small and medium-sized businesses in Singapore. Entrepreneurial activity has been widely recognized as a major factor driving Singapore's economic development. Further insights therefore can be gained by this study, which addresses the above issues from the perspective of Singaporean entrepreneurs. As founders of their enterprises, entrepreneurs are often involved with many aspects of activities that create a high potential for conflict, having to play multiple roles, coping with competing and conflicting demands, and overcoming or accommodating to constraints. Role conflict faced by the entrepreneur can impede the entrepreneur's ability to perform effectively. However, the relationship between role conflict and perceived performance is not direct.Many entrepreneurial decisions will also involve ambiguity, because these decisions result in actions that are innovative and original. As entrepreneurs, they will have a significantly greater capacity to tolerate ambiguity than managers have. This suggests that an entrepreneur's tolerance for ambiguity may be able to assist in dealing with, or to moderate, the adverse personal effects of role pressures generated by role conflict. Investigation into this is the thrust of the first part of this research.The literature on entrepreneurship has often portrayed the entrepreneur as a risk-taker with expectation of receiving a profit as reward for this risk-bearing. Many studies on risk-taking behavior among entrepreneurs are focused on the risk-profile of entrepreneurs, that is, whether entrepreneurs are decidedly more risk-taking than nonentrepreneurs. In this second part of research, the investigation examines whether the effects of role conflict on performance outcomes are tempered by the entrepreneur's risk-taking propensity. An entrepreneur with high risk-taking propensity is more likely to succeed in coping with uncertainty and minimizing role stress than one with low risk-taking propensity.Results indicate that Singaporean entrepreneurs higher on tolerance for ambiguity or in risk-taking propensity are better positioned to “neutralize” the effects of role stress in the entrepreneurial role, leading to better performance outcomes. The weaker interactive effects however could be explained by several constraining circumstances: “the stringent control and omnipresence of the government in most businesses” (Tan and Tay 1994); “dominance of MNCs in key industries, and the domination of government-linked businesses in various services” (Boey and Chiam-Lee 1994)—all of which are said to somewhat discourage risk-taking and uncertainty-bearing. Despite the small moderator effects, these findings should be of significance to practitioners, because they suggest that the examination of the relationship between role conflict and performance would be incomplete without also considering the moderating effects of tolerance for ambiguity and risk-taking propensity.     

Friends,family, or fools: Entrepreneur experience and its implications for equity distribution and resource mobilization

Who helps entrepreneurs raise the resources they need and how much equity does an entrepreneur distribute in return? We use a sample of 611 entrepreneurs in the U.S. to examine why some entrepreneurs are more likely than others to distribute ownership selectively to helpers. We find that entrepreneurs with specific industry experience and start-up experience are able to provide ownership more selectively and raise more resources from their helpers. We refine the categorization of social ties further to make a distinction between professional and familial ties to show that the ownership distribution and types of resource contributions vary by the mix of ties in the entrepreneur's helper network. Our findings have implications for theories of resource assembly, social structure and entrepreneurship, and organization design.     

Opportunities and institutions: A co-creation story of the king crab industry

If entrepreneurs are constrained and shaped by existing institutions, how? If entrepreneurs products and services, how can institutions remain unchanged? This paper explores this theoretical conundrum empirically through the examination of the actions of entrepreneur Lowell Wakefield. Contrary to previous work that suggests that it is institutional entrepreneurs that bring about institutional change as a means of advancing their social interests, this paper shows that a profit-seeking entrepreneur without prior institutional affiliation or experience can create an opportunity along with the supporting industry standards and regulations.     

Understanding the relationships between online entrepreneurs’ personal innovativeness,risk taking,and satisfaction: Comparison of pure-play and click-and-mortar

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of personal innovativeness and risk taking on online entrepreneurs’ satisfaction. Two types of online entrepreneurs (pure-play and click-and-mortar) are compared and contrasted. Specifically, our study investigates the effect of personal innovativeness and risk-taking propensity on the satisfaction of online entrepreneurs, and compares the similarities and differences among varying types of online entrepreneurs. A survey of online entrepreneurs conducted in Taiwan, a country characterized as good for small and medium enterprises entrepreneurship and as having substantial e-commerce development, indicates that personal general innovativeness has a significant positive effect on personal information technology innovativeness (the entrepreneur’s level of innovation regarding information technology), entrepreneurial satisfaction, and life satisfaction. Entrepreneurs’ life satisfaction also determined by their degrees of entrepreneurial satisfaction. Finally, risk-taking propensity significantly influences entrepreneurial satisfaction for pure-play entrepreneurs only. The results can be referenced by other countries in general, and Chinese regions in particular.     

Influence of Affective Traits on Entrepreneur's Goals and Satisfaction

Emotions are important to an individual's behavior. However, affective elements have rarely been included in the analysis of entrepreneurs' behavior. Using a sample of 335 entrepreneurs from multiple industries of the Spanish region of Castile and León, we analyze the role of emotions in entrepreneurs' statement of goals and in their satisfaction with business performance. The results show that positive affective traits influence an entrepreneur to state broad and ambitious goals, and personal negative affective traits influence an entrepreneur to state a narrow set of goals. We also find that positive (negative) affective traits are positively (negatively) related to entrepreneur satisfaction.     

The ambitious entrepreneur: High growth strategies of women-owned enterprises

During the last two decades, researchers have sought to develop categories of entrepreneurs and their businesses along a variety of dimensions to better comprehend and analyze the entrepreneurial growth process. Some of this research has focused on differences related to industrial sectors, firm size, the geographical region in which a business is located, the use of high-technology or low-technology, and the life-cycle stage of the firm (i.e., start-up vs. more mature, formalized companies). Researchers have also considered ways in which entrepreneurs can be differentiated from small business managers. One of these classifications is based on the entrepreneur's desire to grow the business rapidly. This is the focus of our study.To date, the media have paid considerable attention to rapidly growing new ventures. However, still lacking are large-scale research studies guided by theory through which we can expand our knowledge of the underlying factors supporting ambitious expansion plans. Some research has identified factors that enhance or reduce the willingness of the entrepreneur to grow the business. Factors include the strategic origin of the business (i.e., the methods and paths through which the firm was founded); previous experience of the founder/owner; and the ability of the entrepreneur to set realistic, measurable goals and to manage conflict effectively.Our study attempted to identify the strategic paths chosen by entrepreneurs and the relation of those paths to the growth orientation of the firm. The entrepreneurs sampled in this study are women entrepreneurs across a wide range of industrial sectors. Recent reviews of entrepreneurship research have suggested the need for more studies comparing high-growth firms with slower-growth firms to better delineate their differences in strategic choices and behaviors.Our study sought to answer the following questions: What characterizes a “high growth-oriented entrepreneur?” Is this distinction associated with specific strategic intentions, prior experience, equity held in previous firms, the type of company structure in place, or success factors the entrepreneur perceives are important to the business? Do “high growth” entrepreneurs show greater entrepreneurial “intensity” (i.e., commitment to the firm's success)? Are they willing to “pay the price” for their own and their firm's success? (i.e., the “opportunity costs” associated with business success and growth). Other relationships under investigation included different patterns of financing the business' start-up and early growth. Do “high-growth” entrepreneurs use unique sources of funding compared with “lower-growth” entrepreneurs?Eight hundred thirty-two entrepreneurs responded to a survey in which they were asked to describe their growth intentions along nineteen strategic dimensions, as well as respond to the foregoing questions. Some of the strategic activity measures included adding a new product or service, expanding operations, selling to a new market, and applying for a loan to expand operations. Actual growth rates based on sales revenues were calculated, and average annualized growth rates of the industrial sectors represented in the sample were obtained. This study showed that high-growth-oriented entrepreneurs were clearly different from low-growth-oriented entrepreneurs along several dimensions. The former were much more likely to select strategies for their firms that permitted greater focus on market expansion and new technologies, to exhibit greater intensity towards business ownership (“my business is the most important activity in my life”), and to be willing to incur greater opportunity costs for the success of their firms (“I would rather own my own business than earn a higher salary while employed by someone else”).The high-growth–oriented entrepreneurs tended to have a more structured approach to organizing their businesses, which suggests a more disciplined perception of managing the firm. In summary, results showed the group of high-growth–oriented entrepreneurs, labeled “ambitious,” as having the following distinctions: strategic intentions that emphasize market growth and technological change, stronger commitment to the success of the business, greater willingness to sacrifice on behalf of the business, earlier planning for the growth of the business, utilization of a team-based form of organization design, concern for reputation and quality, adequate capitalization, strong leadership, and utilization of a wider range of financing sources for the expansion of the venture. The purpose in uncovering these differences is to enable entrepreneurs and researchers to identify more clearly the attributes of rapid-growth ventures and their founders and to move closer to a field-based model of the entrepreneurial growth process which will help delineate the alternative paths to venture growth and organizational change.