The Diana Project: pioneering women studying pioneering women

The 2007 winner of the International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research is the Diana Project team (Candida Brush, Nancy Carter, Elizabeth Gatewood, Patricia Greene and Myra Hart). The Diana Project builds on the vast experience of the team in the field of entrepreneurship in general and women entrepreneurship, business growth and venture capital in particular. The Diana Project has investigated the supply and demand side of growth capital for women entrepreneurs. The research contributes to entrepreneurship theory as well as to practice, filling a void in knowledge on growth-oriented women entrepreneurship. In this article we present and discuss the research contribution of the Diana Project, in the areas of entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurship and venture capital. We specifically discuss the value of researching a specific group of women entrepreneurs, those who want to grow their businesses, that very clearly demonstrates the positive potential of female entrepreneurship. The Diana Project has also moved research on women’s entrepreneurship forward since its framework does not treat women entrepreneurs as “other,” i.e., the project does not presuppose that women’s entrepreneurship is similar to or different from men’s entrepreneurship. It assumes that women’s entrepreneurship is entrepreneurship and studies it from that point of view. Carin Holmquist is professor at Stockholm School of Economics and member of the Prize Committee for The International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research. Sara Carter is professor at University of Strathclyde. Both have written extensively in several of the areas covered by the Diana Project. The prize is awarded by the Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research (FSF) and the Swedish Board of Industrial and Technical Development (NUTEK). An important aim with this prize is to attract broader attention to this research field. A precondition for choosing the winner of the award is that the research for which the award has been granted is a significant contribution to the theory and empirical understanding of entrepreneurship and the importance of entrepreneurship, new firm formation and small businesses in economic development. Besides the honor, the prize consists of SEK 0.5 million (roughly USD 80,000). It has been awarded annually since 1996. More information about the prize and previous winners is available at .     

Financing, Regulatory Costs and Entrepreneurial Propensity

In this paper, we compared the availability of different types of financing sources to address the issue of capital availability to entrepreneurial propensity and we scrutinise the influence of business costs by utilising a new composite index using data from the World Bank’s Doing Business Database. The availability of three types of financing sources was analysed: traditional debt financing, venture capital financing, and informal investments. The study’s findings show that only informal investments have statistically significant influence on entrepreneurial propensity. Regulatory business costs were found to deter opportunity driven entrepreneurship, but had no impact on necessity entrepreneurship. Final version accepted on October 2006.     

Scott A. Shane: winner of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research

Scott A. Shane is the 2009 winner of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. In this article we discuss and analyze Shane’s most important contributions to the field of entrepreneurship. His contribution is extraordinarily broad in scope, which makes it difficult to pinpoint one or a few specifics that we associate with Shane’s scholarship. Instead, they can be summarized in the following three points. First, he has influenced what we view as central aspects of entrepreneurship. Shane has been a leading figure in redirecting the focus on entrepreneurship research itself. Second, he has influenced how we view entrepreneurship. Shane’s research is arguably theory driven and it applies and develops theoretical lenses that greatly improve our understanding of entrepreneurship. Third, he has contributed to how we conduct entrepreneurship research. Shane has been a forerunner in examining relevant units of analysis that are difficult to sample; research designs and databases specifically designed for studying entrepreneurial processes; and sophisticated analytical methods. This has contributed to advancing the methodological rigor of the field. Summing them up, the contributions are very impressive indeed.

Entrepreneurship in Europe

This article focuses on the changes in attitude and venture capital provision that the author believes are necessary to rekindle the spirit of entrepreneurship in Europe. The article goes on to discuss technology clusters and the role of stock markets. It then describes the way the Cambridge-based Amadeus venture capital company sets about the venture capital process. It concludes with a plea for entrepreneurship centres to be set up in each university and for some changes in government policy.     

Kathleen Eisenhardt: recipient of the 2012 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research

This article reviews the academic contributions of the 2012 receiver of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, Professor Kathleen Eisenhardt, Stanford Warren Ascherman Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. The Global Award consists of 100,000 euro and a statuette by the internationally renowned Swedish sculptor Carl Milles. Eisenhardt’s work focuses on strategy, strategic decision making, and innovation in rapidly changing and highly competitive markets. Her work in the entrepreneurship field centers on strategy and organization, especially in technology-based companies, what she refers to as “high-velocity industries”. Her main empirical contribution to the entrepreneurship field is her work on ‘corporate entrepreneurship’—how existing organizations can remain innovative, including through new venture creation. More generally, Kathleen Eisenhardt’s research has bridged the two fields of entrepreneurship research and organization science.     

The impact of education,experience and inner circle advisors on SME performance: insights from a study of public development centers

In this study, we investigate the effects of entrepreneurial human capital on SME performance using data on 2,713 SMEs within the European Union. Performance was measured in two ways: profitability as ROA and productivity as revenue per employee. Results indicate that both profitability and productivity are positively related to industry-specific knowledge possessed by the CEO-owner prior to starting up the firm and the general business knowledge acquired once the firm is up and running. Experience as a result of having previously worked in a firm in the same industry before starting a business was related to productivity, but there is no relation with profitability. There is a link between performance and inclusion of other CEO-owners in the founder’s inner circle of advisors. This relationship is positive when the advisor’s venture has experienced failure and negative when the advisor’s venture has been successful. We discuss the significance of these findings for research and practice.     

Social and Symbolic Capital and Responsible Entrepreneurship: An Empirical Investigation of SME Narratives

This paper investigates links between social capital and symbolic capital and responsible entrepreneurship in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The source of the primary data was 144 ‘Business Profiles’, written by the owner-managers of small businesses in application for a Small Business Awards competition in 2005. Included in each of these narratives were claims relating to the firms’ contributions to wider society, relationships with customers, employees and stakeholders. These narratives were coded and classified in a framework drawn from Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998, Academy of Management Review 23(2), 242–266) categorisation of social capital. The analysis revealed a range of strategic orientations towards the development of social and symbolic capital, along a conceptual continuum ranging from being responsible for oneself to being responsible for others. Overall, the evidence demonstrates the significance of the power inherent in the social relations of SMEs as a force for ethical behaviour, and suggests that normative theories of the development of social capital may provide ‘competitive advantage’ through responsible behaviour for small business in the global economy.Ted Fuller is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategic Foresight, and Head of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and SME Development, Teesside Business School, University of Teesside.Yumiao Tian is a postgraduate research student in the Centre for Entrepreneurship and SME Development, Teesside Business School, University of Teesside.     

Serial entrepreneurship: impact of human capital on time to re-entry

This study uses a longitudinal matched employer–employee database to examine how ex-entrepreneurs’ levels of general and specific human capital influence their likelihood of re-entering entrepreneurship over time, in a different firm, thereby becoming serial entrepreneurs. The results reveal a negative effect of general human capital on the hazard of becoming a serial entrepreneur; the impact of entrepreneurial-specific human capital on the hazard of re-entering entrepreneurship is in general positive. This research provides a dynamic approach to serial entrepreneurship revealing that specific types of human capital play distinct roles on individuals’ entrepreneurial behavior.     

International entrepreneurship, venture capital networks, and reinvestment decisions

Prior research has established that venture capitalists (VCs) may face significant obstacles in financing ventures from emerging or transition economies. Such hurdles are usually attributed to the weaknesses of host countries’ institutional systems, especially regulatory. These institutional pitfalls may thwart VCs’ ability to exit a portfolio company leading to lower returns than expected. Developing this approach, we argue that exit strategies may also be difficult to execute when VCs expand into advanced economies although for different reasons. Thus, we show that both necessity entrepreneurship prevalent in emerging economies and opportunity entrepreneurship prevalent in advanced economies are positively associated with the number of investment rounds received by portfolio companies. In contrast, we establish that VC firm capital and network density are negatively associated with the number of rounds provided to portfolio companies across distinct institutional environments. This suggests that VCs may improve their performance by choosing an appropriate strategy to navigate unfamiliar institutional environments to minimize their liability of foreignness. Finally, we find that the interaction of VC capital and network density is positively related to the number of VCs’ investment rounds. Apparently, resource-rich VC firms may not fully realize the informational benefits of their dense “knowledge networks” due to insufficient collaboration with partners. At the same time, such VCs may no longer enjoy access to free information flows from prospective allies. Hence, network density and superior resources combined may lead to a greater number of investment rounds.     

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.     

The socially and spatially bounded relationships of entrepreneurial activity: Olav Sorenson—recipient of the 2018 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research

This article reviews the academic contributions of Olav Sorenson, recipient of the 2018 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. His work has advanced scholarly understanding of how entrepreneurship and innovation are strongly embedded in socially and spatially bounded relationships. Based on meticulous empirical studies using a broad range of methods, he has challenged conventional models of new firms’ location choices, explained patterns of and determinants of knowledge diffusion, and considered how social networks can lead to economic advantages. This article discusses Sorenson’s work specifically focusing on three themes—(i) the geography of entrepreneurial activity, (ii) social capital, and (iii) the evolution of learning and innovation—highlighting scholarly contributions and insights for management practice and public policy.     

The informal venture capital market: Aspects of scale and market efficiency

Risk capital is a resource essential to the formation and growth of entrepreneurial ventures. In a society that is increasingly dependent upon innovation and entrepreneurship for its economic vitality, the performance of the venture capital markets is a matter of fundamental concern to entrepreneurs, venture investors and to public officials. This article deals with the informal venture capital market, the market in which entrepreneurs raise equity-type financing from private investors, (business angels). The informal venture capital market is virtually invisible and often misunderstood. It is composed of a diverse and diffuse population of individuals of means; many of whom have created their own successful ventures. There are no directories of individual venture investors and no public records of their investment transactions. Consequently, the informal venture capital market poses many unanswered questions.The author discusses two aspects of the informal venture capital market: questions of scale and market efficiency. The discussion draws upon existing research to extract and synthesize data that provide a reasonable basis for inferences about scale and efficiency.Private venture investors tend to be self-made individuals with substantial business and financial experience and with a net worth of $1 million or more. The author estimates that the number of private venture investors in the United States is at least 250,000, of whom about 100,000 are active in any given year. By providing seed capital for ventures that subsequently raise funds from professional venture investors or in the public equity markets and equity financing for privately-held firms that are growing faster than internal cash flow can support, private investors fill gaps in the institutional equity markets.The author estimates that private investors manage a portfolio of venture investments aggregating in the neighborhood of $50 billion, about twice the capital managed by professional venture investors. By participating in smaller transactions, private investors finance over five times as many entrepreneurs as professional venture investors; 20,000 or more firms per year compared to two or three thousand. The typical angel-backed venture raises about $250,000 from three or more private investors.Despite the apparent scale of the informal venture capital market, the author cites evidence that the market is relatively inefficient. It is a market characterized by limited information about investors and investment opportunities. Furthermore, many entrepreneurs and private investors are unfamiliar with the techniques of successful venture financing. The author's scale and efficiency inferences, coupled with evidence documenting gaps between private and social returns from innovation, prompt questions about public as well as private initiatives to enhance the efficiency of the informal venture capital market.The article concludes with a discussion of Venture Capital Network, Inc. (VCN), an experimental effort to enhance the efficiency of the informal venture capital market. VCN's procedures and performance are described, followed by a discussion of the lessons learned during the first two years of the experiment.     

Staging of venture capital investment: a real options analysis

This paper uses contingent claims analysis to investigate the staging decision of venture capitalist (VC) in a principal-agent framework. Venture capital investment opportunities are modeled as real options with multiple volatilities, and the entrepreneur’s incentive is assumed to maximize the probability of getting funded in the next financing round. Two celebrated formulae in the option pricing literature are generalized to evaluate these real options. We find that staging not only gives the VC a waiting option but also mitigates the agency problem of the entrepreneur undertaking too conservative activities. Moreover, we find that the VC tends to stage her investment when the expected growth rate of the venture’s market value is lower. However, the risk-free interest rate is not an important factor in the staging decision. Our model also provides a good explanation for existing empirical evidence on the staging of venture capital investment.     

The effect of human capital, social capital, and perceptual values on nascent entrepreneurs�� export intentions

This study investigates the influence of human capital, social capital, and cognition on nascent entrepreneurs' export intentions. The results indicate that while human capital and social capital influence the level of intended export, cognitive characteristics, such as self-efficacy and risk aversion, do not seem to influence entrepreneurs' intended level of export. The study makes three original contributions to international entrepreneurship research. The first one is the focus on “Real” Born Globals, i.e. entrepreneurs who express export intentions in the prefounding phase. The second is the focus on the individual-level factors rather than firm-level factors that explain export. Finally, the effect of experience is investigated from a path-dependency perspective rather than a “the-more-the-better” perspective. Our study suggests that it may be productive for researchers to look further into the concept of intention, as entrepreneurs' decision to internationalize presupposes a conscious intention of carrying out the action. Thus, the factors influencing the decision to internationalize may have been present prior to the founding of the venture.     

New business formation in a rapidly growing economy: the Irish experience

The extraordinary growth of the Irish economy since the mid-1990s—the ‘Celtic Tiger’—has attracted a great deal of interest, commentary and research. Indeed, many countries look to Ireland as an economic development role model, and it has been suggested that Ireland might provide key lessons for other EU members as they seek to achieve the objectives set out in the Lisbon Agenda. Much of the discussion of Ireland’s growth has focused on its possible triggers: the long-term consequences of the late 1980s fiscal stabilisation, EU structural funds, education, wage moderation and devaluation of the Irish punt. The industrial policy perspective has highlighted the importance of inflows of foreign direct investment, but a notable absence from the discourse on the ‘Celtic Tiger’ has been any mention of the role of new business venture creation and entrepreneurship. In this paper we use unpublished Irish VAT data for the years 1988–2004 to provide the first detailed look at national trends in business birth and death rates in Ireland over the ‘take-off’ period. We also use sub-national VAT data to shed light on spatial trends in new venture creation. Our overall conclusions are that new business formation made no detectable contribution to the acceleration of Ireland’s growth in the late 1990s, although we do find evidence of spatial convergence in per capita business stocks.     

The future of public efforts to boost entrepreneurship and venture capital

The promotion of new high-potential business ventures and venture capital is of critical importance to economic growth. Well-considered policies can profoundly influence such opportunities, but many public initiatives are misguided. This article reviews the evidence behind these claims, as well as the criteria that can delineate appropriate and inappropriate policies towards the promotion of venture capital and high-potential entrepreneurship.     

Diana: a symbol of women entrepreneurs’ hunt for knowledge,money, and the rewards of entrepreneurship

This article discusses the questions and issues that prompted the founding of the Diana Project, a multi-university research program aimed at identifying factors that support and enable high growth in women-led ventures. Despite the fact that women business owners comprise a significant portion of the economy, women face challenges in acquiring the resources needed to expand their businesses. This article details both the myths and realities associated with women’s entrepreneurship in their quest for growth. In particular, we examine the strategies that women entrepreneurs use to position their firms for growth, especially those strategies related to growth capital. Our results show that women seeking venture capital (VC) have degrees, graduate degrees, and experience that should not preclude them from obtaining financing. We also found that even though women-led businesses are frequently clustered in industries less attractive to financiers, women seeking equity funding are in the appropriate industries. Further, women spend a considerable amount of time using both formal and informal networks in their search for capital and in seeking capital. Because of the importance of the VC industry as a provider of growth capital and its reliance on its network for investment referrals, we also examined the participation and role of women as decision-makers in industry. Women’s participation in the VC industry has not kept pace with industry growth, and women have exited the industry at a faster rate than men, thus creating a significant barrier for women entrepreneurs in that it is less likely that their networks will overlap with the financial supplier networks, despite any effort they may expend networking and seeking capital.

Regulative institutions supporting entrepreneurship in emerging economies: A comparison of China and India

China and India are touted as new entrepreneurship powerhouses. The two countries’ different institutional history and characteristics have led to differences in environments related to entrepreneurship. There are some well-founded rationales as well as a number of misinformed and ill-guided viewpoints about the friendliness of the environment to support entrepreneurship in each country as well as the China–India differences concerning entrepreneurial environment. This article contributes to this debate by offering theoretical and empirical evidence regarding the differences in regulative institutions in the two economies. Specifically, we compare the state’s regulative, participative, and supportive roles from the standpoint of entrepreneurship in the two countries.     

大力发展风险投资加快培育战略性新兴产业

战略性新兴产业是新兴科技和新兴产业的深度融合.发展战略性新兴产业,是我国立足当前渡难关、着眼长远上水平的重大战略选择,不仅会对我国当前经济社会发展起重要的支撑作用,还将引领我国未来经济社会可持续发展的战略方向.在危机中得以历练和发展的风险投资行业,将成为促进我国战略性新兴产业发展最活跃的一支力量.要大力发展创业投资引导基金,创新财政资金投入方式和运作机制,引导社会资金投向政府有意重点发展的高新技术等关键领域或处于种子期、成长期的创业企业,引导民间资本进入专业化、规范化的投资运作渠道;要推动风险投资中介组织发展,加强行业自律和行业监管;要积极探索发展场外交易市场,有效拓宽风险投资进入与退出渠道;要贯彻实施创业风险投资人才培养和储备战略,培养一大批具有复合技能的风险投资家.     

Evolution of entrepreneurship and organizational configurations at Zildjian, 1623�C2010

This work uses a case-based research approach and Siggelkow’s (Acad Manag J 47:125–159, 2002) four-phase organizational configuration model to analyze Zildjian’s evolutionary growth and entrepreneurial initiatives in the global music industry. Zildjian is a unique and well-respected cymbal manufacturer that originated out of Turkey in 1623 and continues to be a major force in the music instruments sector. Turkey was a growing market during the periods of 1700 and 1800 that helped Zildjian to become an increasingly successful company. This also led to creating 13 generations of a successful family business. The work discusses Zildjian’s 387-year family genealogy and its growth within the domains of entrepreneurship, organizational configurations, and strategic inertia. The work finds that behind Zildjian’s marvelous expansion and well-known cymbals, there is a tightly knit family firm that continues to operate like an entrepreneurial venture, dealing with thousands of artists, musicians, educators, orchestras, and bands worldwide. As of 2011, the company may not be a large multinational corporation but its business model is a classic addition to the international entrepreneurship literature. Staunchly traditional in its family business, Zildjian thrives as a privately held company and protects its closely guarded metallurgical formula. The significance of this work lies in its unique methodology within the evolution of Zildjian’s entrepreneurial growth and organizational configurations.