Entrepreneurial Hustle: Navigating Uncertainty and Enrolling Venture Stakeholders through Urgent and Unorthodox Action

Entrepreneurs need to act under conditions of uncertainty and resource constraints to bring new, often-unrecognizable products to market and convince an unknown set of stakeholders to support their endeavours. The type of action entrepreneurs take to navigate uncertain entrepreneurial contexts is underspecified. We analysed 48 interviews with entrepreneurs to inductively identify an action-oriented construct we labelled as entrepreneurial hustle – an entrepreneur’s urgent, unorthodox actions that are intended to be useful in addressing immediate challenges and opportunities under conditions of uncertainty. In a follow-up study, we use an experimental vignette approach to assess the impact of an entrepreneur’s hustle on venture stakeholders. Findings suggest that entrepreneurial hustle positively influences stakeholder perceptions of the entrepreneur’s leadership effectiveness and a venture’s legitimacy, mediated by perceptions of the entrepreneur’s ability-based trustworthiness. We conclude that entrepreneurial hustle is a fundamental behaviour that enables entrepreneurs to enrol new venture stakeholders and lead their entrepreneurial efforts.     

Debt renegotiation under reputation concerns and tolerance for failure

We propose a career concern model where a privately informed entrepreneur reports the firm financial situation. On this basis, the creditor may offer debt renegotiation. Due to reputation concerns, the entrepreneur may feel reluctant to restructure and may manipulate information. We analyze how creditor attitude towards failure and entrepreneurs reputation concerns interact and influence the restructuring decision. We show that debt renegotiation under more lenient conditions discourages manipulation because entrepreneurs are ensured that their reputation will not suffer from revealing financial difficulties. Intolerant creditors make entrepreneurs more concerned about reputation weakening their incentives to restructure, leading to inefficient continuation of investments.     

‘I Like How You Think’: Similarity as an Interaction Bias in the Investor–Entrepreneur Dyad

Investigating the factors that influence venture capital decision‐making has a long tradition in the management and entrepreneurship literatures. However, few studies have considered the factors that might bias an investment decision in a way that is idiosyncratic to a given investor–entrepreneur dyad. We do so in this study. Specifically, we build from the literature on the ‘similarity effect’ to investigate the extent to which decision‐making process similarity (shared between the investor and the entrepreneur) might bias or otherwise impact the investor's evaluation of a new venture investment opportunity. Our findings suggest venture capitalists evaluate more favourably opportunities represented by entrepreneurs who ‘think’ in ways similar to their own. Moreover, in the presence of decision‐making process similarity, the impacts of other factors that inform the investment decision actually change in counter‐intuitive ways.     

Entrepreneurial metacognition: a study on nascent entrepreneurs

This paper contributes to uncovering the role of metacognition in the decision-making process of entrepreneurs. Specifically, we analyze nascent entrepreneurs in their process of start-up development while relying on metacognitive processes. The experiences of a sample of new venture initiatives are explored in two distinct phases, a start-up competition and the subsequent launch of their venture. Following the Gioia protocol, the study contextualizes the process in which social capital reinforces metacognitive processes. This process stimulates nascent entrepreneurs to consider alternatives, such as extending expertise outside the start-up. Moreover, we find that these processes support entrepreneurs and their teams in improving their decision-making processes. The findings support that nascent entrepreneurs rely heavily on the input of others in their start-up creation process, and contribute to new empirical insights about entrepreneurial metacognition. A dynamic model in which these relationships emerge is developed. The study’s results contribute to a better understanding of the antecedents and consequences of metacognitive processes in nascent entrepreneurship.

     

Switch or persevere? The effects of experience and metacognition on persistence decisions

This paper extends the scholarly understanding of entrepreneurial persistence decisions by identifying individual-level constructs that moderate which decision criteria have the most influence on entrepreneurs’ persistence decisions. Prior research demonstrates that contextual factors, such as feedback through adversity and the attractiveness of opportunities in an entrepreneur’s environment, determine whether or not an entrepreneur will persist with their current venture. We contribute to this literature by theoretically proposing and empirically testing how individual differences in entrepreneurial experience, metacognitive experience, and metacognitive knowledge moderate which aspects of environmental information entrepreneurs pay the most attention to when deciding whether or not to persist. We test our proposed model using a conjoint experiment that allows for monitoring actual persistence decisions of 124 entrepreneurs. Results suggest that metacognitive knowledge influences persistence decisions primarily through altering the impact that probability of expected outcomes associated with potential alternatives has on entrepreneurs’ persistence decisions. Furthermore, the results provide evidence that more experienced entrepreneurs weigh financial returns and switching costs more heavily when making persistence decisions.     

Entrepreneur political skill and new venture performance: Extending the social competence perspective

Research on the social competence perspective holds that since operating high performing new ventures is dependent on entrepreneurs’ ability to influence stakeholder actions, entrepreneur social competence is likely critically important to new venture performance. Using a sample of 163 entrepreneurs throughout the USA, we extend such research by examining the entrepreneur political skill new venture performance relationship. Our results suggest that political skill, which is the component of social competence which specifically assesses an individual's ability to influence other's actions within the business environment, is positively associated with new venture performance. Study results provide additional support for the social competence perspective.     

Contextualizing the career success of Arab women entrepreneurs

ABSTRACT

Drawing on institutional theory, this study gives voice to Arab women entrepreneurs. Through contextualization and in-depth, semi-structured interviews, I examine Lebanese women entrepreneurs’ conceptualizations of career success, the mechanisms they use to realize it and their overall awareness of it. According to the findings, the entrepreneurs experience career success as an act of disobedience against socially imposed cultural and gender mandates. Furthermore, career success evolves as a contextual, dynamic process that is culturally dependent but individually negotiated, interpreted and constructed using external and internal conceptualizations. In turn, these conceptualizations are intertwined with agency and unfold as a process at the intersection of gender, patriarchy and cultural values. Accordingly, I argue against reducing career success to static, objective and subjective criteria. Doing so undermines the complexity and processual nature of the construct and neglects the importance of cultural values in shaping the understanding and experience of career success in different societies. I also stress the importance of contextualizing women’s entrepreneurial experiences and demonstrate that Lebanese women entrepreneurs’ conceptualizations of career success reflect both Arab social-cognitive and normative institutions and their own agency.     

Entrepreneurs’ achieved success: developing a multi-faceted measure

Firm performance is typically measured via objective financial indicators. However, researchers increasingly acknowledge that entrepreneurs do not measure their success solely in financial terms but that a range of often subjective indicators matter to them. This article contributes to the debate on entrepreneurial performance by studying how entrepreneurs assess their achieved success. ‘Entrepreneurs’ achieved success’ was conceptualized as a multi-faceted construct that includes entrepreneurs’ self-reported achievement of firm performance, workplace relationships, personal fulfilment, community impact, and personal financial rewards. It was measured via the Subjective Entrepreneurial Success–Achievement Scale (SES-AS). Over the course of three studies (N?=?390) the factorial structure of ‘entrepreneurs’ achieved success’ was established and largely replicated in two cultures. Based on a nomological network, we documented relationships among ‘entrepreneurs’ achieved success’, quasi-objective indicators of firm performance, and entrepreneurs’ financial satisfaction, creativity, and health. Based on our research, we propose a new conceptual framework to study performance in the context of entrepreneurship. This framework acknowledges both the success criteria that entrepreneurs wish to achieve and those that they actually achieve, and extends our understanding of firm performance.

     

Feeling successful as an entrepreneur: a job demands — resources approach

This cross-sectional study among 277 Dutch entrepreneurs investigates how entrepreneurs’ job demands relate to their work-related strain and work engagement, as well as their feelings of subjective success. As such it contributes to the literature firstly by focusing on psychological rather than business outcomes of entrepreneurship, and secondly by contextualizing demands and resources for entrepreneurs, e.g. capturing the general but also the specific factors that are demands and resources in entrepreneurial work. Results of the study show that work-related strain is related to both less personal and less financial subjective business success. Work engagement is related to higher personal, but not financial subjective business success. As predicted by the JD-R Model, both high job demands and low job resources predicted work-related strain. In contrast to findings of other studies, high job demands are not related to low work engagement, only having low job resources did. The practical implication of these findings is that entrepreneurs can achieve an important competitive advantage over other entrepreneurs if they can learn to deal effectively with job demands and work-related strain. The challenge for policy makers is to get more information about how to assist business owners in eliminating and preventing work-related strain in order to achieve higher subjective financial and personal success.     

Growth of born globals: the role of the entrepreneur’s personal factors and venture capital

This paper examines to what extent the human capital of entrepreneurs and the receipt of venture capital (VC) financing affect the growth of born globals (BGs). The study analyzes a sample of 242 BGs resulting from a survey on high-tech start-ups operating in the ICT and electronics sectors, located in different countries throughout the world. A multivariate explorative analysis controlling for the endogenous nature of VC is conducted. The results indicate that the experience of the entrepreneur in having previously established another entrepreneurial firm positively affects the growth of BGs. A negative effect is associated with the presence of heterogeneity in the management team in terms of education background. With regard to the linkage between financial capital and growth, it is found that both VC financing and the number of founders (a proxy for the availability internal capital) positively influence the growth of BGs.     

Startup team contributions and new firm creation: the role of founding team experience

The likelihood of nascent entrepreneurs making the transition from a new venture idea to a profitable business is argued to be contingent on the breadth of the resources available within the startup team. Team industry and startup experience are deemed to influence the entrepreneurs’ ability to profitably establish the venture in the market via the mobilization of team resources. Using a sample of nascent entrepreneurs in the USA, we show that team resource heterogeneity has a positive impact on profitable firm creation. Moreover, this positive effect is greater as the team has more experience in the industry in which the new business will compete.     

Entrepreneurial attitudes to venture capital investment realization: evidence from the UK and France

This paper discusses the comparative influences on attitudes of entrepreneurs towards exit from venture capital backed investments in the UK and France and presents survey evidence relating to the attitudes towards exit of a sample of venture-backed entrepreneurs in the two countries. The study identifies statistically significant differences in attitudes to realization both within and between the two countries, both in relation to preferences for different options and the reasons for preferring one rather than another.     

再谈胡志标与爱多的得与失给中国民营企业的启示

本文以当代管理的视角,对上个世纪90年代爱多VCD成功与失败的经验教训进行了重新剖析,从企业家精神、管理创新"、零和"竞争、财务风险和公司治理结构等五个方面提炼出有价值的企业经营之道,以期给当代广大民营企业家以有益启示。     

Technovation and the informal investor

Technovation is a creative process in financial as well as technical terms. Inventors, entrepreneurs, and venture capital are the key ingredients in the technovation process. The key financial concepts include venture capital risk/reward trade-offs, discounted cash flow evaluation of income producing assets, and the risk-bearing role of entrepreneurs and venture investors. This paper discusses and illustrates the economic creativity of successful technovation, and explores the division of rewards between inventor/entrepreneurs and venture investors. Capital market gaps affecting the financing of emerging, technology-based ventures are identified. The paper concludes with a discussion of current research in-to the role of informal investors (essentially financially sophisticated individuals of means) as a source of risk capital for inventors and entrepreneurs.     

Nascent Entrepreneurs and Venture Emergence: Opportunity Confidence,Human Capital,and Early Planning

Nascent entrepreneurs continuously evaluate the merits of the opportunities they pursue and so can abandon those that lack promise and persist with those that remain attractive. This paper articulates this evolving judgment about the opportunity as the nascent entrepreneur's opportunity confidence. It situates this construct in the context of the nascent entrepreneur's human capital and early planning actions in respect to the pursued opportunity, and in respect to the emergence of the nascent venture. Analyses of PSED data show that opportunity confidence positively affects venture emergence and that, through it, entrepreneurial experience and early planning have only indirect effects on venture emergence. In contrast, industry experience has a direct, positive effect on venture emergence. These results provide some novel insights into the nascent entrepreneurial process as well as into the role of human capital and early planning in that process.     

Transition from part-time entrepreneurship to full-time entrepreneurship: the role of financial and non-financial motives

Part-time entrepreneurship is often a first step towards full-time entrepreneurship. This study analyzes how financial and non-financial motives of part-time entrepreneurs influence the propensity of part-time entrepreneurs to become full-time entrepreneurs. Our results show that the motivation to supplement wage income or the motivation to achieve social recognition is negatively associated with transition behavior, whereas the motivation to achieve independence or self-realization is positively associated with transition behavior. The motivation to follow a role model, financial success, and innovation are not significantly related to transition behavior. The implications of these results with regard to part-time entrepreneurship are discussed.     

The importance of surrogate entrepreneurship for incubated Swedish technology ventures

Universities and incubators that are more experienced in venture creation have been found to appoint surrogate entrepreneurs as one way to improve entrepreneurial team formation. However, it is not known how such intervention into the core of a venture affects performance. This article investigates the impact of surrogate entrepreneurs on technology ventures stemming from leading Swedish university incubators. From a total of 170 ventures incorporated 1995–2005, belonging to 16 incubators, 59 ventures (35%) have received incubator help to recruit a surrogate entrepreneur. Swedish surrogate ventures perform significantly better in terms of growth and revenue compared to non-surrogates. Significantly higher performance of surrogates is also found in the subgroup academic technology ventures as well as the largest technology subgroup of information and communication technology (ICT) ventures. These findings in combination with a case study of the most productive incubation environment are used to propose future research and policy regarding university incubators intervening into entrepreneurial team formation in different ways.     

基于公平偏好和过度自信的风险投资契约模型

论文将行为经济学中的非理性心理引入传统的风险契约模型,考虑风险企业家具有公平偏好和过度自信心理情况下的激励机制。研究表明,风险企业家对风险企业产出的最优分享比例会随着公平偏好程度和过度自信程度的增加而增加。风险企业家的创造能力高,最优努力水平随着公平偏好程度的增加而增加;风险企业家的创造能力低,最优努力水平随着公平偏好程度的增加而减小。     

Global mindset and the internationalization of small firms: The importance of the characteristics of entrepreneurs

Despite being a relatively new concept, the importance of the global mindset is already well-documented. So far research has primarily focused on multinational companies and therefore the operationalization of the concept is still a work in progress. Recognizing the importance of entrepreneurs in small companies, yet mindful of the gaps that exist, this paper addresses the factors that constitute the global mindset and their influence on the internationalization of small Portuguese companies. Using information-processing theory through a quantitative, survey-based study and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the results show the importance of the characteristics of both entrepreneurs and firms in explaining the global mindset, and confirm the impact they have on internationalization behavior. The entrepreneur??s level of education, their satisfaction with company performance in the domestic market and the potential for growth in the domestic market all affect the global mindset model. The conclusions are useful for entrepreneurs and national authorities aiming to successfully implement internationalization practices, given the role of the global mindset in exploring global business opportunities and in the global success of companies. Replication of the research in different contexts is essential for the wider generalization of the results.     

Industry Event Participation and Network Brokerage among Entrepreneurial Ventures

Despite the recognition that network brokerage is beneficial for entrepreneurial ventures, little is known about its antecedents. This study examines how participation in industry events (e.g. conferences) relates to entrepreneurs' brokerage positions in informal industry networks and how these positions, in turn, impact new venture performance. Using a unique dataset of 45 events and subsequent network relations among entrepreneurs from 90 firms in the open source software industry, results indicate that: (1) entrepreneurs who participated in heterogeneous events or who bridged between events with few common participants were more likely to be brokers; (2) the relationship between event bridging and brokerage was stronger for entrepreneurs with broader prior career experiences; and (3) network brokerage mediated the event participation–performance link. It appears that events may limit structural opportunities for brokerage and that individual differences matter for exploiting these opportunities. Overall, this study increases understanding of how and when particular networking behaviours are beneficial for entrepreneurs.