Abstract:

Following the cognitive and behavioral approach, this study compares the trust behaviors of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs in a dynamic environment. Due to the differences in the contexts that they face, the thinking frameworks they adopt, and the knowledge structures they form from experience, we argue that entrepreneurs display different trust behaviors from non-entrepreneurs when facing volatile environments in the decision-making process. Adopting established paradigms from behavioral game theory (trust game), we examine the evolution of trust behaviors of the two groups for trust building, trust violation, and trust recovery. In a Singapore-based sample, we find that entrepreneurs build trust more quickly, decrease trust more quickly when faced with trust violations, and recover more quickly from trust violations than non-entrepreneurs. This study contributes to a better understanding of entrepreneurs' trust behaviors over time, their responses to variations in social exchanges, while contributing to overall ongoing discussions of the unique characteristics of entrepreneurs.

Bio:

Dr. Qingqing (Claire) Bi’s current research interest focuses on the interactions between digital technologies and organizational behaviors in the contexts of start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The projects I am working on broadly address the following research questions: How do digital technologies influence the formation of new organizations? How do traditional organizations pursue innovation based on digital technologies? How do different stakeholders respond to organizations’ digital strategies? Claire specializes in both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, and use a wide range of software and statistical tools to manage and analyze data, such as R, Mplus, Python and NVivo.

Abstract:

Legitimacy is a central construct in organization and management studies. In particular, legitimacy is audience sensitive and malleable (i.e., can be engineered). However, how legitimacy is viewed by consumers of social enterprises (SEs) and how SEs can build legitimacy effectively remain under-studied. Drawing on cultural entrepreneurship theory, we hypothesized that social and commercial discourse, distinctiveness and membership as cultural tools are effective for SEs to gain legitimacy assessed by consumers. In turn, the legitimacy will translate into favorable consumer responses both commercially and socially. To test the hypotheses, we designed a scenario-based experiment (N = 562) and the result supported our hypotheses. This study offers important implications for theories and practice. First, it extends cultural entrepreneurship into the field of SE with empirical evidence. Second, it brings consumer into the front and center of SE studies. Next, this study demonstrates the potential of using experimental design as a relatively new methodology in studying SE. Last, it offers insights for SE practitioners in creatively using rhetoric as a cultural tool to gain legitimacy and succeed in the market.

Bio:

Shirley Qian Jin is a PhD candidate from Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her PhD research examines how social enterprises acquire organizational legitimacy with consumers and how social enterprises' legitimacy-building strategies influence consumer behaviors. She adopted experimental design and computational methods (e.g., topic modeling and image analysis) in her PhD research. Her work has been presented in Academy of Management Annual Meeting and International Social Innovation Research Conference, among others. Visit her website at https://shirley-jin.github.io/

Abstract:

Self-employed individuals, or micro-entrepreneurs, comprise nearly 30% of the United States workforce[1] and an even higher percentage worldwide (Bhuiyan and Ileys 2019; Sutter et al 2019). These individuals typically bear the burden of managing all business-related responsibilities themselves but enjoy benefits such as flexibility, business autonomy, and minimal infrastructure. Despite their economic importance, little is known about how these individuals update aspects of their routine marketing practices, such as selling. Further, little is known about how marketing practice innovations that might help these individuals achieve their goals come to be introduced to and diffused through “populations” of microentrepreneurs. Practice innovation and diffusion among micro-entrepreneur populations is particularly puzzling as these individuals are not part of formal organizations with coordinated business activities and enterprise policies that drive change. Nor are they necessarily members of a licensed profession (e.g., doctors and dentists) that requires specialized and ongoing training.

Our paper deploys practice theory as an enabling lens to facilitate our understanding of the phenomenon of practice innovation, diffusion, and adaptation among micro-entrepreneurs. Drawing on the analysis of qualitative data gathered from micro-entrepreneurs who are direct sellers, we address three research questions: How do new elements become incorporated into practice templates among a population of micro-entrepreneurs? How do individual micro-entrepreneurs adapt their practice performances when new elements enter bundles of practice templates? And what are implications for micro-entrepreneurs of incorporating new elements into their practices? Our paper makes theoretical contributions to the literature at the intersection of marketing and entrepreneurship and offers practitioner insights for micro-entrepreneurs.

Bio:

Dr. Eileen Fischer is a Professor of Marketing, and the Tanenbaum Chair of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise, in the Schulich School of Business at York University. Her research and teaching span the fields of marketing and entrepreneurship. She has multiple publications in premiere journals in both fields and is known for her expertise in qualitative research methods.

Abstract:

In this research, we argue that opportunity identification training is a training of self-regulated learning, and investigate the impact of training on forming first-person opportunity beliefs. Drawing on the theory of self-regulated learning, we suggest that feedback seeking behavior is a central mechanism through which training takes effects, and individuals’ metacognition and engagement are important moderators affecting the training outcomes. We conducted a two-stage field experiment with 152 working professionals aspiring to become entrepreneurs and found support for our predictions. Our findings shed new light on research about entrepreneurship training, and research about opportunity identification processes.

Bio:

Dr Yingzhu Fu received his Ph.D. in Entrepreneurship from IE Business School, Spain. He is a postdoctoral research fellow at Nanyang Business School (NBS). His major research interest lies in understanding the opportunity identification processes and the entrepreneurial decision-making in such processes. His articles have been accepted for publication by leading entrepreneurship journals, such as Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal and Journal of Business Venturing.

Abstract:

Both systematic reviews of the literature on CEOs and meta-analytic investigations support the notion that CEOs’ characteristics (e.g., psychological traits; values; experiences) manifest in their firms’ strategic choices and subsequent outcomes. The support for this general line of argumentation has led some scholars to question what more can be gleaned from future studies of CEO characteristics – that is, given the evidence that CEO characteristics affect their firms in important ways, additional inquiries of any given CEO characteristic on any given firm strategic choice or outcome may be seen as offering rather incremental extensions to knowledge. I present two R&Rs in this line of research for the purposes of seeking your feedback.

Bio:

Aaron D. Hill is an Associate Professor in the Management Department of the Warrington College of Business at the University of Florida. He received his PhD from Oklahoma State University. His research focuses on strategic leadership and governance, examining what drives strategic leaders like executives and politicians to act as well as the ultimate implications of these individuals for organizational outcomes. Aaron’s research has been published in outlets such as the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, and Journal of Management, among others. Aaron is an active member of professional organizations dedicated to the field of management, including the Academy of Management, Strategic Management Society, and Southern Management Association. Within the Strategic Management Society, he currently serves in the officer rotation of the Strategic Leadership & Governance Interest Group and he has previously served both on the advisory panel for the Research Methods Community and as a Representative at Large in the Strategic Leadership & Governance Interest Group. He also co-chaired a Strategic Management Society special conference focusing on theories and practice relevant to strategic leadership and governance. Aaron also served a three-year term on the board of directors for the Southern Management Association. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Management and is on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, and Strategic Organization.

Abstract:

This research examines the effect of entrepreneurs’ (non)verbal communication styles on their crowdfunding success. Building on construal level theory and the communication literature, I propose that the ambidexterity in language vagueness/concreteness and emotional ambivalence exhibited in entrepreneurial pitches are positively related to audience's propensity to invest and success in fundraising through influence audience’s perception of product creativity and entrepreneur effectiveness. I further argue that the influence of construal level ambidexterity and emotional ambivalence on crowdfunding success is positive only among audience with high-level construal.

Bio:

Fannie Wu is a lecturer at Deakin Business School, Deakin University. She obtained a PhD in Management from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research focuses on helping leaders and employees better understand the role of emotions and social capital in shaping individuals’ work outcomes and tackling challenges in the future of work contexts.

Abstract:

Although work and family lives are increasingly intertwined in modern life, our understanding of how spouses shape and influence employee’s work life remains limited. Integrating Work-Home Resources Model with emotion regulation literature, we conducted 3 studies to investigate how and when spouse’s emotion regulation ability (ERA) enhances employees’ ability to develop stronger leader-member exchange (LMX). Study 1 employed an qualitative study to identify how employees experience work-related benefits from their spouse’s ERA from the employees’ own description and perspective. Results revealed that employees viewed their spouse’s ERA as an important contextual resource that can be used to assist their relationship development in the workplace. Study 2 used data from independent spouse-employee-supervisor triads measured at two separate time points to demonstrate that spouses’ ERA assessed with an ability measure is indeed related to supervisor rating of employees’ LMX. Additionally, Study 2 showed that the effect of spouse’s ERA on LMX is mediated by improvement in employees’ psychological capital and emotion management knowledge. Study 2 also showed that the positive effect was conditional at higher, as opposed to lower, spouse’s family role overload. Study 3 replicated experimentally the interactive effects of spouse’s ERA and role overload on employees’ personal resources, which in turn shape LMX quality. Collectively, our findings extend theoretical insights and empirical evidence to the important and complex role of affect in LMX development from the lens of family-to-work enrichment process.

Bio:

Dr Jun Gu is Associate Professor at Macquarie Business School. He received his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management from the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management in the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the decision-making processes in important contexts such as leadership, negotiation, and business ethics. His work has appeared in journals such as Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Experimental Psychology (General), Journal of Organizational Behavior, and Research Policy.

Abstract:

External Enabler (EE) is a collective label for non-trivial changes to the business environment, such as new technologies, regulatory changes, demographic and sociocultural trends, macroeconomic swings, and changes to the natural environment, that trigger or affect new venture creation attempts. The concept and the associated framework (Davidsson, Recker & von Briel, 2020, AMP) were developed as a workable alternative for building cumulative knowledge about the otherwise relatively neglected role of environmental factors in strategic, entrepreneurial pursuits. Citation statistics indicate that the EE concept and framework have been well received and these conceptual tools are increasingly applied by other researchers. In such application attempts, authors may experience uncertainty about the interpretation and usage of some aspects of the framework; encounter ambiguities and voids pertaining to it; or face challenging questions from reviewers and audiences regarding the framework’s properties, assumptions, or applicability. In this essay, we provide clarification about the EE concept and framework to provide guidance in such instances.

Bio:

Per Davidsson is professor in entrepreneurship at QUT, Australia and JIBS, Sweden. Apart from his two affiliations he holds an honorary doctorate from Leuphana University, Germany. Per is a former Chair of the ENT Division of the Academy of Management and has served as action editor for three leading entrepreneurship journals. Independent sources have repeatedly ranked him among the top 10 scholars and thought leaders in entrepreneurship research.

Abstract:

Psychiatric conditions and sub-threshold psychiatric temperaments may influence entrepreneurs’ affect, cognition, energy, motivation, circadian rhythms, activity levels, self-concept, creativity, and interpersonal behaviors in ways that influence business outcomes. We used a self-report survey to examine the prevalence and co-occurrence of five psychiatric conditions among 242 entrepreneurs and 93 comparison participants. Mental health differences directly or indirectly affected 72% of the entrepreneurs in this sample, including those with a personal mental health history (49%) and family mental health history among the asymptomatic entrepreneurs (23%). Entrepreneurs reported experiencing more depression (30%), ADHD (29%), substance use (12%), and bipolar disorder (11%) than comparison participants. Furthermore, 32% of the entrepreneurs reported having two or more mental health conditions, while 18% reported having three or more mental health conditions. Asymptomatic entrepreneurs (having no mental health issues) with asymptomatic families constituted only 24% of the entrepreneur participants. Entrepreneurs’ psychiatric issues can affect their functioning and that of their ventures. Therefore, integrating knowledge about psychiatric conditions with research on personality traits can broaden the understanding of how mental health-related traits, states, and family history can influence entrepreneurial outcomes..

Bio:

Michael A. Freeman, M.D. is an entrepreneurship researcher, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the U.C. San Francisco School of Medicine, and a mentor at the Entrepreneurship Center at UCSF. Dr. Freeman and his collaborators study the relationship between mental health differences, business outcomes, and life outcomes among entrepreneurs. Dr. Freeman has provided over 10,000 hours of direct psychiatric care to entrepreneurs, and is building scalable mental health resources for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship students.

Abstract:

We present two robust moral hazard (RMH) models in which both the entrepreneur and investor face limited liability and distributional ambiguity regarding the output. We show that under ambiguity, the entrepreneur prefers equity financing over debt financing whereas the investor prefers a hybrid of debt and equity. We also conduct laboratory experiments to test whether these two predictions are valid. The experimental data are statistically significant and support our predictions for both the entrepreneur-led and investor-led models. We contribute to the debate on choosing between debt and equity financing for start-up projects by demonstrating how ambiguity and bargaining power can drastically change the optimal contract.

Bio:

Erick (Zhaolin) Li received a Ph.D. in Business Administration from The Pennsylvania State University, a Master of Commerce in Accounting from The University of New South Wales, and a Bachelor of Engineering in Materials Science & Industrial Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Dr. Li has been with The University of Sydney Business School since January 2009. Before moving to Sydney, he had worked in Ernst & Young LLP, Southern Arkansas University, and City University of Hong Kong. According to Babbar et al., (2017) and Babbar et al., (2018), Dr. Li is among the top 25 Asian scholars respectively in Operations Management and Supply Chain Management. Dr. Li is currently the most prolific Australian author (with seven articles) in Production & Operations Management, which is a flagship journal in Operations Management recognized by UT Dallas Top 100 Business Schools Research Ranking, Financial Times Research Ranking, and Bloomberg Business Week MBA ranking.

Steven (Qiang) Lu obtained his PhD in Marketing from the University of Toronto, and MA in Economics from York University. His general research interests are in marketing analytics. Dr. Lu is the co-director of Consumer Insights Research Group at The University of Sydney Business School. His research is focused on using marketing analytical approaches (e.g., big data analytics and machine learning) to investigate major opportunities and challenges in the digital economy such as the impact of digital retailing, search engine advertising, social media, and technological innovation. Dr. Lu has published in several internationally acclaimed journals such as Marketing Science, Statistical Science, Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Interactive Marketing, International Journal of Production Research, and Customer Needs and Solutions. Dr. Lu has served on the editorial board of Marketing Science. Dr. Lu was the recipient of the prestigious Australia New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC) Emerging Researcher of the Year Award. Dr. Lu’s paper on the economic impact of sports events has been selected as Highly Commended Paper in the 2016 Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence.

Abstract:

Research on freemium business model prescribes network effects and word-of-mouth (WOM) as two key metrics that play a critical role for the success of freemium products. We revisit the conventional views by highlighting the distinct, and possibly incompatible, demand-side logics that drive network effects and WOM for freemium products. Such incompatibilities indicate the need to flesh out how and under what conditions the key metrics embodying network effects and WOM affect the likelihood of the success of a freemium product. Analysing a large dataset of 1,903 freemium apps in Apple app store, we show that both network effects and WOM may contribute to the success of freemium model but their effectiveness is contingent on demand environments across countries. In particular, we find that network readiness of target countries strengthens the effect of WOM but reduces the impact of network effects on success of freemium products. Our study deepens research on freemium business model by exploring different demand-side logics as well as boundaries of network effects and WOM for the success of freemium model.

Bio:

Noman Shaheer completed his PhD in International Business from Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina in 2019 and is currently serving as lecturer at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on digital internationalization, digital innovations and entrepreneurship. His work has appeared in Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of International Marketing, and Journal of Business Ethics. His research has won several awards including Lazardis award for the Journal of Business Venturing’s best paper of the year, Temple/AIB Best Paper Award, Buckley & Casson AIB Best Dissertation Award, AOM International Management Division Best Dissertation Award, and Alan M. Rugman Most Promising Scholar award. He also serves as Editorial Review Board Member for the Journal of Management.

Abstract:

Attracting attention in online environments is critical to new ventures. Yet, contradictions between theory developed in off- and online environments leave new ventures without clear guidance on how to frame their online communication. Analyzing 968,750 Twitter posts by 791 start-ups before and after venture-capital funding, we find that the attention that posts attract depends on the type of nonconforming language used and the effect is moderated by the new venture’s legitimacy. Our study contributes to the ongoing integration of theorizing from off- and online contexts, addresses practical concerns of entrepreneurs and offers operationalizations of nonconforming language, which facilitates future research.

Bio:

Erik Lundmark is Associate Professor at Macquarie Business School. He currently studies the emergence of new ventures and market categories and has a keen interest in how we can facilitate reflexivity through making the assumptions underpinning entrepreneurship research explicit and subject to scrutiny. His research has been published in leading entrepreneurship journals such as Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and Journal of Business Venturing. He holds a PhD in Management, a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and has complementary training in theatre, psychology, and military leadership. He has taught management, entrepreneurship, and organisational behaviour since 2007. At Macquarie University, he has received the Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award and the Vice Chancellor's Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a manager in an entrepreneurial start-up firm and as a consultant in the IT-sector.

Abstract:

A social enterprise (SE)’s actions that pursue business growth and adaptability are often perceived by stakeholders as a deviation from its social mission. Why does this perceived mission drift happen to some actions rather than others? While scholars discussed how perceived mission drift varies by the attributes of the action, we know little about how it varies by the attributes of an SE’s organizational mission. Recent research suggests that the prevalence of multiple and often incompatible values within an organization is a fundamental driver of action discontinuity and perceived mission drift. Extending and refining this idea, this paper theorizes that value equivocality and value compatibility are key dimensions of an organizational mission that shape employees’ evaluation of perceived mission drift. Specifically, I hypothesize that high value equivocality and compatibility lead to employees’ perception of low mission drift risk in organizational and individual actions. By contrast, low value equivocality and compatibility lead to the perception of high mission drift risk. I am collecting data in two Chinese microfinance institutions (MFI). I will conduct a quasi-experimental study of employees in these MFIs to test the hypotheses. I also plan to do a case analysis of these MFIs to identify cognitive mechanisms underlying the hypotheses. This paper unpacks the value structure of the organizational mission and offers new insight into the value-based source of mission drift. The findings also reveal that value structure, by influencing employees’ perception of mission drift, can simultaneously increase or decrease organizational adaptability and employees’ behavior deviation, generating tension in SEs’ sustainable development.

Bio:

Dr. Zhao Meng is a senior lecturer at the Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, and a senior research fellow at the Nanyang Center for Emerging Markets. He served on the faculty at Renmin Business School and the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo. He was the founding director of the Yunus Center for Social Business & Microfinance, Renmin University of China. He holds a PhD in organization theory and strategy from the Said Business School, Oxford University. He is currently an editorial board member at Social Enterprise Journal and an advisory board member at Research in the Sociology of Organizations. His research on social entrepreneurship, stakeholder management and corporate social responsibility has appeared in Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, Journal of Asian Public Policy, Business Horizons, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Financial Times, etc.

Abstract:

This seminar provides insights gained from the review process in the Journal of Business Venturing (JBV). It is based on the author’s experience in getting their work published, and sometimes rejected, in JBV. The seminar aims at helping others (and ourselves) avoid unnecessary rejections.

Bio:

Anna Krzeminska, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management at Macquarie Business School in Sydney, Research Fellow at the Leuphana University Research Center for Entrepreneurship Evidence in Germany, and the co-founding Director of the Neurodiversity Hubs at UQ and Macquarie University. After completing her PhD (first class honours) in Germany, Anna held academic positions at Leuphana University in Germany and the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, The University of Queensland Business School as well as the HULT Business School in London, UK. Anna’s award-winning research and teaching expertise centres around exploring management and entrepreneurial issues focusing on social impact organisations. Anna manages an international research and industry engagement portfolio in management and enterprise of social impact, for example, as the Lead Investigator of the Neurodiversity project, an Australian-first project focused sustaining and scaling autism employment. Her research has been published in industry reports, books, book chapters, and international top-tier journals such as the Strategic Management Journal (SMJ), Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (ETP), Journal of Business Venturing (JBV), R&D Management, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (NVSQ), Journal of Management Inquiry (JMI), and Journal of Management and Organization (JMO).

Erik Lundmark is Associate Professor at Macquarie Business School. He currently studies the emergence of new ventures and market categories and has a keen interest in how we can facilitate reflexivity through making the assumptions underpinning entrepreneurship research explicit and subject to scrutiny. His research has been published in leading entrepreneurship journals such as Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and Journal of Business Venturing. He holds a PhD in Management, a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and has complementary training in theatre, psychology, and military leadership. He has taught management, entrepreneurship, and organisational behaviour since 2007. At Macquarie University, he has received the Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award and the Vice Chancellor's Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a manager in an entrepreneurial start-up firm and as a consultant in the IT-sector.

Abstract:

Entrepreneurship is an emotional journey because it is full of ups and downs. A growing body of research has also shown that emotions play an important role in influencing entrepreneurial motivation, decisions, and performance. Past research focused mainly on positive and negative affect and scholars are increasingly calling for new research that uses "discrete emotions to examine more nuanced relationships" in entrepreneurship. Answering this call, this study focuses on shame, an emotion that commonly follows from setbacks and failure prevalent in entrepreneurship. Although shame is widely believed to have devastating effects such as psychological suffering and corrosion of entrepreneurial motivation and performance, this research argues that shame associated with business failure can also induce a self-restorative motivation that drives entrepreneurs to boost self-image in serial entrepreneurial pursuit, particularly when the shame associated with business failure is perceived as reparable. A lab experiment and a field survey provide initial support for these hypotheses. Theoretical and practice implications are discussed.

Bio:

Siran Zhan is an assistant professor at the School of Management and Governance at UNSW Business School. She obtained her PhD from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. In her first line of research, Siran utilizes a behavioral lens to advance theories about the social (e.g., culture) and individual (e.g., identity, cognition, and emotions) determinants of creative and entrepreneurial performance. In her second line of research, Siran studies post-entrepreneurship work issues to uncover career implications of entrepreneurial experimentation for individuals and talent utilization implications for organizations. Siran's research has appeared in premier management, entrepreneurship, and psychology journals, and has been recognized with best paper awards at the Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research Exchange Conference. Siran currently serves on the editorial board of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and Management Organization Review.

Abstract:

I took this seminar opportunity to step back and reflect on what I feel are some important current themes in entrepreneurial research (close to some of my own research) and where they might head. I will present some of my recent thinking (much of which is influenced by colleagues) about how the interaction of cognition and affect might shape entrepreneurial action. I will focus on three aspects of entrepreneurial action – opportunity evaluation, entrepreneurial entry and entrepreneurial progress and persistence. I will attempt to make some connections between perhaps seemingly disparate topics that I think are important, such as personal initiative, external enablers, entrepreneurial passion, self-regulation, hybrid entrepreneurship, opportunity beliefs and bricolage. In doing so, I hope to illuminate some domains that I regard as fruitful areas for future research.

Bio:

Dr Paul Steffens is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Director of the Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation and Innovation Centre (ECIC), The University of Adelaide, Australia. His current research is concerned with the creation, development and growth of new ventures. He has been a chief investigator for several major research programs totalling over $1.5 million, including the Comprehensive Australian Study of Entrepreneurial Emergence (CAUSEE) and led the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) in Australia for several years. Paul has published in leading entrepreneurship journals including Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and related fields such as Journal of Product Innovation Management and R&D Management. He serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Business Venturing. Paul has also consulted for a range of private and public sector organisations including the Federal Government, SA Government, Monsanto, Waitrose (UK), ENERGEX and the Institute of Public Administration Australia.

Abstract:

Women entrepreneurs’ disadvantaged positions in venturing funding have been well documented. Research attributes this phenomenon to the gender role incongruity between female stereotypes and the image of successful entrepreneurs. Despite the accumulative evidence, we still know little how the significant and discontinuous changes in the macro-environment may create facilitating and/or constraining forces on the strength of the perceived gender role incongruity, which would further shape the gender gap in venturing funding. Using the COVID-19 crisis and the great financial crisis (GFC) as two natural experiments, we hypothesize and test how different crises impact venture investors’ funding decisions on women-led ventures. To identify the causal relation, we employed a difference-in-differences design that uses the industry as the source of variation. The results show that investors are more likely to fund women entrepreneurs after GFC but less likely to fund them after COVID-19. Further, the effects are stronger in later-stage investments.

Bio:

Dr. Wei Yu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Management at the National University of Singapore. Wei obtained her Ph.D. from Syracuse University, USA in 2018. Her research areas are entrepreneurship, wellbeing, and organizational decision-making. Wei has published in top entrepreneurship and management journals, including Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management, and Academy of Management Perspectives. Wei also serves on the editorial review boards of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and Journal of Business Venturing. Wei teaches technology management courses at the National University of Singapore, focusing on human elements in the innovation process.

Abstract:

Policies to promote entrepreneurial activity have received much attention in recent years. However, there is still much to learn about which policies actually work, and what are the exact mechanisms by which they do. We explore the performance effects of structured accountability, a policy that encourages founders to periodically express their strategic plans and progress in front of others. We conduct a randomized controlled trial on a balanced sample of 361 business accelerator startups, quantify the subsequent performance of startups using standard measures, and conduct in-depth interviews to a randomly selected subsample. Prior literature has suggested that the effects of structured accountability vary across the dimension of task uncertainty. Our results shed light on a new dimension: structured accountability can aid or harm startups as a function of the founder’s level of formal education

Bio:

Michael Leatherbee is Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Innovation at Universidad Católica de Chile, where he researches the effects of innovation and entrepreneurship policies on new-venture performance. He holds a Ph.D. in Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Technology and Organizations at Stanford University. His publications are available in The Review of Financial Studies, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, and Strategic Management Journal. Outside academia, his entrepreneurial experience includes founding Yx Wireless, a hardware design and manufacturing company that earned multiple innovation awards and achieved a leading position in South America. He is Academic Director of EPIC Lab (Evidence-based Innovation Policy Research Lab) and AUKAN, the innovation management-consulting arm of the School of Engineering at Universidad Católica. He is also President of Start-Up Chile’s International Advisory Board, President of Andes Central Corporation, President of the Strategic Program for Mountain Tourism in Chile’s Metropolitan Region, Innovation Councilor at CORFO (Chile’s economic promotion agency), member of the Chile-California Council, and co-founder of OPTE Educational Foundation. He has been recognized with awards such as “2019 Teaching Excellence”, “2012 Dreaming Chile from California”, “2007 Engineer Entrepreneur of the Year”, “2004 Young Leader” and “2000 Entrepreneurial Spirit.”

Abstract:

We examine using artificial intelligence (AI) as trailblazer to take on the portion of a task that is routine, well-codified, and repetitive such that employees can focus on solving higher-level problems to complete the task. It is important to study this sequential division of labor because it can help tackle both AI’s limitation in performing higher-level work and human’s boredom with routine work. We provide causal evidence from a field experiment in a telemarketing firm which randomly assigned AI and employees to generate sales leads (identify potential customers), and hand over interested customers to human employees for sales persuasion. We find that only for employees with top sales skills handling difficult customers did using AI assistance with yielding sales leads increase employees’ creativity in answering customers’ questions. We also find that only for employees with bottom sales skills handling easy customers did using AI assistance increase employees’ efficiency of answering customers’ questions. In both cases, AI assistance increases the purchase rate. We thus highlight employees’ job expertise and task difficulties as critical conditions to determine whether AI assistance can increase employees’ creativity and efficiency in problem solving and consequentially employees’ job performance.

Bio:

Nan Jia is an Associate Professor of Management and Organization at USC Marshall School of Business. Her research interests include corporate political strategy, business-governance relationships, and corporate governance in international business. Nan’s research has been published in the Management Science, Strategic Management Journal, Organizational Science, Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, and Journal of Politics.

Abstract:

Industrial innovation churns out increasingly unnatural products and technologies amid scientific uncertainty about their harmful effects. We argue that a quick regulatory response to the discovery that certain innovations are harmful is an important indicator for evaluating the performance of an innovation system. Using a unique hand-collected dataset, we explore the temporal geography of regulatory responses as evidenced by the years in which countries introduce bans against leaded petrol, asbestos, DDT, smoking in public places, and plastic bags, as well as introducing the driver’s seatbelt obligation. We find inconsistent regulatory responses by countries across different threats, and that countries’ level of economic development is often not a good predictor of early bans. Moreover, an early introduction of one ban is not strongly related to the relative performance in regard to another ban, which raises possible questions about the coherence of regulatory responses across different threats.

Bio:

Alex Coad is a Professor at Waseda Business School (Tokyo), and is interested in the areas of firm-level R&D investment, firm performance, entrepreneurship, and innovation policy. Alex has published over 80 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, such as Economica, Journal of Business Venturing, Research Policy, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Industrial and Corporate Change, and European Economic Review. According to google-scholar, Alex has over 9000 citations and an H-index of 44. Alex is an Editor at the journals 'Research Policy' (Financial Times Top 50 list of journals for Business Schools) and 'Small Business Economics'. Previously Alex obtained a PhD from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the Sant'Anna School, Pisa, Italy, and held academic positions at the Max Planck Institute (Jena, DE), Aalborg University (Denmark), SPRU (Univ. Sussex, UK), and CENTRUM Graduate Business School (Lima, Peru), and also being an Economic Analyst at the European Commission (IRI group, JRC-IPTS, Sevilla). In December 2016, Alex received the 2016 Nelson Prize at University of California Berkeley.

Abstract:

It is 1.5 decades ago that I wrote my first call to conduct more meta-analyses in entrepreneurship research. The call was well received and today we have more than 60 meta-analyses in the field. This was important as it helps to clarify important questions we had such as, e.g., whether personality matters (it does), whether firms should plan (it pays off) or whether entrepreneurship education creates entrepreneurs (it does not). I think now it is time to reflect on meta-analytical practices in the field.

I will argue for policies and practices that allow to draw more meaningful and valid conclusions by the authors of the meta-analyses and for broadening evidence based entrepreneurship. Specifically, evidence based entrepreneurship has been defined too narrowly in the past and has almost exclusively been associated with quantitative meta-analysis. I will introduce an alternative approach to establish evidence including qualitative research such as case studies and life course data of entrepreneurs. In summary, integrating different forms of evidence will allow entrepreneurship research to develop a more complete knowledge base and better-informed practice recommendations.

Bio:

Andreas Rauch is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at Sydney University Business School. He also holds a research position at the Johannes Kepler University Linz. Earlier appointments include London Business School, Rotterdam School of Management, University of Amsterdam and others. His research interest is at the intersection of entrepreneurship and psychology. His research has strongly contributed to evidence-based entrepreneurship and psychological predictors of entrepreneurial behavior. Andreas has published among others in the Journal of Management, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and Journal of Management Studies. This research received several citation awards and Google Scholar shows that he has more than 12,000 career citations. He is in the editorial review board of the Journal of Business Venturing and appointed editor of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.

Abstract:

I want to argue for an evidence-based approach in entrepreneurship and management. Evidence based approaches are of high importance in several areas of science, particularly in medicine and clinical and educational psychology. In medicine the Cochrane Centers look at practically important issues and suggest and do systematic reviews of these areas – often under participation of practitioners. These systematic reviews provide evidence on empirically evaluated treatment plans. Evidence implies some generalization; this means that empirical work has been performed with similar results in several locations, by several authors, and by several methods. There are three strategies that help in detecting evidence. One is to develop meta-analysis in areas in which there is already enough empirical material available. A second one is to do a systematic review of the evidence available even if it is not possible to do a meta-analysis. And a third strategy is to develop detailed intervention plans that are tested experimentally. In addition, it is useful to provide case studies so as to contextualize the evidence. We think that all are possible in entrepreneurship and can be fruitfully applied. An important issue of evidence based management and entrepreneurship is how it changes both teaching future managers and entrepreneurs. More important may be the use of evidence based procedures by the managers and entrepreneurs. The outlook of management is changing with using evidence based procedures.

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· Michael Frese is a Professor in ​Asia School of Business (in collaboration with MIT Sloan Management) and Professor for Psychology, particularly Entrepreneurship and Innovation, at Leuphana University of Lueneburg (on leave from Dept. Management und Organization, NUS Business School (National University of Singapore).

· Earlier appointments, chairs, and long-term visiting professorships: University of Pennsylvania, University of Munich, University of Giessen, University of Amsterdam, London Business School, Markerere University Business School, NUS Business School Singapore

· Authored ca 200 journal articles in SCIENCE, AMJ, JAP, PP, AMLE, JPSP, JBV, ROB, JOB, JVB, JOOP, and APIR; 200 book chapters and ca 30 books and edited special issues; ca 80 invited keynote addresses ca 430 scientific talks

· Most-cited management scholar in Germany and Asia-Pacific region; among 10-12 most-cited scientists in work psychology, organizational behavior, and entrepreneurship worldwide (h=index 106; 56,000 Google citations with 11 articles cited more than 1000 times; i10=253; 253 articles are cited more than 10 times) (WoS: ca 12,000 cites, h=53; Scopus: ca 14,000; h=57)

· Ranked third in life time publications among German management professors (BWL-Handelsblatt-Rankings 2012, 2014) and among the five most cited economists in Germany (Scopus Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Ranking on Research 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020; includes management in Germany) (WoS: 2 articles 1% most highly cited in area)

· Member of the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina); elected Fellow of Academy of Management, of Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (APA), of International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP), and of Association for Psychological Science (APS);

· President of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP) 2002-2006.

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This paper offers a novel theoretical account of why and when top management team (TMT) gender diversity lends strategic advantage. Building on social role theory, we develop a moderated-mediation model showing: a) TMT psychological safety mediates the effect of TMT gender diversity on firm ambidextrous strategic orientation (ASO) (why) and b) firm slack moderates this mediated effect (when). We tested our model in the context of Chinese high-tech small- and medium-sized enterprises. After confirming gender differences in social role-based proclivities at the TMT level, a multi-wave survey study of 373 members from 120 TMTs showed that TMT gender diversity positively affects ASO via TMT psychological safety, and this mediated effect is stronger when firm slack is lower than higher. We further interviewed 23 top managers to supplement key quantitative results. Our study advances upper echelons research on TMT gender diversity in two ways. First, it highlights the gender-specific interpersonal benefit of TMT gender diversity, which is markedly distinct from the cognitive-variety argument associated generically with TMT demographic diversity. Second, it considers both men and women in TMTs in a more balanced manner, thereby offering an alternative account to the female-focused theorization of the positive strategic implications of TMT gender diversity.

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Stephen Zhang is an associate professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of Adelaide. He studies how entrepreneurs and top management teams behave under uncertainties. His work on the impact of major uncertainties in the contemporary world (e.g. COVID-19 and AI) on people’s lives and work is gaining recognition. Stephen has published articles in top journals in entrepreneurship (e.g. ETP), management (e.g. AMJ) as well as in other disciplines such as medicine. Such research has also given Stephen opportunities to raise more than US$1.5 million of grants in several countries and has been featured in major media outlets (e.g., Yahoo; MSN; HuffPost; the Age; Sydney Morning Herald). Stephen has worked previously in University of Sydney, Catholic University of Chile, and National University of Singapore. Prior to his academic career, Stephen has worked in several industries and has founded startups.

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Interest in applying the idea of co-creation to entrepreneurship is emerging through research on opportunity creation and entrepreneur heuristics. We place co-creation in the conceptual centre of the entrepreneurship research discussion. Doing so requires relaxing the view of a central entrepreneur and adopting a view of stakeholders as peers in the venture, providing resources and deriving benefit. We formalize this insight into a central proposition and derive implications of it for major themes of entrepreneurship research, entrepreneurial outcomes, and three challenges unique to entrepreneurship. The sum of our work suggests moving the discussion in entrepreneurship research from the unit of analysis of the individual entrepreneur, venture, or opportunity to entrepreneurship as a collaborative process undertaken by a constellation of stakeholders that come together to co-create novelty in the environment.

Bio:

Masoud Karami, lecturer, Department of Marketing, Otago Business School, Otago University, New Zealand