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In increasingly competitive markets, opportunities exist to meaningfully differentiate product offerings by cue signalling the claims of emergent categories. Therefore, and within the context of wine sales, the purpose of this study models the supply-led price importance of nascent, extrinsic old vine (OV) cues for South African wines to establish whether to what extent and how producers prioritise such nascent cues relative to more established extrinsic cues of worth.

A data set was compiled of 159 South African wines with OV category cues signalled on front labels, back labels or via marketing material. The play of contending cue variables was computed through an ordinary least square hedonic pricing model.

In addition to the contribution of established cues such as aggregated critic ratings, grape varieties and area of origin, this study confirms that vineyard age contributes significantly to wine price, particularly when signalled on back labels.

In price setting and positional models, such as brand extensions, the findings prove useful in understanding the inherent value of nascent cues and specifically vineyard age, relative to competing established wine cues of worth.

This study extends the wine pricing theory by validating the viability of nascent OV cues in the modelling of a wine’s value.

This paper investigates how early-stage founders use the 60-s nascent pitch to attract co-founders, by applying the narrative paradigm.

Videos of supported and non-supported pitches from Startup Weekend were analysed using the Grounded Theory Method.

The findings were used to develop a framework for a successful nascent pitch. It shows that founders who can engage the audience, convey credibility and use symbols effectively are more likely to attract co-founders. Bringing these three elements together through personalisation, that is, making the startup concept tangible and personally relevant for co-founders to visualise, enables the founder to talk a venture into existence.

This paper holds implications for founders and entrepreneurship mentors to craft a powerful, persuasive pitch by drawing on the framework.

The framework brings a holistic understanding to the nascent pitch and explains how nascent founders acquire human resources at one of the earliest stages of venture formation. In this way, concerns of prior fragmented approaches focussed only on narrative elements of investment pitches are addressed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the cognitive and affective dimensions of COO and the owned-by/made-in cue combinations in first-generation immigrant markets.

The cognitive and affective dimensions were manipulated in a scenario-based experiment administered on 261 Mexican Americans in three product categories.

The cognitive and affective dimensions each have a distinct impact. When the two dimensions combine, the effect is stronger within the specialty product category, followed by the shopping product category, and, to a lesser extent, in the convenience product category.

The cognitive dimension was represented by the country’s degree of political, economic and technological development, whereas the affective dimension was traced by examining immigrants who identify with the emotional and symbolic meanings associated with countries involved in the country of origin (COO) message.

Managers should pursue emerging COO research whose concepts and designs are congruent with today’s global consumer culture. The authors find support for the stand-alone effects of made-in and owned-by COO cues, as well as the effects of the cognitive and affective dimensions of COO. When COO messages combine both made-in and owned-by cues, the cognitive and affective dimensions may work synergistically, depending on the product category.

This study adds to the nascent literature that recognizes the multiplicity of consumer identities, and bridges the gulf between the conventional COO research and the increasingly multicultural nature of the marketplace.

This paper aims to determine the affecting factors of the brand authenticity of startups in social media.

Using a qualitative method based on a grounded theory approach, this research specifies and classifies the affecting factors of brand authenticity of startups in social media through in-depth semi-structured interviews.

Multiple factors affecting the brand authenticity of startups in social media are determined and categorized as indexical, iconic and existential cues through this research. Connection to heritage and having credible support are determined as indexical cues. Founder intellectuality, brand intellectuality, commitment toward customers and proactive clear and interesting communications are identified as iconic cues. Having self-confidence and self-satisfaction, having intimacy with the brand and a joyful feeling for interactions with the community around the brand are determined as existential cues in this research. This research furthers previous arguments on a multiplicity of brand authenticity by shedding light on the relationship between the different aspects of authenticity and the form that different affecting factors can be organized together. Consumers eventually evaluate a strengthened perception of brand authenticity through existential cues that reflect the cues of other aspects (iconic and indexical) which passed through the goal-based assessment and self-authentication filter.

The research sampling population can be more diversified in terms of sociodemographic attributes. Due to the qualitative methodology of this research, assessment of the findings through quantitative methods can be considered in future research.

Using the findings of this research, startup managers can properly build a perception of authenticity in their consumers’ minds by using alternate factors while lacking major indexical cues such as heritage. This research helps startup businesses to design their brand communications better to convey their authenticity to their audiences.

This research determines the factors affecting the authenticity of startup brands in social media. It also defines the process of authenticity perception through different aspects of brand authenticity.

Drawing from legitimacy and institutional entrepreneurship theory, this study assesses the naming patterns of entrepreneurial firms in the US biotechnology industry.

The authors use a mixed-methods design of content analysis and regression to analyze a sample of 441 entrepreneurial biotechnology firms, for which data were obtained from Net Advantage. The authors track changes to the proportion of firms with naming attributes, such as name length and type of name. The authors also examine variability in those characteristics during the industry's evolution, comparing freestanding to acquired start-ups.

Start-ups select names that are longer, more descriptive, begin with rare sounds or hard plosives and have stronger discipline- or technology-specific links during nascent years of the industry. As the industry evolves, entrepreneurs are more likely to select names that are shorter, more abstract, begin with hard plosives and have stronger industry-specific links. The naming patterns of freestanding and acquired companies differ, and companies that conform to industry pressures tend to remain independent.

Unlike extant studies that assess established industries, the current study identifies shifting trends in the naming patterns of entrepreneurial firms in an emerging industry. By focusing on start-ups, the authors expand research on organizational naming practices, which focuses traditionally on name choices and name change patterns of incumbents. By using marketing and linguistics methods when analyzing organizational name attributes, naming patterns in these attributes are identified, including name length, name type, starting letter of the name and link to the industry.

This paper aims to introduce eristic decision-making in entrepreneurship. A decision is eristically made when it utilizes eristics, which are action-triggering short-cuts that draw on hedonic urges (e.g. sensation-seeking). Unlike heuristics, eristic decision-making is not intendedly rational as eristics lead to decision-making without calculating or even considering the consequences of actions. Eristics are adaptive when uncertainty is extreme. Completely novel strategies, nascent venturing, corporate venturing for radical innovation and adapting to shocks (e.g. pandemic) are typically subject to extreme uncertainties.

In light of the relevant debates in entrepreneurship, psychology and decision sciences, the paper builds new conceptual links to establish its theoretical claims through secondary research.

The paper posits that people adapt to extreme uncertainty by using eristic reasoning rather than heuristic reasoning. Heuristic reasoning allows boundedly rational decision-makers to use qualitative cues to estimate the consequences of actions and to make reasoned decisions. By contrast, eristic reasoning ignores realistic calculations and considerations about the future consequences of actions and produces decisions guided by hedonic urges.

Current entrepreneurial research on uncertainty usually focuses on moderate levels of uncertainty where heuristics and other intendedly rational decision-making approaches pay off. By contrast, this paper focuses on extreme uncertainty where eristics are adaptive. While not intendedly rational, the adaptiveness of eristic reasoning offers theoretically and psychologically grounded new explanations about action under extreme uncertainty.

Drawing on the Health Belief Model (HBM), this study aims to investigate the roles of health beliefs (i.e. perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, health self-efficacy and cues to action) in promoting college students’ smartphone avoidance intention.

Empirical data were collected through a cross-sectional survey questionnaire administered to 4,670 student smartphone users at a large university located in Central China. Further, a two-step Structural Equation Modeling was conducted using AMOS 22.0 software to test the hypothesized relationships in the research model.

Analytical results indicate that (1) perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits and health self-efficacy positively influence users’ smartphone avoidance intention; (2) perceived barriers negatively influence smartphone avoidance intention, while (3) cues to action reinforce the relationships between perceived susceptibility/perceived benefits and smartphone avoidance intention, but attenuate the relationships between perceived barriers/health self-efficacy and smartphone avoidance intention.

This study demonstrates that HBM is invaluable in explaining and promoting users’ smartphone avoidance intention, thereby extending extant literature on both HBM and smartphone avoidance.

Research on smartphone avoidance is still in a nascent stage. This study contributes to the field by offering a fresh theoretical lens for pursuing this line of inquiry together with robust empirical evidence.

Social cognitive theory suggests that entrepreneurs' characteristics affect entrepreneurial outcomes through interaction with their environment. This study examines the relationship between entrepreneurs' characteristics and performance in the context of entrepreneurial nascence.

This study investigated lagged-panel responses from a sample of 100 confirmed nascent entrepreneurs. Data collected on three separate occasions included core self-evaluations, commitment, fear of failure and success. PLS analysis was used to assess mediation of commitment on the self-evaluation – success relationship.

Core self-evaluations are an important predictor of entrepreneurial success in nascent-stage entrepreneurs participating in pre-venture assistance programs; positively affecting success and commitment, while negatively affecting fear of failure.

This investigation contributes to a fuller understanding of social cognitive theory as it pertains to nascent entrepreneurship. Furthermore, contrary to general expectations found in the entrepreneurship literature, the authors uncover a context where entrepreneurs' characteristics are relevant predictors of early entrepreneurial outcomes.

Results showed core self-evaluations as a robust predictor of perceived success in nascent entrepreneurs. Administrators of pre-venture assistance programs should consider screening applicants to programs designed to assist nascent entrepreneurial opportunity development for signs of high core self-evaluations.

This study advances theory by (1) demonstrating the value of assessing nascent entrepreneurs' core self-evaluations as a specific predictor of early-stage entrepreneurial outcomes, (2) suggesting social interaction amidst participation in pre-venture assistance programs makes commitment a salient part of perceived success and (3) providing evidence that entrepreneur-level characteristics need consideration in the context of nascent entrepreneurship and pre-venture assistance programs.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of mentor expectations on nascent entrepreneur’s venture creation and how this relationship strengthens/weakens when mediated by the sense of nothing to lose and entrepreneurial resilience.

The author nested the data from mentors and protégé entrepreneurs by using a questionnaire survey. Mentors were those individuals who were established entrepreneurs and involved in training to protégé entrepreneurs. Protégé entrepreneurs were those who were part of the cohorts in incubation centers for training and startup training.

Data revealed that it was unlikely to create a new venture when mentors displayed low expectations in protégé entrepreneurs. However, this relationship was positively mediated by the sense of nothing to lose and entrepreneurial resilience.

The findings have important implications on how mentor expectations can hinder protégé entrepreneurs’ venture creation and how it turns around when entrepreneurs display the ability of nothing to lose and resilience.

Mentorship from other experienced individuals has become essential to entrepreneurs and their fledgling ventures. Although there is an acknowledgment that mentoring improves an entrepreneur’s likelihood of success in a new venture, yet far too little the authors know about the degree of expectations in mentor-mentee relationships and new venture creation. This research connects those pieces of the puzzle and fills the gap.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in management research is still nascent and has primarily focused on content analyses of text data. Some method scholars have begun to discuss the potential benefits of far broader applications; however, these discussions have not led yet to a wave of corresponding AI applications by management researchers. This chapter explores the feasibility and the potential value of using AI for a very specific methodological task: the reliable and efficient capturing of higher-level psychological constructs in management research. It introduces the capturing of basic emotions and emotional authenticity of entrepreneurs based on their macro- and microfacial expressions during pitch presentations as an illustrative example of related AI opportunities and challenges. Thus, this chapter provides both motivation and guidance to management scholars for future applications of AI to advance management research.