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Little is known regarding joiners (i.e. early-stage non-founder entrepreneurial employees) and their commitment to joining a new venture vs pursuing a more rational and stable career path. The purpose of this paper is to bring an understanding to this phenomenon, while adding to various management theories of organizational commitment and entrepreneurship.

The authors examine how current employment situations and alternative job prospects impact the relationship between joiner perceptions of distributive justice and organizational commitment by utilizing the equity ownership distribution decided upon by the founding team. The hypotheses are tested using data gathered from 117 joiners.

The findings confirm for traditional organizational research, a positive relationship exists, even in a new venture context, between perceptions of distributive justice and organizational commitment. However, when joiners report having a second (or primary) job, in addition to the new venture, the direct relationship is weakened. In contrast, higher levels of alternative employment options strengthen the relationship between justice and commitment.

Although the authors’ measure of employment options only included a single-item measure, there is precedent in the literature for this approach. Yet, the authors realize this remains a limitation due to the lack of additional information surrounding each joiner’s “other job” characteristics, such as tenure, title, and salary.

Perceptions of fairness and justice appear to provide valuable implications for founders concerned about organizational commitment and employee buy-in when seeking to bring on joiners. Job alternatives and additional employment also provide interesting takeaways for practitioners. The authors suggest that founders take caution when hiring joiners, who have a second (or primary) job, in addition to working for the new venture. Levels of commitment will likely be reduced, to the possible detriment of the new venture.

Although the baseline hypothesis exists in prior literature with respect to established firms, it has not been tested in a new venture context. Furthermore, prior studies within the entrepreneurship literature have yet to examine these issues from the perspective of the joiner and certainly have not taken into account additional employment and employment prospects among these individuals.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate formation of a copreneurial identity during new venture creation by investigating underpinnings of spousal commitment considering business communication quality.

The study was grounded in identity theory, used a longitudinal copreneurial sample, and SEM modeling. Entrepreneurial literature is filled with how entrepreneurs form their identity, but little is known about how entrepreneurs and their spouses mutually form their copreneurial identity.

Entrepreneurs’ reported spouses having high Time 1 commitment, but spouses reported they were more committed than reported by entrepreneurs. Links between spouse’s Time 1 commitment self‐assessment and Time 2 entrepreneur’s assessment of spousal commitment differed by business communication quality. Time 1 spouse’s commitment self‐assessment was positively related to Time 2 entrepreneur’s appraisal of spousal commitment only for the high business communication group and not for the low business communication group. For couples having high business communication quality, entrepreneur’s assessment of spousal commitment over time was composed of spouse’s self‐assessment of commitment and entrepreneur’s appraisal of spousal commitment, reflecting the mutual verification of a copreneurial identity.

This study provides evidence for Van Auken and Werbel's proposition that an entrepreneur's decision to launch a new business depends not only on opportunity analyses but also on the degree that an entrepreneur's spouse shares a common vision about firm goals. This study not only contributes to the theoretical development of a copreneurial identity but it also addresses measurement issues related to spousal business identity formation. Unlike previous studies considering spousal commitment in terms of marital status or work involvement, a measurement model for spousal commitment was tested using three indicators of cognitive moral commitment. Distinctions were made in stock and flow measures of spousal social capital and initial spousal stock levels were assessed. Furthermore, there appeared to be relatively high consistency between entrepreneur's assessment of spousal commitment and spousal's reflection of their own commitment, suggesting that the spousal commitment construct has some clearly defined properties.

The purpose of this study was to explore the couple relationship context within the venture creation process over time. Conservation of Resources and Family FIRO theories were the theoretical foundation, and constructs from these theories were integrated to develop the analytical framework. The sample consisted of couple-level data from 94 start-up businesses at Time 1 with information from entrepreneur and spouse; there were 78 businesses at Time 2. Analysis of spousal resources invested in the newly created businesses indicated that direct and indirect spousal involvement in the business, spousal moral commitment, spousal perception of entrepreneur's business self-efficacy, business communication quality, and emotional support from the spouse were enabling resources during the venture creation process. Work overload and work and family conflict were constraining resources during this process. Couples in a very strong relationship reported significantly more enabling resources and fewer constraining resources than couples not in a very strong relationship.

Existing literature suggests that the need for a conducive environment is crucial in developing entrepreneurship. Previous research on this trend has focused on what constitutes a munificent environment and how environmental conditions stimulate an entrepreneur's intentionality to start a venture. However, little is known about how entrepreneurs “switch on” their alertness to business opportunities in a benign environment. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of environmental munificence on entrepreneurs' alertness, as moderated by self‐efficacy, and the effects of this alertness on entrepreneurs' commitment to their new ventures.

Data were used from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED) to test the hypotheses. Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis were conducted to ensure the dimensionality of entrepreneurial commitment scale. Hypotheses were tested using moderated hierarchical regression analysis.

The results of this study show a strong relationship between environmental munificence and alertness especially when the entrepreneurs have high levels of self‐efficacy in performing the roles and tasks of new venture creation. In turn, entrepreneurial alertness is related to continuance, behavioral and affective commitment of entrepreneurs.

The findings have important implications for the theory and practice of developing entrepreneurial firms.

This paper aims to explore the mediating role of organizational entrepreneurial capability in the link between entrepreneurs’ effectuation and new venture performance, and whether entrepreneurs’ passion positively moderates this relationship in the Chinese emerging economy.

This study collected survey data from 140 Chinese new ventures. Following an empirical design, hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapping analysis were applied to examine six hypotheses.

Results reveal that organizational entrepreneurial capability plays a positively mediating role in the association between entrepreneurs’ effectuation and new venture performance. Moreover, the whole mediation model is positively moderated by entrepreneurs’ passion, not only the association but also between entrepreneurs’ effectuation and organizational entrepreneurial capability.

The study is limited to the static relationships between key variables using the data obtained at one point in an emerging economy, which cannot investigate the dynamic evolution between variables. More longitudinal designs or cases to track the dynamic association should be considered.

The findings provide useful suggestions for entrepreneurs to enhance their effectual logic and entrepreneurs’ passion to better perceive and exploit opportunities and further improve new venture performance. The results also provide guidance for other groups, such as angel investors and policymakers, regarding how to use effectuation logic as an evaluation criterion to judge whether a new venture or program has investment potential.

These findings enrich the effectuation theory by providing the empirical evidence of the effect of entrepreneurs’ effectuation on new venture performance in an emerging economy. They also provide deeper insights into opportunity research by uncovering the mediating role of organizational entrepreneurial capability in the relationship between entrepreneurs’ effectuation and new venture performance.

The purpose of this research is to examine the activities and behaviours of potential entrepreneurs as they move towards engagement in business start‐up.

Based on in‐depth engagement with seven founders of new businesses, and informed by a review of the relevant literature.

A series of transitions towards business start‐up are identified, which in turn produced a five‐step framework for examining and understanding the “pre‐start” phase of preparation for entrepreneurship.

The case‐based approach provided detailed and contextualised insight into how a small group of founders prepared for business start‐up. There may be a need to test the framework with a larger group of business founders to assess its wider relevance and applicability.

The pre‐start framework identifies how individuals progress towards start‐up, and so could be used as the basis for a programme to encourage individuals to move through each step towards engagement in business start‐up. The movement from step to step can also be used to assess overall levels of preparation for entrepreneurship within the wider population, and so has the potential to be a useful indicator of overall levels of entrepreneurial orientation.

The paper presents a process‐focused model of the pre‐start dynamic.

Research on new internet venture growth is lacking. The purpose of this paper is to address the gap by developing and testing a theoretical model that links venturing principles (effectuation or causation) to new internet venture growth through resource bundling (pioneering or stabilizing).

The proposed theoretical model is developed upon the entrepreneurship literature and resource-based view. Empirical data are collected from entrepreneurs and top executives in China via a survey. The Baron and Kenny (1986) mediation model assessment procedure is used to analyze the data.

Both effectuation and causation are positively associated with new internet venture growth. Effectuation leads to pioneering resource bundling, which in turn contributes to new internet venture growth. Causation also contributes to new internet venture growth, but through stabilizing resource bundling.

This research helps link the theory of effectuation to resource-based theory by revealing resource bundling as the mediator between effectuation, causation, and new venture growth. Moreover, the authors provide empirical evidence of the importance of resource bundling with entrepreneurial strategic decision logics to the growth of new internet ventures in transitional economies.

Entrepreneurs and managers of new internet ventures should leverage both venturing principles to support growth. Internet ventures generally are creative and innovative in nature, hence favor effectuation. But it will be unwise to ignore causation, which also leads to growth.

This is an original empirical research guided by theories. It is a novel insight to identify the mediating effect of resource bundling. This study likely will inspire more scholarly research on the subject. It also lays a solid foundation for further inquiry such as complementarities between effectuation and causation.

This paper aims to examine the emergence of passion-driven entrepreneurship within the context of small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs). SMSTs are seen as peripheral areas lacking the resources to support autonomous economic development and renewal. The paper explores the relationship between entrepreneurship and the context of SMSTs through the concepts of entrepreneurial passion (EP) and domain passion (DP). Industrial marketing and purchasing approach is adopted as a theoretical foundation to conduct the analysis through the actors–activities–resource framework.

This paper adopts a multiple case-study methodology. Two passion-driven entrepreneurial ventures (PDEVs) have been traced from the conception of the initial idea until the new ventures establishment.

EP and DP emerge as key resources in transforming the initial idea into a real entrepreneurial venture in resource-scarce settings as SMSTs. Shared passion fosters the involvement of local actors and the propensity to overcome relevant hurdles in the entrepreneurial process.

This paper contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship through the analysis of the role of PDEVs in SMSTs’ contexts. It highlights the role of “passion for place” as a new dimension of passion in entrepreneurial studies. From a managerial perspective, it emphasizes the role of passion as a key resource for networking and marketing. From a policy perspective, it calls for monitoring and support for training, funding and networking.

This chapter seeks to advance ongoing research concerning entrepreneurial commitment. While the concept of commitment has been addressed time and again in organizational literature, few entrepreneurship scholars have used it to understand entrepreneurial behaviors. In line with recent developments in entrepreneurial psycho-social literature (Fayolle & Liñán, 2014; Adam & Fayolle, 2015; Van Gelderen, Kautonen, Wincent, & Biniari, 2018), this conceptual chapter aims to advance understanding of the concept of commitment in the context of emerging organizations. Building on Meyer and Allen’s three-component model of commitment (TCM), it addresses how this multidimensional concept, developed in the organizational setting, is a lens through which one can investigate volitional phases of the entrepreneurial process (Van Gelderen, Kautonen, & Fink, 2015). Our work also explores how the TCM could be specifically adapted for emerging organizations, drawing on its main evolutions and re-conceptualizations since the 1990s. In this way, it uncovers potential avenues for further research on how to operationalize entrepreneurial activity. In doing so, it enhances knowledge of the entrepreneurial process and can improve training and support techniques for nascent entrepreneurs. It also contributes to broader discussions on the TCM and how it should be adapted in order to foster self-determined processes.

Entrepreneurship and leadership may flow from the same genealogical source and the appearance of separation of the two constructs may be due to differences in the contexts through which the root phenomenon flows. Entrepreneurship and leadership are figuratively different manifestations of the need to create. To better understand the origin of entrepreneurship and leadership, research must first focus on the combinations or hierarchy of traits that are necessary, but perhaps not sufficient, to stimulate the two constructs. Factors that trigger a drive to create or take initiative within the individual in the context of a particular circumstance should be identified, and the situational factors that move the individual toward more traditional leader or classic entrepreneurial-type behaviors need to be understood.