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The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating effect of an owner’s growth goal on the relationship between the gender of new venture owners and the growth outcomes of their ventures.

This is a quantitative study using a large, national database and structural equation modeling.

The findings indicate that the negative relationship between gender and growth outcomes is fully mediated by the growth goals of new venture owners, their available internal resources and the amount of time and money they are able (prepared) to invest in their new venture.

The research implications include the need to better understand the impact of goal setting on new venture performance outcomes.

The government policies (for example, to stimulate firm growth) need to be designed by having a proper understanding of the various motives/goals that entrepreneurs might have when launching a new venture. Similarly, anyone providing advice to individuals involved in establishing a new venture should, before providing that advice, ensure that they have a clear understanding of the individual’s goals.

Social implications include a need to better understand the negative impact that lower available human and financial capital can have on the goals set by female new venture owners and the outcomes achieved by those ventures.

This research makes an original contribution to the literature by demonstrating: the impact of gender on human, social and financial capital; the influence of these resources on new venture goals; and, in turn, the influence of goals on new venture performance outcomes.

Sustainable Family Business Theory states that human, social, and financial capital are important for new family venture growth, yet there may be multiple combinations that could be beneficial. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether all three types of resources are always needed for growth.

Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis, a configurational method, is used to investigate which combinations of human, social, and financial capital consistently lead to new family venture growth.

Multiple distinct combinations of resources – usually containing some form of human capital along with either social or financial capital – were sufficient for new family ventures to grow.

The findings contribute to a more accurate Sustainable Family Business Theory in terms of the resource bundles needed to achieve growth. Not all three primary resources are needed at founding for the venture to grow. Results suggest a need for renewed focus on human capital in family venture research, as well as further investigations of the resource configurations uncovered here and their effects on family firm outcomes.

Given the costs associated with acquiring resources, the findings can inform family entrepreneurs and other stakeholders purposed with assisting new family ventures regarding optimal avenues of achieving growth.

This study advances theory by demonstrating which combinations of primary resources lead to new family venture growth. The findings shed light on how human, social, and financial capital may substitute for each other, as well as how the value of each depends on the presence or absence of the others.

Despite the growing body of literature on both organizational learning (OL) and corporate venture development (CVD), very few attempts have been made to establish connections between these two literature streams. While existing literature provides some evidence that OL may facilitate the process of CVD, several interesting research issues remain unexamined. We know very little about (a) what type of learning processes are effective at various stages of CVD; and (b) whether and how knowledge created through various OL processes enhances venture performance. These research issues are examined in this paper by integrating the literature from OL and CVD. We develop a conceptual model that integrates organizational learning with the antecedents and outcomes of CVD. We argue that (a) organizational learning in CVD occurs through two distinct and yet complementary processes; (b) productive organizational learning occurs when organizations vary their emphases on different types of learning depending upon the stages of CVD; and (c ) different types of learning are associated with different types of venture outcomes. Propositions are developed and implications are discussed to facilitate empirical research.

Intelligence or general mental ability (GMA) is a strong predictor of job performance across most occupations, and educational attainment has been shown to be a predictor of entrepreneurial outcomes. However, there has been little research examining the simultaneous effects of entrepreneurs’ GMA and educational attainment on their venture outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of these human capital resources on venture performance and survival.

Using a sample of 234 self-employed entrepreneurs from a longitudinal database, regression analysis was employed to examine the predictors of venture performance. A hazard model was utilized to assess venture survival.

Entrepreneurs’ intelligence influenced venture performance directly and indirectly via educational attainment. Entrepreneurs with higher GMA were subsequently able to obtain more education, and GMA had an indirect, positive influence on venture performance through this additional educational attainment. Findings also demonstrated an inverted-U, curvilinear effect on venture survival for GMA and educational attainment. This indicates that both intelligence and educational attainment should be considered when examining how likely entrepreneurs are to persist or survive in their ventures.

Entrepreneurs with higher GMA had ventures that performed better and obtained more education, which influenced venture survival. These findings suggest that entrepreneurs’ intelligence is likely to be an important predictor of venture outcomes, as well as a source of entrepreneurs’ human capital acquisition. Therefore, GMA should have a more central role in the human capital discussion within the entrepreneurship literature.

In this study we confirm the often assumed but largely untested belief that entrepreneurs think and behave differently than others. We examine a group of more than 700 nascent entrepreneurs and 400 nonentrepreneurs. We determine the entrepreneurs’ cognitive style propensity for problem solving (Innovator versus Adaptor); we compare their expectations; and, we examine the outcomes (performance and start-up) of their ventures. We find that nascent entrepreneurs are more likely to be overly optimistic Innovators, most people are Adaptors, and oneʼs cognitive style can indeed play a role in the initial development and outcome for the venture, but not always as expected.

Though often considered a critical factor in predicting venture success, past research into the effects of founder experience has often produced mixed results. What factors influence founders’ decisions to use, or not use, experience they possess? This study examines the role job dissatisfaction might play in a founder's decision to leverage multiple types of experience (sector, entrepreneurial, role model and education) on external (sales performance) and internal (founder intrinsic satisfaction) outcomes. Greater dissatisfaction was associated with decreased likelihood of founders building on sector experience. While dissatisfaction influenced the use of experience, greater experience levels did not consistently account for higher levels of venture sales performance. Moreover, no differences were found in founders’ intrinsic satisfaction, regardless of sales performance. The differing results in the two outcome measures suggest potential differences in the goals and consequent actions of entrepreneurs in the study. By examining multiple types of experience, and what might moderate founders’ use of that experience, these findings provide additional insights into the entrepreneurial process.

Although business incubators are widely used support mechanisms for innovative entrepreneurship, the literature still lacks theoretically based explanations of how the incubation process creates value for stakeholders. This study aims to address this gap by developing a conceptual model, and related research propositions, that explains how the entrepreneurial logic in use by an incubator influences the incubation process (selection criteria and service offering) and performance.

Integrating the effectuation and entrepreneurial opportunities literature, which shares common conceptualizations about how the predictability of the future affects entrepreneurial action, the authors posit two archetypes of entrepreneurial logic that are associated with different incubation processes (causal or effectual) and two archetypes of opportunity attributes (discovery- or creation-based) that affect the incubation process needed to support their development.

Juxtaposing these archetypes, the proposed cross-level conceptual model specifies four levels of fit (ideal, surplus, deficit and mismatch) between the incubation process and the opportunity attributes of individual ventures, which directly influence venture performance (high, moderate and low). In turn, an incubator's performance is largely shaped by the overall performance of ventures in its portfolio.

This paper responds to the call for theory-building that links the antecedents and outcomes of the incubation process across levels of analysis. In addition to developing a conceptual model and research agenda at the intersection of entrepreneurship and business incubation, the proposed model also has implications for incubator directors deciding how to allocate limited resources, and for public/private sector administrators interested in leveraging investment in business incubators.

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 paper is to provide a process view into moments of entrepreneurial crisis within the venture formation process caused by environmental stressors. A new construct is conceptualized, the entrepreneurial breaking point (EBP), as a critical and potentially insurmountable moment of crisis caused by an entrepreneur’s appraisal of environmental threats during a new venture’s formation.

To develop the EBP within a process model, this study builds upon previous environmental frameworks by expanding upon and infusing a situated social cognitive approach with a stress perspective.

The theoretical framework developed sheds light on the complex person-environment interaction that can create an EBP, the process of experiencing an EBP, how individuals vary in their activation of coping resources to respond to an EBP and how an EBP can ultimately result in new venture exit, sustained performance or growth.

The paper discusses implications for entrepreneurs during these moments of crises, including suggesting the use of trusted, impartial third-parties to overcome individual weaknesses, increasing awareness of the various environmental threats and finding a balance between goal-related commitment and adaptation.

This paper contributes to the existing literature by operationalizing and contextualizing a special case of socio-cognition under duress, filling an identified need for process work, exploring some reasons for EBP response variation across different entrepreneurs and elaborating on how the behavioral outcomes of an EBP may affect venture performance.

The purpose of this study is to unfold the role of managerial characteristics in developing the dynamic capabilities necessary to serve foreign customers and compete in export market ventures.

The authors test their proposed model using path analysis with data collected from export managers working in 204 small- and medium-sized Turkish exporters operating in various sectors.

The findings suggest that the positive effect of export managers’ process thinking skills on dynamic capabilities increases when the export managers’ learning and avoid orientations are low and prove orientation is high and export venture experience (duration and scope) increases. In addition, it has been found that export managers’ process thinking skills have an indirect effect on export performance through export venture dynamic capabilities.

This study makes three contributions. First, the authors conceptualize and operationalize dynamic capabilities in the context of exporting. The authors empirically validate export venture dynamic capabilities as a higher-level construct composed of sensing, seizing and reconfiguring elements pertinent to the firm’s export market operations. Second, based on the micro-foundations approach of competitive advantage, the authors study managers’ process thinking skills in exporting firms and how these abilities support dynamic capability development in export ventures. Finally, the authors investigate how the impact of export managers’ process thinking skills on export venture dynamic capabilities is influenced by their goal orientations and certain objective exporter characteristics pertaining to different aspects of export venture experience.