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The purpose of this study is to examine factors leading to venture success, emphasizing the role of entrepreneurs as critical in the whole process, based on a sample of women entrepreneurs. Drawing upon the competence-based view of the firm, it examines the effect of entrepreneurial competencies, managerial competencies and reliance on networks toward increased female venture success rates.

A structured questionnaire was allocated to women entrepreneurs to seek respondents’ perceptions. Principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation was undertaken to confirm the constructs’ validity. A hierarchical regression analysis was performed to test the hypotheses.

Networking stands out as having the most significant positive effect on venture success while entrepreneurial and managerial core competencies are both important, with entrepreneurial competencies demonstrating a slightly higher score. Also, years of entrepreneurial experience, entrepreneurial family background and family status prove significant.

The study confirms prior research, highlighting the role of entrepreneurs as central, sharpening understanding of the required determinants of venture success. It further provides new insight into venture success from the perspective of the competence-based theory, highlighting clear-cut competencies.

The study paves the way for the design of entrepreneurial learning programs targeting entrepreneurs and particularly females, highlighting the need for on-going education and educational programs to support entrepreneurs and distinctly women.

The study contributes to the effective management of venture progress and success and provides insight into entrepreneurs and policymakers.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a unique perspective on the role of entrepreneurs’ hard work for the relationship between entrepreneur human capital and venture success. To this end, this study examined whether entrepreneurs with high human capital work harder than entrepreneurs with low human capital, the effect of entrepreneurs’ hard work on venture performance, and whether entrepreneurs’ hard work mediates the relationship between entrepreneur human capital and venture performance.

In this explorative study, the role of entrepreneurs’ hard work as a mediator that transfers entrepreneur human capital into venture success was examined in a sample of 2,648 single-founder startups in the USA and 21,184 observations during the period of 2004-2011.

The effect of entrepreneurs’ industry experience on entrepreneurs’ hard work was significantly positive, while the effect of entrepreneurs’ general education on entrepreneurs’ hard work was significantly negative. Moreover, entrepreneurs’ hard work was a significant predictor of venture success. Finally, the results showed that entrepreneurs’ hard work partially mediates the positive relationship between entrepreneurs’ industry experience and venture success.

On one hand, the link between human capital and firm performance has been studied thoroughly and findings so far support the positive link between them. On the other hand, there has been continuous criticism that human capital gained much of its attention at the expense of human labor. There is a paucity of research, however, that investigating the dynamics of the relationships between human capital and human labor. This study provides an empirical explanation of such dynamics of the relationships of human characteristics in the context of entrepreneurship.

Modern portfolio theory demonstrates that a well‐diversified portfolio will minimize unsystematic risk. It may be impractical to achieve a well‐diversified portfolio of venture capital (VC) investments due to market imperfections, leading to the decision to specialize. The purpose of this paper is to determine the implications of choosing a strategy of specialization versus diversification in venture investing.

Using a dataset of US VC funds across a 20‐year time period, this paper verifies that there has been a tendency for venture capitalists to pursue a specialization strategy in both industry and stage of development of portfolio firms. A multivariate two‐limit tobit model is constructed to determine the effects of these decisions on venture success rates.

It is found that venture capitalists that diversify across portfolio company stage of development have greater success in bringing companies public and exiting their investments via acquisition. Industry specialization has no significant impact on venture fund success rates.

Success rates may be less important than returns to investors in VC. Future research should examine the effects of specialization on investor returns.

It may be beneficial to increase the level of diversification of VC investments across portfolio company stage of development. The lack of diversification across industry has not significantly affected success rates across funds, thus the tendency to specialize in particular industries over the sample period is not necessarily a poor decision.

Prior research demonstrates a tendency for specialization in VC investing. This paper examines the implications of adopting this strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the links between entrepreneurial behavior and success factors in a developing country context.

A case study approach was selected to analyze real‐life situations in order to gain an insight about entrepreneurial cognition and action related to success factors. Drawing from the behavioral theory of entrepreneurship, this paper presents a conceptual model which shows that entrepreneurial cognitions about success factors may lead toward entrepreneurial actions. The data were collected through face‐to‐face interviews. Three entrepreneurs were asked to outline responses to identified success factors such as start‐up planning, managing risk, learning, networking, managing human resource, and managing finances.

The results suggest that many behavioral patterns exhibited by the case study entrepreneurs were similar to entrepreneurs' behavior in more developed regions. The similarities include: preparation of business plan, ability cognition for start‐up planning, overconfidence and representativeness heuristics for managing risk, obtaining professional outsider assistance for learning, developing business relationships with suppliers for networking and favorable credit policies, and employing owner‐related and delaying‐payment methods of bootstrapping for managing finances.

For the first time in Pakistan this study explores entrepreneurial cognition and action in managing success factors. The findings of the research will potentially help practitioners and policy makers in nurturing entrepreneurial initiatives in a developing country context.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of increased fund commitments on portfolio size and subsequent effects on portfolio success rates. This paper empirically analyzes the changes in average portfolio size over a 20‐year time period and how these changes affect the venture capitalists' ability to successfully exit their investments.

The authors utilize venture capitalists' fund level data and conduct both univariate and multivariate analysis. The multivariate analysis is conducted using a two‐limit regression tobit model. This is justified since the authors' dependent variable is a ratio bounded by zero and one, hence the tobit specification is the most appropriate methodology.

The authors find that increasing the size of portfolios not only leads to a decrease in the number of successful investments but also significantly affects portfolio success rates. They also find evidence which suggests that some optimal portfolio size exists.

The sample was limited to independent private partnerships that raised funds specifically for investment in US portfolio companies and it represents all funds maintained in the SDC database with non‐missing data on fund size and other fund characteristics.

There are three main practical implications derived from this study. First, venture capitalists overextend themselves by investing in too many portfolio firms. Second, some optimal portfolio size exists beyond which success rate of the venture capitalist's portfolio declines. Third, portfolio size is an important determinant of venture capital portfolio success rates.

The study presents new evidence that venture capitalists have a tendency to increase their portfolio size in years following growth in fund inflows, an idea that has not been investigated earlier. The authors also use data that is not adulterated by significant economic and financial conditions such as internet bubble burst of 2000 and financial crisis of 2007/2008.

Crowdfunding, an alternative funding source to support entrepreneurial initiatives, has increasingly attracted the attention of scholars. However, knowledge of the drivers and outcomes of crowdfunding is currently scant. This study thus presents a review of the extant literature on new ventures soliciting crowdfunding.

The authors conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) of peer-reviewed articles, identifying and thematically analyzing 58 publications.

The thematic analysis revealed six main themes: a) founders and crowdfunding, b) signaling and crowdfunding, c) digitalization and crowdfunding, d) outcomes, e) geography and crowdfunding and f) success factors. In addition, crucial research gaps are identified to guide future research.

Beyond classifying the material on the basis of the thematic analysis and identifying potential future research avenues, the study has main implications. The authors detailed how crowdfunding, as a source of entrepreneurial funding, differed from other funding sources and explored entrepreneurial challenges that may be encountered in managing crowdfunding campaigns. The findings may thus help in the design of crowdfunding campaigns and serve educators in various disciplines when teaching and training participants on designing and promoting crowdfunding campaigns.

After identifying and integrating results from relevant articles on crowdfunding, the authors explained dominant themes in the literature and proposed a conceptual framework wherein the authors highlight factors that influence crowdfunding outcomes. The authors highlight the increasing relevance of crowdfunding for new ventures and elucidate avenues for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the efficacy of Osterwalder and Pigneur’s Business Model Canvas for 271 teams competing in a venture pitch competition during a cleantech accelerator program.

It uses competition results and data from a website used by participants to track their hypothesis construction and testing.

Teams that used the elements of customer segment, value proposition, key activities or key partnerships performed significantly better in the competition. Yet of all nine elements in the Canvas, only customer segmentation showed a significant linear bivariate correlation between the number of validated hypotheses and performance. Finally, teams that heavily used a triumvirate of elements composed of customer segmentation, value proposition and channel performed two times better than teams that barely used these elements.

The findings of this exploratory analysis imply that the components of a business model that explain and predict early success might be different than those for a more mature firm.

These results suggest that practitioners could improve early performance by narrowing their scrutiny to just the triumvirate, because the Canvas may contain components that are unhelpful for entrepreneurs as they form a business model for their nascent venture.

This paper fills a gap by empirically testing the prediction that application of the Business Model Canvas drives venture success and providing a revise definition for a business model that is more appropriate for start-up ventures.

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 rise of creative economy has been the subject of considerable interest in the recent literature. Despite the growing effort to investigate entrepreneurship in creative industries, little work has been done to scrutinize the relationship between individual attributes of creative entrepreneurs and the new venture outcomes. Prior research shows that entrepreneurial creativity and opportunity recognition are the major determinants of entrepreneurs’ behavioral posture in the new venture process. Therefore, this study aims to explore the typology of creative entrepreneurs’ attitude to new venture creation using entrepreneurial creativity and opportunity recognition to categorize entrepreneurs in creative industries.

A sample of 291 entrepreneurs in creative industries of Taiwan and cluster analysis was used to categorize the research data.

The results identify four types of creative entrepreneurs, namely “creative constructionist”, “creative opportunist”, “creative designer” and “creative producer”. To better understand the role of creative entrepreneurs in affecting new venture success, the career outcomes perceived by entrepreneurs were compared between different categories. Results suggest that entrepreneurs who are categorized as “creative constructionist” have better career success in firm’s creative performance, personal career achievement, social reputation, entrepreneurial satisfaction and entrepreneurial happiness. Moreover, findings also suggest that constructionist type of creative entrepreneurs have the lowest intention to quit the entrepreneurial career.

This paper confirms that entrepreneurial creativity and opportunity recognition complement each other to accomplish entrepreneurs’ career success. Its findings shed light on entrepreneurs’ attribute typology as well as how the typology is linked to entrepreneurial career success in creative industries. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that motivate women in India to become self-employed. Further, it demonstrates a systematic application of grounded theory to understand how women entrepreneurs build their ventures’ success in India.

The paper throws light on the key tenets of grounded theory research and explains its use as a rigorous method for entrepreneurship research. Data were collected through 25 in-depth case studies of women entrepreneurs from diverse geographical, social, economical and industrial sectors in one of the world’s fastest growing emerging markets, namely, India.

The results of this inductive approach suggest that women-owned ventures’ path to building success is on one hand, based on their ability to recognize opportunities despite their non-business social network enhanced by their innovation capabilities. On the other hand, it is also based on their ability to find some market niches, i.e., entering into markets untapped by traditional men-owned small businesses. The author concludes that the women entrepreneurs’ paths to building competitive advantage in emerging markets manifests a number of features that are distinct from those of the women-owned businesses from developed countries. This study provides a holistic understanding of women entrepreneurs in emerging markets, an under-researched phenomenon by providing a framework to understand how they build their ventures’ success in a competitive environment.

This paper is intended as a critical review of the factors influencing women entrepreneurship in India, thus the inductively developed framework is not tested.

The main message of the paper is that women entrepreneur’s ability to (simultaneously) sell products or offer solutions to niche segments (demand side) and capabilities to optimize resources by being innovative (supply side) facilitates their path to build success for their ventures. The findings of this study provide guidelines for policy makers in emerging markets to incorporate policies such that will enhance women’s entrepreneurship despite the social constraints faced by these women. The author demonstrates that women’s involvement in developing their businesses provides job opportunities and ensures that women are taking an active part in the development of the national economy.

This study fulfills the need to explore entrepreneurship by women, in emerging economies like India. Moreover, it is probably one of the first few studies in the literature that uses empirical evidence from a variety of settings to identify factors that motivate women in India to become self-employed and provides a dynamic framework on how women-owned ventures succeed.