Uncertainty is central to entrepreneurship; however robust and generalizable findings that explain the conditions in which uncertainty may impede or promote entrepreneurial action remain elusive. We ...operationalize uncertainty as a multi-dimensional construct composed of state, effect, and response types of uncertainty (Milliken, 1987) to investigate the relationship between uncertainty and entrepreneurial action. We decompose more than 2800 exploitation decision policies nested within a sample of new product decision-makers working in entrepreneurial software firms. We focus on the primary decision-maker's willingness to exploit a given opportunity in the face of varying combinations and manifestations of uncertainty and find that the type of uncertainty experienced influences the willingness to engage in entrepreneurial action differently. Further, we find that differences in how each type of uncertainty is manifested in the environment, the scale of exploitation (i.e. large vs. small), and the entrepreneur's expertise serve to moderate the relationship between uncertainty and action in counter-intuitive ways. We discuss the implications for both theory and practice.
Career researchers have focused on the mechanisms related to career progression. Although less studied, situations in which traumatic life events necessitate a discontinuous career transition are ...becoming increasingly prevalent. Employing a multiple case study method, we offer a deeper understanding of such transitions by studying an extreme case: soldiers and Marines disabled by wartime combat. Our study highlights obstacles to future employment that are counterintuitive and stem from the discontinuous and traumatic nature of job loss. Effective management of this type of transitioning appears to stem from efforts positioned to formulate a coherent narrative of the traumatic experience and thus to reconstruct foundational assumptions about the world, humanity, and self. These foundational assumptions form the basis for enacting future-orientated career strategies, such that progress toward establishing a new career path is greatest for those who can orientate themselves away from the past (trauma), away from the present (obstacles to a new career), and toward an envisioned future career positioned to confer meaning and purpose through work.
Why do owner-managers delay business failure when it is financially costly to do so? In this paper we acknowledge that delaying business failure can be financially costly to the owner-manager and the ...more costly the delay, the more difficult the recovery. But we complement this financial perspective by introducing the notion of anticipatory grief as a mechanism for reducing the level of grief triggered by the failure event, which reduces the emotional costs of business failure. We propose that under some circumstances delaying business failure can help balance the financial and emotional costs of business failure to enhance an owner-manager's overall recovery — some persistence may be beneficial to recovery and promote subsequent entrepreneurial action.
We apply the prescriptions of the resource‐based perspective to develop a model of entrepreneurial opportunity evaluation. We propose that opportunity evaluation decision policies are constructed as ...future‐oriented, cognitive representations of ‘what will be’, assuming one were to exploit the opportunity under evaluation. These cognitive representations incorporate both (1) an evaluation of the existing resource endowments (already under the control of the venture), which may be employed to exploit the opportunity under evaluation, and at the same time (2) an assessment of the future, wealth generating resources that must be marshalled (and subsequently under the control of the venture) in order to exploit the opportunity under evaluation. We empirically test this model using conjoint analysis and hierarchical linear modelling techniques to decompose more than 2300 opportunity evaluation decisions nested in a sample of 73 entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest that entrepreneurs are attracted to opportunities that are complementary to their existing knowledge resources; however, we also identify a set of opportunity‐specific and firm‐specific conditions that encourage entrepreneurs to pursue the acquisition and control of resources that are inconsistent with the existing, knowledge‐based resources of the venture. We identify these conditions and discuss implications for theory, practice, and future research.
We develop a framework to investigate the foundations of an ‘entrepreneurial mindset’ — described by scholars as the ability to sense, act, and mobilize under uncertain conditions. We focus on ...metacognitive processes that enable the entrepreneur to think beyond or re-organize existing knowledge structures and heuristics, promoting adaptable cognitions in the face of novel and uncertain decision contexts. We integrate disparate streams of literature from social and cognitive psychology toward a model that specifies
entrepreneurial metacognition as situated in the entrepreneurial environment. We posit that foundations of an entrepreneurial mindset are metacognitive in nature, and subsequently detail how, and with what consequence, entrepreneurs formulate and inform “higher-order” cognitive strategies in the pursuit of entrepreneurial ends.
We develop a model that focuses on the individuation of opportunity beliefs. We adopt inferences from the ecology literature and integrate those with mental model theory to examine the ...‘individuation’ of opportunity as the result of the interplay between industry conditions and person-specific factors. We test our predictions using conjoint analysis of 2880 opportunity decisions. We find that an entrepreneur's related knowledge, motivation to evaluate the opportunity, prior failure, and fear of failure shape perceptions of opportunity attractiveness as one individuates exogenous opportunity information. We articulate our findings as evidence that when combined with opportunity related data, an individual's cognitive resources play an important role as one forms opportunity beliefs about the personal attractiveness of pursing an opportunity.
► Develop a model that examines initial opportunity impressions and how these impressions become ‘individuated’. ► Empirically examine how individual differences based on mental models affect how opportunity signals are interpreted. ► Knowledge relatedness, motivation, fear of failure, and previous failure influence willingness to pursue an opportunity.
In this paper, we consider an organizational paradox inherent to corporate entrepreneurship; that is, the pursuit of entrepreneurial projects is necessary for organizational rejuvenation, renewal, ...and/or organic growth; however, the high failure rate of entrepreneurial projects likely has enduring implications for the project team members and, by extension, the organization. Drawing on the psychology and emotion literatures, we model the human capital costs of corporate entrepreneurship arising from the multiple failures of entrepreneurial projects. Specifically, we explore how and with what consequence negative emotions can accumulate across multiple failures; when this accumulation is most likely to occur; and what the nature of this accumulation is across organizational contexts, employee differences, and time. This theorizing complements extant scholarship focused on the financial benefits and costs of corporate entrepreneurship by investigating the negative impact of multiple project failures on employees.
To sense and adapt to uncertainty by leveraging prior entrepreneurial knowledge is a critical ability. However, for many individuals, prior entrepreneurial knowledge is absent or underdeveloped. We ...investigate the ability of individuals without prior entrepreneurial knowledge to effectively adapt decision policies in response to feedback, while performing an entrepreneurial task. We model 10,000 “entrepreneurial decisions” nested within 217 individuals, to demonstrate how differences in metacognitive ability and feedback type promote (or alternatively impede) cognitive adaptability. Our findings suggest insights into the interplay between knowledge, learning, and cognition that are generalizable to activities and actions central to the entrepreneurial process.
We examine the underlying psychological processes that may motivate habitual entrepreneurs to engage in entrepreneurship repeatedly. By drawing on the psychology literature on behavioral addictions, ...such as workaholism and Internet use, we develop a framework that defines the symptomatology of what we identify as a “behavioral addiction to entrepreneurship.” Through interviews with two habitual entrepreneurs, we demonstrate how these addiction symptoms manifest in the entrepreneurial context. We also demonstrate how psychological, emotional, and physiological aspects of the entrepreneurial experience reinforce a behavioral addiction to entrepreneurship. Our theorizing offers insights into the psychological origins of repeated engagement in venture creation activities and yields insights into possible “dark side” of entrepreneurship outcomes.
•We present a theoretical conceptualization of entrepreneurship addiction.•Highlights the interdependent relationship between entrepreneur and venture(s)•Highlights symptoms of entrepreneurship addiction among some habitual entrepreneurs.•Highlights experiential elements that reinforce addiction.•Implications for understanding the ‘dark side’ of entrepreneurship
The act of entrepreneurship typically confers ‘distinctiveness’. However, in satisfying the psychological need to be distinct, entrepreneurs may at the same time foster a psychological deficit in ...feelings of belonging, leading to diminished psychological well-being. Investigating this potential trade-off through the lens of Optimal Distinctiveness Theory, we develop and model strategies appropriate for managing multiple identities, offering an explanation for why some entrepreneurs are able to
balance distinctiveness and belonging, fostering psychological well-being, while others are unable to do so and experience entrepreneurship's ‘dark-side’.
