Entrepreneurial passion has been proposed as a central characteristic of entrepreneurs, theorized to influence a host of entrepreneurial behaviors as well as firm performance. The current study ...explores one set of pathways leading from developer passion to performance, identifying self-regulatory mode (locomotion and assessment) and grit as significant conduits of this relationship. In this study, we use multi-source survey data, with 1year lagged performance data, to empirically examine relationships between developer passion, self-regulatory mode, grit, and performance. Using path analysis modeling, we find that the relationship between developer passion and grit is mediated by both locomotion and assessment, with results indicating a positive relationship between locomotion and grit and a negative relationship between assessment and grit. Our results also reveal a positive relationship between grit and venture performance. Implications of these findings to research and practice are then discussed.
•Entrepreneurial developer passion has a positive relationship with both locomotion and assessment (regulatory mode).•Locomotion has a positive relationship with grit, while assessment has a negative relationship with grit.•Grit has a positive relationship with firm performance.•The relationship between entrepreneurial passion (developer) and grit is mediated by self-regulatory mode.
Innovation is of central importance to entrepreneurship research, as independent entrepreneurs account for the most fundamentally novel product offerings. This study investigates how founder human ...capital and founder coachability relate to exploiting product innovation in new ventures. Drawing on a dyadic sample of founders and startup coaches, we clarify how general human capital broadens the knowledge corridor to enhance product innovation. Conversely, our study shines a light on the dark side of specific human capital and illustrates how specific prior knowledge constrains the knowledge corridor to limit product innovation. Further, we find that founder coachability—the degree to which an entrepreneur seeks, considers, and integrates feedback—is related to exploiting product innovation. Perhaps most importantly, we advance coachability as a learning mechanism that moderates the relationship between specific human capital and product innovation to overcome knowledge corridor constraints. Our findings have implications for human capital, coachability, and entrepreneurial learning.
•Clarify how general human capital broadens the knowledge corridor and enhances product innovativeness.•Illustrate how specific prior knowledge can constrain the knowledge corridor and hinder product innovativeness.•We find that founder coachability provides direct benefits for exploiting product innovativeness.•Demonstrate founder coachability as a learning mechanism that can overcome the knowledge corridor to enhance innovation.•Draw from a unique sample of 656 dyads comprised of startup coaches and founders.
Does testosterone increase the tendency to engage in self-employment? The results presented to date have been mixed. Using three different studies, we provide additional evidence on the relationship ...between testosterone and self-employment. Drawing on a cross section of 2,146 individuals (1,178 males and 968 females) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys’ 2011–2012 sample, and controlling for endogeneity (with red blood cell count, percentage hematocrit, and zinc supplement intake in the past 30 days as instruments), we find that serum testosterone levels are positively associated with self-employment for males (marginally significant, two-tailed test). As testosterone levels could be affected by social, economic, and biological factors during one’s life course, we draw more robust inferences by assessing whether the 2D:4D digit ratio, a marker of prenatal testosterone exposure, influences the likelihood of self-employment. From Understanding Society’s Innovation Panel Wave 6, we tested separate models for 449 males and 525 females, and our results indicate that males (respectively, females) with a lower 2D:4D ratio in their left hand, or higher prenatal testosterone exposure, have a significantly greater (respectively, marginally significant) likelihood of self-employment (two-tailed test). Finally, we examine the twin testosterone transfer effect in a sample of opposite-sex and same-sex twins from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States and provide additional support for the marginally significant (two-tailed test) positive association between testosterone and self-employment.
Data are available at
https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2664
.
This paper was accepted by Toby Stuart, entrepreneurship and innovation.
Goal setting theory suggests that difficult goals enhance performance on many tasks. When goals are so difficult as to be unattainable, however, they may generate discouragement and reduced ...motivation, with the result that performance, too, is decreased. Previous research indicates that entrepreneurs are high in self-efficacy and, as a result, may tend to set goals that are so difficult that they cannot realistically be achieved. We reason that self-control, one important aspect of self-regulation, may restrain this tendency and encourage entrepreneurs to set goals that, although difficult, are also attainable. Results offer support for this hypothesis. Goal setting theory also predicts a positive relationship between goal difficulty and performance. We suggest, and find, that this relationship is curvilinear: up to a point, increases in goal difficulty are positively related to firm performance, but beyond this point, further increases in difficulty are negatively related to firm performance. The findings of this study contribute to knowledge concerning the role of entrepreneurs' self-regulation in the performance of their companies.
•Because entrepreneurs are high in self-efficacy the goals they set for their ventures are often highly ambitious.•While challenging goals are often beneficial, overly challenging goals may result in feelings of discouragement and, therefore, reduced performance.•Our findings indicate that entrepreneurs' tendency to set “unattainable” goals can be restrained by high self-control.•We also find that, overall, the relationship between goal difficulty and firm performance is curvilinear (inverted U-shape).
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Anecdotal evidence suggests that entrepreneurs report fewer hours of sleep. However, in samples of 12,086 individuals in the 2012 and 2014 cross-sections of The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance ...System (BRFSS), and 47,851 individuals in the 2013–2016 National Health Interview Sample cross-sections, our results indicate that sel-femployed individuals report more sleep. The results in these two samples further show that psychological distress mediates the relationship between self-employment and lower self-reported sleep time and poorer sleep quality. In the third sample of 7714 individuals in waves 1 and 4 of the UK Household Longitudinal Survey, self-employed individuals reporting increase in sleep from wave 1 to wave 4 also reported a very small increase in monthly gross income, indicating limited, if any, gains to income from increasing sleep hours.
Blending the literatures on grit and self-employment, we propose the role of grit in separating the self-employed from the employed. Based on a sample of 13,210 respondents from nine countries, our ...results indicate that not only is grit related to self-employment, but also grit is more strongly related to self-employment for risk-takers, females, and younger individuals. The findings are robust, controlling for several individual characteristics and alternate specifications, and have implications for the broader literature on self-employment.
Based on the Arab Spring event in Tunisia and using neighbouring countries as the control group, we test whether the onset of democracy increases entrepreneurial activity in the medium term. In Study ...1, our findings show that democracy did not change the overall new business density in Tunisia. In Study 2, we do not find an effect on engagement in startups or business ownership. However, democracy improved perception of startup skills and reduced perception of fear of failure; with only males reporting higher perceived startup skills. The findings in Study 2 are also robust to five alternate measures of democracy.
Complementing studies on physical attractiveness and labor market outcomes, we use the information on physical and personality attractiveness rated by interviewers from four waves of the National ...Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (ADD Health) for 1,485 individuals (73 female and 60 male self-employed). Though neither physical attractiveness nor personality attractiveness is related to self-employment earnings individually, females who are self-employed with
both
physical attractiveness and personality attractiveness have higher earnings. There are no effects of both attractiveness types for males (employed or self-employed) or females (employed) on earnings.
Plain English Summary
We examine how physical attractiveness and personality attractiveness relate to performance in self-employment. Interestingly, we did not find that either physical attractiveness or personality attractiveness individually had any significant relationship with earnings for self-employed individuals. However, we did find that self-employed females who are both physically attractive and have attractive personalities did have significantly higher earnings. There were no significant effects on earning for either self-employed or employed males who were both physically attractive and had attractive personalities or for employed females with both forms of attractiveness. These results add nuance to prior research regarding the potential beauty premium that could play a role in key aspects of performance for those who are self-employed. Specifically, our findings highlight the need to consider both physical and personality traits for females who are considering, or are currently pursuing, self-employment.
Building upon Hayek’s seminal work regarding the benefits of market decentralization, in this study, we examine the complementary role of an individual’s secular values in further explaining the ...association between decentralization of economic affairs, entrepreneurial activity, and self-employment. We argue that studies on Hayek’s notion of decentralization may be incomplete in their conceptualization without a transition to individual morality based on more secular values. We consider decentralization of economic affairs and secular values to explain why entrepreneurial activity differs across countries. In study 1, we find that the decentralization of economic affairs increases the odds of being an entrepreneur in a startup, but does not influence the likelihood of owning/managing a business or perceptions related to the opportunity to start a business. In study 2, we find evidence of mixed support for decentralization and self-employment; however, with meaningful effect sizes but with marginal significance, we find that an individual’s secular values complement the association between decentralization of economic affairs and self-employment. The findings are robust to alternate specifications. By demonstrating the role of secular values in strengthening decentralization, we lay the foundation for melding economic perspectives with the freedom from religious ethos as an important consideration for entrepreneurial activity. However, the mixed effects of decentralization on different modes of entrepreneurship also call into question the value of decentralization in modern economies.
Plain English Summary
Higher levels of individual secular values, even by a small amount, enhance the benefits that economic decentralization can have on entrepreneurial activity. In this paper, we use a two-study approach to examine how individual secular values might influence the effects of economic decentralization on entrepreneurial activity. In study 1, we find that the decentralization of economic affairs increases the odds of being an entrepreneur in a startup, but does not influence the likelihood of owning/managing a business or individual perceptions related to existing opportunities to start a business. In study 2, we find evidence of mixed support for the effects of economic decentralization on self-employment. However, we find some evidence suggesting that an individual’s secular values complement the association between decentralization of economic affairs and self-employment. Thus, the principal implication of this study is that policymakers should take into consideration the overall secular values present in society when making decisions regarding economic decentralization, particularly with regard to understanding the potential effects that decentralization could have on entrepreneurial activity.
Drawing from costless signaling research, we examine the role of virtue language in Airbnb listings. We propose that virtue language espoused by entrepreneurs is beneficial for Airbnb price ...premiums—but only to a certain extent. Specifically, we argue that virtue language espoused by entrepreneurs has a curvilinear relationship with the price premium of their listings, suggesting that excessive use is seen as dishonest and becomes detrimental to their performance. We also suggest that this relationship is more pronounced when the entrepreneur is perceived to be more credible and when the entrepreneur is venturing into more conservative markets.
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