Despite considerable scholarly attention to entrepreneurship and poverty, research linking women's entrepreneurship and poverty in slum neighborhoods has been slow to progress. Drawing on an entrepreneurship-poverty nexus and regression results on 12,519 observations, we theorize women's everyday entrepreneurship in Kenya's slum neighborhoods. Our analysis offers theoretical insights into the complexities of necessity-driven everyday entrepreneurship in which women are dominant. We distinguish women's entrepreneurial activities that are embedded in slum systems of everyday entrepreneurship and focused exclusively on a tapestry of essential goods and services, including labor, fuel, energy (for example, charcoal), water, food, and farming. This understanding translates women's entrepreneurial engagements into quantifiable socio-economic outcomes suitable for slum-like conditions where government resources are considered too few to support basic needs. This has academic, social, and policy implications.
Entrepreneurs pursue multiple goals and draw on diverse motivations in the venturing process. The organizing goal in entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) is to grow an existing business. Yet, the practitioner-focused ETA literature and theory-driven entrepreneurship literature offer limited insight into how entrepreneurs structure multiple goals, particularly during the growth phase. This is consequential because the extrinsic rewards associated with venture growth may undermine more satisfying intrinsic motivations that drive entrepreneurs during this phase. Through a qualitative study of acquisition entrepreneurs' (AEs') goals and motivations, we find that, rather than undermining intrinsic motivation, extrinsic growth goals serve as a mechanism connecting intrinsically motivating venture development tasks with the emergence of new intrinsic goals for the future. We also uncover the role of self-regulatory flexibility in pursuing growth goals and extend research on entrepreneurial passion by showing how AEs are motivated to use venture growth to positively impact employees.
Entrepreneurship is often portrayed as meritocratic, yet it often reproduces existing societal inequalities. Prior research shows that gendered inequality persists in access to resources and opportunities, but offers less clarity on how this inequality is sustained. Building on Bourdieu's field perspective, we investigate structural homologies of gendered inequality across interdependent fields of startup and venture capital. Drawing on 31 interviews with women entrepreneurs and women venture capital funders in Tel Aviv, we identify two interlinked dynamics. First, gendered power operates through structural homologies of cross-field narratives of gendered habitus and symbolic violence. Second, women experience gendered inequality through ambivalence between counter-habitus and tactical accommodation. These findings contribute to the application of the Bourdieusian approach within entrepreneurship research.
Does retirement improve or worsen the mental health of the self-employed? This article proposes that greater risk and uncertainty in entrepreneurship relative to paid employment engenders behaviors that make the self-employed more vulnerable to a decline in mental health after retirement than employees. I test and find empirical support for these ideas using a panel of U.S. Health and Retirement Survey data. Moreover, the positive impact of retirement on depressive symptoms among the self-employed persists well into retirement. If workers can anticipate worse future mental health, this might explain the puzzle of why many self-employed continue to work well beyond conventional retirement ages, despite being wealthy enough to retire. I go on to explore implications for entrepreneurship researchers who study health and retirement, practitioners advising entrepreneurs, and policymakers grappling with challenges entailed by aging populations.
Small artisanal producers face a critical strategic dilemma: Will retail expansion reduce profitable direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales? Drawing on quality signaling theory, we examine how retail presence serves as quality certification for resource-constrained producers. Through three studies of French wine producers-combining consumer surveys (N = 689) with multi-year retail sales data (2017-2019)-we demonstrate that retail presence enhances perceived quality, and that this quality signal is particularly effective for consumers using retail channels, resulting in higher purchase quantities. Using instrumental variables regression, we show that geographic proximity between the producer and the retailer significantly increases sales volume, with effects three times stronger for premium-priced products than mid-tier products. Our findings challenge conventional wisdom that retail partnerships have the potential to take away from DTC sales. Instead, we provide evidence that strategic retail expansion-particularly with proximal retailers for premium products-creates quality signaling benefits for small producers lacking traditional marketing resources. We offer actionable guidance for artisanal producers' distribution decisions.
This study investigates how professionalization practices in family firms influence bank loan officers' decisions to finance intergenerational ownership succession. While succession financing is critical for continuity, research on its financial dimension remains scarce. Drawing on agency theory and professionalization literature, we examine whether practices such as the successor's prior work experience, the incumbent's ongoing role, the presence of nonfamily board members, family meetings, and the use of external advisors affect lending behavior. Using a conjoint experiment with 1,520 loan assessments from 95 Belgian bank officers, we find that professionalization significantly shapes lending decisions. Specifically, external-oriented practices-such as independent board members and family business advisors-have a stronger positive effect than family focused practices like incumbent involvement or family meetings. This study contributes to family business and finance research by addressing the underexplored role of banks in succession financing and demonstrating the value of professionalization for securing external funding.
Being successful at transgenerational entrepreneurship is crucial for the long-term prosperity of entrepreneurial families (EFs). While research has highlighted the importance of socialization of next generations into the family and its business(es) for transgenerational entrepreneurship, scant attention has been paid to socialization into social class. To address this gap, we conduct a historical case study of the Florio family, an Italian EF that rose to prominence and declined across four generations between the 19th and 20th centuries. Specifically, we analyze and compare the different socializations each generation experienced. Adopting a Bourdieusian perspective, we identify three mechanisms through which social class socialization shapes the entrepreneurial behavior and outcomes of next-generation EF members: entrepreneurial habitus formation, capital orchestration, and managerial agency. By examining the specificities of these mechanisms across the different generations, we explain both the EF's success and decline. We contribute to research at the nexus of transgenerational entrepreneurship and socialization.
Single-family offices (SFOs) act as guardians of family business legacies, integrating financial and non-financial assets into investment strategies. Through a comparative multiple-case study of nine German SFOs, we identify three legacy arche-types-balancers, pioneers, and renewers-each employing distinct mechanisms to embody the family legacy within their governance and investment approaches. Our findings also reveal that sender-receiver dynamics between generations sys-tematically moderate how legacy is integrated, interpreted, and translated into investment strategies. By extending the concept of legacy beyond traditional family business contexts, demon-strating how generational negotiations shape strategic deci-sions, and challenging stewardship theory's assumption of inherent goal alignment between generations, this study con-tributes to family business literature and emphasizes the strate-gic significance of legacy in wealth management and investment decision-making within SFOs.
In the dynamic and uncertain entrepreneurial environment, effective leadership and team dynamics are crucial for new venture success. This study investigates how and when a lead founder's paradoxical leadership helps the new venture navigate the tensions in entrepreneurial processes by shaping key mechanisms within new venture teams (NVTs). By integrating social information processing theory with emotion-as-social-information theory, we argue that paradoxical leadership enhances NVT psychological safety, which in turn facilitates debate in strategic decision-making and improves long-term venture survival. These positive effects are more pronounced when the lead founder displays high levels of entrepreneurial passion. We test our model using multi-source, multi-wave survey data from 238 entrepreneurs nested within 85 NVTs. Our findings advance the scholarly understanding of paradoxical leadership in entrepreneurship, highlighting the joint impact of leadership behavior and affect in shaping entrepreneurial outcomes.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly innovative SMEs, face significant challenges in accessing credit. This paper examines how performance-pay for executives affects borrowing discouragement in innovative vs non-innovative SMEs. While literature establishes a significant relation between performance-pay and leverage, no prior manuscript investigates its impact on borrowing discouragement as a form of credit-rationing. This study analyzes 17,404 SMEs from 47 countries using World Bank Enterprise Surveys data, focusing on performance-pay, innovation, and borrowing discouragement. Results show that performance-pay does not impact fear of rejection regardless of firm innovativeness. However, it reduces discouragement from loan terms due to better creditor alignment. In contrast, innovative SMEs-especially those pursuing radical innovation-face the opposite effect: performance-pay reduces fear of rejection but heightens discouragement from stricter loan conditions imposed by wary lenders. This highlights a trade-off where innovation incentives may improve long-term growth but worsen access to credit.
Environmentally oriented business models (EBMs) enable environmental entrepreneurs (EEs) to pursue economic viability while generating positive environmental impact. Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) could transform such models through efficiency and innovation, yet it may also undermine their sustainability value through resource demands and social risks. Despite this tension, we know little about how EEs use and perceive GenAI concerning their dual mission. Drawing on qualitative data from 128 German EEs, we combined thematic analysis, hierarchical clustering, and co-occurrence analysis to identify five roles of GenAI in EBMs: (1) seldom-used tool, (2) marketing content producer, (3) core green activity booster, (4) assistive sparring partner, and (5) growth accelerator. Across these roles, EEs reported challenges related to technical immaturity, unclear benefits, regulatory uncertainty, biases, and environmental harm, and its missing specialization in dual mission contexts. We develop three propositions on the tensions of GenAI for the dual mission of EBMs.
The timing of initial international entry-a firm's first expansion into a foreign market-is an important strategic action with far-reaching implications for firm success. This study employs a mixed gamble theoretical perspective to investigate how family control impacts the timing of initial international entry in 472 firms between 2006 and 2019. Contrary to expectations, we find that family firms tend to initially enter international markets earlier than nonfamily firms, though this pattern shifts at higher levels of family ownership. We also confirm heterogeneity among family firms, finding a positive relationship between family control and later initial international entry timing. Further, we find that prior firm performance moderates the relationship between family ownership and initial international entry timing such that entry occurs earlier for superior performing firms. Together, this study suggests a more complex association between family control and the timing of entry into an international market for the first time.
Entrepreneurial passion is a central force in the entrepreneurship process, shaping entrepreneurs' behaviors and venture outcomes. While prior research has increasingly examined the antecedents of entrepreneurial passion, limited attention has been paid to the social factors that shape its formation, particularly from a gender perspective. Drawing on social role theory, this study investigates how gendered role expectations and social contexts jointly shape entrepreneurial passion. Using semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs in Germany and the Netherlands, we show that social support strengthens passion through role-based mechanisms such as identity verification and role consensus. Women more often encounter role incongruity and identity-threat cues, but these can be buffered, and sometimes reframed as motivation, through validating networks and identity-congruent exemplars. Men more often experience entrepreneurship as socially aligned, drawing motivation from professional peer contexts. We propose propositions that highlight the importance of inclusive support systems in stabilizing entrepreneurial passion under conditions of gendered legitimacy.
Validated learning plays a critical role in the lean startup approach to entrepreneurship education. We argue that, compared to validated learning from business generalists, student entrepreneurs who seek feedback from technical specialists develop superior minimum viable products (MVPs). We further suggest that the different effects of feedback from business generalists and technical specialists on the quality of MVPs are mediated by student entrepreneurs' failure analysis. Using a between-subjects, randomized field experiment with a longitudinal design, we find our hypotheses supported. The results indicate that validated learning from technical specialists, in addition to business generalists, should be incorporated into the lean startup pedagogy to guide student entrepreneurs for better MVPs.
Entrepreneurship is often a team effort, but our understanding of the relationship between the emotional and cognitive processes involved remains rather limited. This article presents an exploration of the team-level mechanisms linking entrepreneurial passion and learning. Drawing on social cognitive theory, we studied the role played by team entrepreneurial passion in single- and double-loop team entrepreneurial learning and the moderating effect of team helping. A team-level analysis was performed on data drawn from 446 members of 101 new venture teams in an accelerator for high technology firms in Beijing, China. Our findings show that the shared positive feelings dimension of team entrepreneurial passion is positively related to double-loop team entrepreneurial learning more strongly than it is to its single-loop variant, whereas the collective identity centrality dimension has a stronger impact on single-loop than on double-loop learning. Team helping was found to moderate the relationship between team entrepreneurial passion and learning.
