Although trust is critical for entrepreneurs in all markets, it likely differs in gray markets from that in white or black markets. In this inductive study, we find a coherent configuration of trust mechanisms in a gray market that offers new insights into how entrepreneurs can use their network (i.e., referrals and “lineaging”) and heuristics (i.e., “villageing”) to build trust in new stakeholders when trust formation is challenging and violations are costly. We also offer new insights into the practices for verifying (i.e., impromptu tests and extensive probationary periods) and maintaining (i.e., financial support) trustworthiness, as well as repairing trust.
This article investigates whether institutional conditions that limit employees to pursue hybrid entrepreneurship reduce potential high-growth entrepreneurship. Using the Alcatel v. Brown ruling, as an institutional change that curtailed hybrid entrepreneurial activity, we show that affected states experienced a marked decline in indicators of ventures with high-growth potential. Effects are strongest among early-stage ventures, consistent with hybrid entrepreneurship enabling low-cost experimentation. Venture capital investors also respond to reduced experimentation by increasing syndication and staging. Overall, the results show that institutional arrangements shape experimentation through hybrid entrepreneurship and, consequently, the supply of ventures capable of achieving high growth.
Entrepreneurship outcomes tend to be right-skewed and heavy-tailed, with a small fraction of “star” firms often accounting for a disproportionate share of value creation. Yet, how to define the “star” entrepreneurs driving these outcomes remains highly contested. In this paper, we argue that star identification is best understood as a modeling choice that depends on the research objective—no threshold rule can be evaluated as “optimal” or more “precise” independent of what the rule it is supposed to serve—and introduce a precision–recall framework that makes the trade-offs of threshold-based approaches more explicit. Using 13 years of Inc. 5000 data linked to subsequent public listings, we then compare nine threshold-based methods, including the recently proposed quantile absolute deviation procedure by Gala and Schwab (hereafter GS-QAD) which uses a bootstrap to set a cutoff tailored to the tail of the observed distribution. Three findings emerge. First, using simulations, we show that GS-QAD’s bootstrap procedure introduces systematic sample-size bias that can confound cross-industry comparisons. At the same time, as sample size grows, the method converges to a near-universal 17% to 20% rule. Second, firms classified as stars are 10 to 20 times more likely to become publicly traded and account for the majority of current market capitalization among publicly traded Inc. 5000 alumni. However, the choice of threshold determines a precision–recall trade-off in which no method dominates on all metrics. Finally, the probability of becoming a publicly traded company rises smoothly with revenue, with no detectable discontinuity at any threshold. We conclude that stars are where you draw the line—thresholds should be treated as modeling choices fit to the research or policy objective, validated externally where feasible, and reported with their explicit trade-offs.
Just because we undertake value-neutral research to explain an entrepreneurial phenomenon does not mean we cannot extend our work through engaging values to prescribe what entrepreneurs (and/or other focal actors) should do. In this editorial, we illustrate how scholars can generate and offer prescriptive theorizing. Specifically, scholars can generate practical implications by (a) focusing on a phenomenon-based problem; (b) identifying focal actors and values; (c) defining desired outcomes; (d) developing an implementation roadmap; (e) thinking about reflexivity and boundaries; and (f) generating testable prescriptions. We offer additional considerations about when and for whom this prescriptive theorizing is most appropriate.
This study examines hybrid entrepreneurship (HE) in non-Western contexts where informal and non-market institutions are central. Based on 31 case studies of female hybrid entrepreneurs in Ethiopia and 64 in-depth interviews, we conceptualize HE as a relational, co-constructed process shaped by institutional complexity. Women enact HE in liminal spaces sustained through relational practices: reconfiguring boundaries, cultivating ambiguity and gray areas, and maintaining webs of reciprocity. Institutional complexity both enables and constrains HE, underscoring its social embeddedness rather than individual agency. The study advances research on HE, female entrepreneurship, and institutional complexity by foregrounding relational dynamics and gendered experiences.
This study develops an integrated resource orchestration framework to examine how internal resource configurations shape entrepreneurial resilience in new ventures under crisis conditions. Specifically, we focus on bundles of social and technological resource slack and constraints and conceptualize entrepreneurial resilience as comprising two dimensions: stability (severity of loss) and flexibility (time to recovery). We argue that stability is primarily driven by a resource compensation logic, whereas flexibility is driven by a crisis-induced resource reconfiguration logic. Extending resource orchestration theory (ROT), we conceptualize entrepreneurial teams as the central actors of resource orchestration and introduce entrepreneurial team task-related faultlines (ETTF) as a key structural mechanism shaping how effectively resources are mobilized under disruption. Using a sample of 345 Chinese listed new ventures, we find that dual resource slack reduces severity of loss but slows recovery, whereas among constrained bundles, social resource slack combined with technological constraints enables both lower loss and faster recovery. Response surface analyses further show that greater misalignment between social and technological resources increases loss severity but shortens recovery time. In addition, ETTF moderates the effects of resource bundles on resilience outcomes by strengthening both compensatory coordination and reconfiguration capacity. This study advances ROT by showing that internal resource configurations shape entrepreneurial resilience through both bundle composition and misalignment, contingent on team structural conditions.
Entrepreneurship scholars have over-invested in borrowed theories and under-invested in the evidence needed to test them—or to build something better. This editorial, written on the occasion of ETP ’s 50th anniversary and my departure as Editor-in-Chief, argues for a rebalancing around the research question-design-data trio: important questions rooted in phenomena, designs matched to claims, and serious investment in data quality. The field’s greatest strength has always been its willingness to ask important questions, and its most enduring theoretical contributions come from developing home-grown theories addressing these questions rather than importing frameworks from outside. AI makes this rebalancing urgent. When the front end of a paper can be generated by a machine, the distinctive value of scholarship must reside in the question, the design, and the evidence. The field’s future depends on producing work that reveals how entrepreneurship actually works, and on exporting those insights rather than merely importing ideas from other disciplines.
Angel investment research has grown rapidly; yet, when and under what conditions angel investors recommit remains understudied. Integrating escalation of commitment (EOC) theory with the conflict management styles (CMSs) perspective, we examine these conditions through archival data investigation, a conjoint experiment (2,368 decisions by 148 angel investors), and a field study (214 ventures by 112 angel investors). We show that prior commitment increases angel investors' reinvestment likelihood, contingent on entrepreneurs' CMSs. We advance EOC theory by identifying relational boundary conditions and conflict management research by theorizing its moderating role in reinvestment decision-making, revealing escalation as a socially embedded process shaped by investor-entrepreneur interactions.
Effectuation research posits that effectual networks are composed of self-selecting stakeholders who purchase voice to gain influence in how the effectual process proceeds when they commit to co-create. However, entrepreneurship scholars wrestle with theorizing the social action underlying a theory originally based on the individual decision-making of experts and, specifically, explaining how voice emerges prior to commitment to influence effectual network formation. This study combines the literatures on effectuation and hybrid institutional logics to examine how intermediaries can shape the creation of effectual networks among their members. Through a multiple case study of six makerspaces, the findings reveal how voice emerges and becomes collectivized in the transition from informal collaboration to co-creation. Makerspaces with a high degree of hybrid logics support voice emergence through three social interaction mechanisms: project socializing, market logic embedding, and community logic extending. The study builds a model of effectual network formation via voice emergence moderated by logic hybridity, thereby sharpening the parameters of effectual networks pertaining to voice and co-creation.
This study revisits the assumption that moderate growth offers the most reliable path to new venture survival. Adopting a lifetime growth perspective, we distinguish genuine failure from strategic or neutral exits to better understand the growth-survival relationship. Using 246,831 venture-year observations from 52,277 Dutch startups (2007-2019), we replicate and extend prior research. While moderate annualized growth enhances short-term survival, our extension reveals a contrasting long-term pattern: ventures with either low or high lifetime growth exhibit the greatest survival likelihood. These findings reconcile competing perspectives and highlight how ventures need to navigate short- and long-term pressures to survive.
We investigate the effect of parental leave taken by top management team (TMT) members on innovation outputs in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). By analyzing a large sample of Swedish SMEs, we find that the length of parental leave taken by TMT members has a positive effect on SME innovation outputs. This effect is stronger for smaller and longer-tenured TMTs, as these TMTs likely exhibit greater behavioral integration. Such integration can support TMT members in mitigating role conflicts and leveraging the role enhancement benefits connected to performing multiple roles during and after leave. These results contribute to the literature and offer valuable practical insights.
Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EE) are widely viewed as engines of innovation, economic development, and opportunity, yet prior research offers limited insight into how equity is institutionally produced and sustained, particularly for minority- and women-owned businesses. We introduce institutional space-making—the purposeful construction of governance, relational, and organizational environments that enable equitable participation—as a core institutional mechanism for ecosystem redesign. Drawing on a multi-city case analysis of the Ascend program across 13 U.S. cities, we identify 3 interrelated processes: (a) structural redesign that confronts exclusionary rules, routines, and evaluative logics; (b) relational mobilization through institutional entrepreneurship that assembles cross-sector coalitions to reconfigure resource flows and opportunity structures; and (c) organizational and implementation practices that embed cultural responsiveness through trust-building and adaptive coordination. Findings show that inclusive ecosystems emerge when these processes are jointly enacted, linking ecosystem design with everyday implementation. Our study advances EE theory by specifying how equity is produced through institutional redesign and offers actionable guidance for policymakers and ecosystem builders seeking durable inclusion.
Entrepreneurship research increasingly seeks to explain how systemic change towards gender inclusivity unfolds. Drawing on a critical realist case study, we develop a morphogenetic account of how such change becomes possible within entrepreneurial ecosystems through structural and cultural conditioning , social interaction , and structural and cultural elaboration . We show that bonding and bridging function as collective, agential mechanisms through which women and their allies reflexively contest gendered constraints and mobilise resource gatekeepers, thereby enabling shifts in ecosystem norms and practices over time. By doing so, the study bridges women’s entrepreneurship, ecosystem scholarship, and critical realism through a processual explanation of change.
This study examines how major family transitions-marriage, childbirth, divorce, widowhood, and the co-occurrence of marriage and childbirth within the same observation interval-are associated with entry into self-employment as households reallocate risk, care, and income responsibilities. Using longitudinal Canadian data from the Longitudinal and International Study of Adults (2012-2020), it draws on life-course theory, household bargaining perspectives, and the capability approach to conceptualize self-employment entry as a process of contingent capability reallocation rather than simply a reflection of stable entrepreneurial preferences. The findings show that identical life events generate divergent entry responses across gendered breadwinner roles, caregiving demands, and life stage. Marriage and childbirth are positively associated with entry on average, but these associations are contingent: marriage is most strongly associated with entry among newly married secondary-earning women, while childbirth suppresses entry for primary-earning mothers and attenuates for new fathers as caregiving intensity rises. Divorce shows no uniform association: it is positively associated with childcare-expense responsibility but negatively associated with prior primary-earner status. Widowhood is associated with reduced entry, with no working-age moderation. Finally, the co-occurrence of marriage and childbirth within the same biennial interval is associated with higher entry than either transition alone.
We conduct a large-scale labor-market experiment using more than 8,000 fictitious r & eacute;sum & eacute;s to uncover the demand-side mechanisms behind the adverse treatment of the self-employed entering wage employment. We find that, compared to wage earners, self-employed individuals face lower callback rates across industries and skill groups. This adverse treatment is concentrated in the lower-skilled, non-managerial market of associate professionals, with a 28% drop in callback. Results suggest that self-employment leads to the development of generalist skills (useful for managerial roles) at the cost of specialist skills. Furthermore, perceived behavioral fit of the self-employed seems to be penalized in associate positions.
Hybrid entrepreneurs who retain salaried or academic roles are often viewed as insufficiently committed by investors. Yet, maintaining a hybrid employment status can also be a strategic pathway into high-growth venturing. Drawing on Role Congruity Theory, we examine how Venture Capital funds and angel investors evaluate hybrid founders and how founders adapt over time. Using 17 semi-structured interviews with investors and hybrid entrepreneurs in two European ecosystems and two longitudinal case studies of research-intensive ventures, we inductively theorize hybrid venturing as a congruity alignment trajectory and derive propositions linking investor role expectations, founder adaptation, and ecosystem support structures.
We investigate how crowds evaluate pitches by entrepreneurs with versus without physical disabilities. Leveraging stereotype subtyping, we argue that entrepreneurs with physical disabilities are evaluated as a distinct subtype, rather than as people with disabilities or as conventional entrepreneurs. We hypothesize that benevolent ableism shapes how this subtype is evaluated, inflating both warmth and competence perceptions. Three experiments support our hypotheses, and key informant conversations with professional investors and entrepreneurs with disabilities corroborate the proposed mechanisms. Our findings contribute to unconventional entrepreneurship research by examining how bias can manifest as patronizing positivity rather than overt negative discrimination.
Persistent evidence of a male advantage in equity fundraising has led entrepreneurship scholars to assume that while women face fit penalties in male-typed industries, men are exempt from penalties in female-typed ones. Yet underlying sociological theory implies that lack-of-fit penalties would apply to both sexes. Analyzing 718 equity deals from 408 ventures in Femtech, we find that male CEOs raise smaller deal amounts than female CEOs. Post hoc analyses and interviews provide interpretive triangulation consistent with two plausible explanatory accounts, embodied task competence and moral legitimacy. This challenges the assumption that men are exempt from fit penalties in female-typed industries.
Socioemotional wealth (SEW) is a foundational construct in family business research; however, its empirical measurement remains limited by reliance on proxy variables and survey data. This study addresses these challenges by developing a computer-aided text analysis method to measure SEW using the SEWi framework. Our approach enables direct, scalable, and multidimensional assessment of SEW through organizational narratives. We detail the development and validation of the measure, demonstrating its reliability and construct validity. This method expands the methodological toolkit for family business scholars and enhances SEW measurement precision, offering a pragmatic solution for broader, comparative, and longitudinal research.
We replicate Lockett, Wiklund, Davidsson, and Girma's (LWDG) (2011) study, which draws on Penrose's theory to explicate how organic and acquisitive growth interact, using data from 128,368 Dutch firms (2011-2016). Our results confirm LWDG's finding that past organic growth negatively affects subsequent organic growth. However, unlike LWDG, reporting a positive association, we find that past acquisitive growth reduces subsequent organic growth. Extending LWDG's framework reveals that this effect turns positive over time, particularly for complementary acquisitions. While our findings align with Penrose's theory, they also provide a more nuanced understanding of the conditions under which acquisitive growth enhances organic growth.
