Category Archives: Entrepreneurship

The new generation of millennial entrepreneurs: A review and call for research

Jingting Liu, Ying Zhu, Manuel G. Serapio, and S. Tamer Cavusgil
International Business Review, Volume 28 Issue 5

Entering the third decade of the new millennium, the millennial generation is stepping into their most productive stage of life. We have witnessed a number of exemplary millennial entrepreneurs, such as Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook. The world’s economy is evolving fast and presenting distinct entrepreneurial opportunities to millennials across the globe. It is critical that scholars of international entrepreneurship explore the new breed of millennial entrepreneurs and contrast them across generations and countries. Regrettably, the extant literature comes up short in fully addressing the new generation of entrepreneurs. We call for immediate scholarly attention on millennial entrepreneurs as they are in substantive ways unlike all earlier generations. We urge researchers to explore the unique characteristics of millennial entrepreneurs, their influence on entrepreneurial motivation, orientation …

The University of Colorado Certificate Program in Bioinnovation and Entrepreneurship: An Update and Current Status

Madhavan Parthasarathy, David Forlani, Arlen Meyers
Journal of Commercial Biotechnology, Vol. 21 Issue 2, April 2015

The purpose of this paper is to provide an update and report the current status of the cross-campus University of Colorado Denver program in bioinnovation and entrepreneurship, details of which were first reported in the Journal of Commercial Biotechnology in 2012 5. The paper outlines the joys and challenges of implementing an inter-campus program that attempts to marry cutting-edge biotechnology innovation with a solid business foundation. The tremendous value offered by such a program, particularly …

Information Technology and Intangible Output: The Impact of IT Investment on Innovation Productivity

Landon Kleis, Paul Chwelos, Ronald V. Ramirez, and Iain Cockburn
Information Systems Research, Vol. 23 Issue 1, March 2012, pp. 42–59

Prior research concerning IT business value has established a link between firm-level IT investment and tangible returns like output productivity. Research also suggests that IT is vital to intermediate processes like those that produce intangible output. Among these, IT’s use in innovation and knowledge creation processes are perhaps the most critical to a firm’s long-term success. However, little is known about the relationship between IT, knowledge creation, and innovation output. In this study, we contribute to the literature by comprehensively examining IT’s contribution to innovation production across multiple contexts, using a quality-based measure of innovation output. Analyzing a panel of large U.S. manufacturing firms between 1987 and 1997, we find a 10% increase in IT input is associated with a 1.7% increase in innovation output for a given level of innovation-related spending. This relationship
between IT, R&D and innovation production is robust across multiple econometric methodologies and found to be particularly strong in the mid to late 1990s, a period of rapid technological innovation. Our results also demonstrate the importance of IT in creating value at an intermediate stage of production, in this case, through improved innovation productivity. However, R&D and its related intangible factors (skill, knowledge, etc.) appear to play a more crucial role in the creation of breakthrough innovations.

The University of Colorado certificate program in bioinnovation and entrepreneurship: an interdisciplinary, cross-campus model

Madhavan Parthasarathy, David Forlani, Arlen Meyers
Journal of Commercial Biotechnology, Vol. 18 Issue 1, January 2012, pp. 70-78.

In keeping with an emerging literature on the role of business education in the
development of entrepreneurially-intentioned biotechnologists, this paper describes the actions and experiences of an entrepreneurship program that began in the late 1990’s. Along the way it illustrates how a business-centric approach can shift the budding entrepreneur’s perspective from a product to a market orientation when considering an innovation’s commercialization. While the developmental timeline and specific stages of …

The benefits of a long-lens approach to leader development: Understanding the seeds of leadership

Susan Elaine Murphy and Stefanie K. Johnson
The Leadership Quarterly Vol. 22, Issue 3, Pages 459–470

Although research has identified techniques for leader development, most of the extant research has focused on development in adulthood, ignoring development at an early age. A recent resurgence in interest in the genetic or other early development factors, such as attachment, points to the benefits of understanding the developmental trajectories (Day,
Harrison, & Halpin, 2009) of individuals throughout adulthood. This paper argues for an examination of the earliest “seeds” of leader development. In this paper we present a framework that explores the tasks of leadership at various ages before adulthood, the skills
required to accomplish these tasks, and the mechanism by which younger leaders develop these skills. In understanding what skills and what features of leadership identity have long roots, we can begin to understand more fully the developmental needs of adults. Without a more comprehensive look at leadership over the lifespan, leader development practices will not meet their full potential.

A Simple Path to Sustainability: Green Business Strategies for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

Fred M. Andreas, Elizabeth S. Cooperman, Blair Gifford, and Graham Russell
ABC-CLIO, Praeger Publications, 2011
A Simple Path to Sustainability: Green Business Strategies for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses is designed specifically to help smaller enterprises share in the benefits that flow from sustainability. Built around case histories showcasing 12 small to medium-size enterprises (SMEs) that have outstanding records of sustainability, this unique, hands-on guide will help readers choose and develop sustainability strategies and undertake the marketing and management initiatives necessary for success.

The studies collected here detail each company’s journey from initial idea through building a new culture, engaging stakeholders, gaining competitive advantage, and planning for the future. Each study also covers the challenges encountered, successes and failures, and lessons learned. Cases are centered around distinct themes, including a marketing/public relations perspective, a risk management perspective, an organizational culture perspective, and a new product development perspective. Taken as a whole, these stories do more than inform. They will inspire managers to become green entrepreneurs, undertaking sustainable strategies that can reap surprising benefits.

Leader self-development as organizational strategy

Rebecca J. Reichard and Stefanie K. Johnson
The Leadership Quarterly Vol. 22, Issue 1, Pages 33–42

Leader self-development enables leaders to adapt to the continually changing environment both within and outside of the organization. The purpose of this paper is to describe the construct of leader self-development and the processes by which it can serve as an organizational leadership development strategy. We framed the paper around a multi-level model of leader self-development linking organizational level constructs such as human resources practices and resources with group level phenomena of norms, supervisor style, and social networks with the individual leader self-development process. Leader self-development is a cost-effective way for organizations to develop leaders resulting in competitive edge.

Do satisfied customers bad-mouth innovative products?

Parthasarathy, Madhavan and Forlani, David
Psychology & Marketing; Dec. 2010, Vol. 27 Issue 12, pp. 1134-1153

For many years marketing academics have recommended, and practitioners have implemented, organization-wide programs that measure customers’ levels of satisfaction with a firm’s offerings because it is believed that satisfied customers are both more likely to continue using a previously adopted product and less likely to engage in negative word-of-mouth communication. Given the ubiquity of product-review forums resulting from today’s increasing levels of e-commerce, this paper pairs cause constructs from the diffusion literature with effect constructs from the satisfaction and services literatures to reconsider that perspective. Specifically, it examines the relationships bet-ween six perceived innovation attributes known to influence a new product’s diffusion process and two post-adoption behaviors, satisfaction and negative word-of-mouth communication. The results quash previous assumptions that satisfaction mediates negative word-of-mouth communication and reveal that satisfied customers do speak ill of previously adopted products. Implications for both theory and practice are also presented.

Does Technological Progress Alter the Nature of Information Technology as a Production Input? New Evidence and New Results

Paul Chwelos, Ronald Ramirez, Kenneth L. Kraemer, and Nigel P. Melville
Information Systems Research, Vol. 21, Issue. 2, June 2010, pp. 392–408

Prior research at the firm level finds information technology (IT) to be a net substitute for both labor and non-IT capital inputs. However, it is unclear whether these results hold, given recent IT innovations and continued price declines. In this study we extend prior research to examine whether these input relationships have evolved over time. First, we introduce new price indexes to account for varying technological progress across different types of IT hardware. Second, we use the rental price methodology to measure capital in terms of the flow of services provided. Finally, we use hedonic methods to extend our IT measures to 1998, enabling analysis spanning the emergence of the Internet. Analyzing approximately 9,800 observations from over 800 Fortune 1,000 firms for the years 1987–1998, we find firm demand for IT to be elastic for decentralized IT and inelastic for centralized IT. Moreover, Allen Elasticity of Substitution estimates confirm that through labor substitution, the increasing factor share of IT comes at the expense of labor. Last, we identify a complementary relationship between IT and ordinary capital, suggesting an evolution in this relationship as firms have shifted to more decentralized organizational forms. We discuss these results in terms of prior research, suggest areas of future research, and discuss managerial implications.

The Relationship Between Website Quality, Trust and Price Premiums at Online Auctions

Gregg, Dawn G. and Walczak, Steven
Electronic Commerce Research, Vol. 10 Issue 1, p. 1-25

This study measures the value of website quality in terms of its impact on trust, intention to transact and price premiums. Prior research on online auctions has focused on the use of reputation systems for building trust in online auction vendors and subsequently to generate price premiums. This study examines the extent to which trust can be induced by improving the quality of online auction listings for both new and existing auction ventures. A survey of 701 eBay users is conducted which compares the price premiums of two nearly identical online auction businesses, one that has online auction listings with a perceived high quality and the other that has substantially lower perceived quality. Results of this study indicate that website quality can explain 49 % of the variation in the trust for eBay sellers. In fact, it shows that sellers with good website quality are all perceived to be equally trustworthy regardless of their eBay reputation; whereas sellers with poor website quality are not perceived to be trustworthy even if they have a high eBay reputation score. The results also show that the trust resulting from increased website quality increases intention to transact and results in price premiums of 12% (on average) for sellers with higher quality listings. Theories from marketing, economics, and social psychology are used to explain why website quality induces trust in unknown vendors without providing any concrete evidence regarding the vendor’s past history.

Factors Influencing Corporate Online Identity: A New Paradigm

Steven Walczak and Dawn Gregg
Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce, Vol 4, Issue 3,  pp. 17-29.

Electronic commerce research has shown that factors like website quality and vendor reputation influence consumer behaviors, including: trust, intention to transact, and return visits. However, these factors are typically studied in isolation and frequently show conflicting results. This paper proposes a unifying model of online identity (or e-image) that combines the various factors that influence user perceptions of an e-business. Survey results support the importance of a wide variety of e-image factors when forming impressions online and show that while information content is the foremost concern for most users, other factors vary depending on the role of the user in establishing a relationship with the owner of the online identity.

Online Reputation Scores: How well are they Understood?

Gregg, Dawn G.
Journal of Computer Information Systems , Fall, pp. 90-97.

This paper presents a study comparing existing reputation systems to determine if the different reputation system designs are equally capable of eliciting meaningful feedback from users and if the information from these systems is equally useful for evaluating whether or not to purchase from a given seller. A survey of online consumers and data from both the eBay and the Amazon reputation systems are used to determine the impact of reputation system design on overall system effectiveness. Results of this research indicate that the five-star response system used by Amazon may be more useful to users attempting to determine which sellers to buy from.

Life and Death of Businesses: A Review of Research on Firm Mortality

Morris, James R.
Journal of Business Valuation and Economic Loss Analysis Vol 4, Issue 1, Article 3

Neither the literature of finance nor the literature of valuation practitioners has taken account of the relatively short life expectancy of firms. Fewer than fifty percent of new firms live longer than ten years; yet, it is common practice to estimate firm value with a very long term horizon model such as the constant growth model. The purpose of this paper is to increase awareness of the life expectancy of firms and show how to take account of the likelihood of firm death in valuation. Data on firm death rates and life expectancy that is available in the field of industrial organization is reviewed and summarized so that valuation practitioners can take it into account in their valuations.

Do You Have a Strategy for Success in the Music Business?

Ira Selkowitz and Jeff Nystrom
Colorado Lawyers for the Arts http://www.lawyersforthearts.org/

Although some don’t think the worlds of arts and business mix, successful musical artists know that having a sound business strategy can result in wider recognition of their talents, not to mention fewer legal entanglements. A seminal paper in the field of strategic management is “Are You Sure You Have a Strategy?” written by Donald C. Hambrick and James W. Fredrickson. The advice articulated in this paper is as timely now as it was when it first appeared in the Academy of Management Executive nearly a decade ago and our article applies the principles from this classic paper in the field of strategic management to the music business.

Dressing Your Online Auction Business For Success: An Experiment Comparing Two E-Bay Businesses

Gregg, Dawn G. and Walczak, Steven
MIS Quarterly, Vol. 32, Issue 3, p. 653-670

Businesses can choose who they want to be online. Product and company attributes that are directly perceivable in the real world can be manipulated to make a favorable impression on online buyers. This study examines whether creating a more professional online e-image can signal consumers about unobservable product or company quality, and whether this signal influences their willingness to transact with the company, and ultimately the prices they are willing to pay for the company’s goods and services. An empirical study is presented that examines two new online auction businesses utilizing different company names and auction listing styles to sell items in parallel over the course of one year. The findings suggest that increasing the quality of an auction business’s e-image does increase consumers’ willingness to transact with the business, and increases prices received at auction. The study also demonstrates the ability to use eBay as an experimental laboratory for testing a variety of hypotheses about purchasing behavior online.

Before Identity: The Emergence And Objectification Of New Organizational Forms

Romanelli, Elaine, And Fiol, C. Marlene
Academy of Management Proceedings, p, 1-6

The evolution of new organizational forms has attracted growing theoretical and empirical attention, but little research has considered the micro-social processes that promote the emergence of quasi-similar organizations that may evolve over time into organizational forms with distinctive identities that are both claimed and granted. Drawing on social psychological theories of identity formation within and among organizational groups, we develop a model of identification and identity development for organizational forms that underpins arguments from ecological and institutional theory.

Managerial risk perceptions of international entry-mode strategies: The interaction effect of control and capability

David Forlani, Madhavan Parthasarathy, Susan M. Keaveney
International Marketing Review Vol. 25 Issue 3, p. 292-311

Purpose – The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate how opportunity for control and firm capability interact to moderate the amount of risk that managers associate with various international entry-mode strategies. A secondary goal is to investigate how managers perceive the need to retain control over three core functional areas (marketing, production, and R&D) when making entry-mode decisions.
Design/methodology/approach – A field experiment design was implemented in a sample of US business owner/executives. Using an online data collection method, the study asked a sample of small-business owners and managers to assess the amount of risk they associated with three modes of entering the Japanese market: non-ownership (export), equal partnership (50/50 joint-venture), and sole-ownership. They were also asked how much control they needed to retain over R&D, production, and marketing for the venture to be successful.
Findings – Ownership-provided control interacts with capability to influence managerial risk perceptions. Managers in lower-capability firms see the least risk in the non-ownership entry mode while those in higher-capability firms see the least risk in the equal-partnership entry mode. Managers believe that for a new venture in a foreign market to be successful, control should be retained over the R&D function, regardless of entry mode.
Research limitations/implications – The findings appear to reconcile some of the conflicting predictions of the transaction cost and resource-based theoretical perspectives, because it appears that international managers consider both control (internationalization theory) and capability (resource-based theory) when judging the perceived risk of an entry strategy.
Practical implications – For firms that are incapable of managing in an international context, a low-control no-ownership entry mode is perceived as the least risky approach; for firms that have some capability for international management, then a partial-ownership mode such as a 50/50 joint-venture is perceived as having lower risk than no-ownership. In non-ownership and joint-venture type entry modes, managers are more apt to outsource the marketing function to an agent/partner, but not R&D. In contrast, managers believe that marketing needs to be maintained in-house when utilizing a sole-ownership entry mode.
Originality/value – By illustrating the role of perceived risk in foreign-market entry-mode decisions and demonstrating how capabilities interact with ownership-provided control to moderate these perceptions, the paper’s findings suggest that managers’ risk perceptions may mediate the effects of firm-specific factors, and thus contributes significantly to both theory and practice.

Perceived entrepreneurial success and social power

Aguinis, H., Ansari, M. A., Jayasingam, S., & Aafaqi, R.
Management Research, Vol. 6, P. 121-137.

Based on the leadership, entrepreneurship, and issue selling literature, we hypothesized that entrepreneurs who are perceived to be successful can be differentiated from unsuccessful entrepreneurs based on their degree and type of social power. We conducted a field experiment including 305 Malaysian managers with considerable experience in working with entrepreneurs and in entrepreneurial environments. Entrepreneurs perceived to be successful were ascribed greater referent, information, expert, connection, and reward power; less coercive power; and similar legitimate power than unsuccessful entrepreneurs. These results provide evidence in support of social power as a distinguishing individual characteristic of successful entrepreneurs and make a contribution to theories linking social capital with entrepreneurial success. Aspiring entrepreneurs need to be aware that their social power profile is associated with various degrees of perceived success. Our paper points to the need to investigate variables beyond personality and that are more directly relevant to social and interpersonal interactions that may differentiate entrepreneurs perceived to be successful from those who are not.

Economics of first-contact email advertising

Gopala, Ram D., Tripathib, Arvind K. & Walter, Zhiping D.
Decision Support Systems Vol. 42 Issue 3, p. 1366-1382

Since the advent of the Internet, email has emerged as an important new form of personal communication. The focus of this research is on commercial advertising through the email channel. We analyze the underlying economics of a business model termed admediation that facilitates effective first-contact email advertising. Admediary is a trusted third party that facilitates a mutually desirable communication between buyers and sellers via email, and operates under the ‘opt-in’ mode widely supported by the consumer advocacy groups. Our analytical model examines the incentive structures for all participating entities, and derives pricing strategies, profit implications and characteristics of the email lists. We develop and model a form of price discrimination we term sequential elimination price discrimination that can be practiced via email. Our results indicate that the transactions facilitated by the admediary can create significant value whereby every participating entity realizes increased benefits. These findings underscore the potential of admediation to restore email as an effective communication media for online advertising.