The Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC), with generous support from The Kauffman Foundation & SAMS, is tapping leading-edge research conducted by an elite group of doctoral students from top universities around the world. These 25 students have participated in the 2022 BCERC Doctoral Consortium.
We have published their practitioner translations that highlight important implications for entrepreneurs and others involved in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. These translations succinctly highlight key research findings and interpret what these findings mean for an entrepreneur starting or building their business. Please enjoy their short 2-4 page articles with direct practitioner implications in the areas of Communicating Your Company's Identity,The Entrepreneur, Raising Money, Strategic Decisions, and Pursuing Innovation.
Summary: Start-up teams happen to get a lot of contradictory feedback. In our research, we show that start-up teams differ in how they deal with contradictory feedback, which influences their decision-making and opportunity development.
Summary: How can an entrepreneur effectively communicate the potential of their venture to early-stage investors, such as venture capitalists (VCs)? Previous research suggests that entrepreneurs use multiple signals to send "messages" about their venture's yet-to-be-proven quality or potential for success. My research indicates that it is less about the sheer quantity of signals and more about how signals can provide information related to different dimensions or factors of quality that matter to VCs. These dimensions include the product, the market, the third-party alliances, and the entrepreneurial team.
Summary: A major patent reform (the AIA of 2011) exacerbated patent racing. How should managers and entrepreneurs take strategical actions to navigate the post AIA era.
Summary: The universe of entrepreneurial activity is as large as it is diverse. When starting a business, or even launching a side-gig, it is vital that you know where you fit in this universe so you choose the right strategy for your unique entrepreneurial context.
Summary: Leaders and entrepreneurs around the world are aware of the necessity to innovate and offer their employees the freedom to explore ideas. But, is freedom enough to innovate? Innovative behavior can trigger feelings of vulnerability and requires trust - and here is how you build trust.
Summary: In large parts of the developing world, entrepreneurs must secure their livelihood despite the regular occurrence of terror attacks. Through an analysis of Egyptian entrepreneurs, we provide evidence of the effect of terror attacks on entrepreneurs’ choice of entrepreneurship as a permanent occupation. We explain how entrepreneurs’ knowledge, skills and abilities sustain them to keep dreaming about a better future and explore how differences in knowledge, skills and abilities imbued through religion, trade union affiliation and firm size.
Summary: Although underrepresented minority groups are responsible for most of the new business creation in the United States, they fail at a higher rate than their non-minority counterparts. To further explore this paradox, it is essential to study the entrepreneurial team development process; in such process, being racially similar is beneficial for new venture creation but detrimental to new venture growth.
Summary: Nonprofit research institutes exist to achieve their social mission benefiting society at large by solving pressing scientific and technological problems through scientific research and technological innovation. My research uncovers the unique ways through which these organizations advance science and technology.
Summary: Ford, Estee Lauder, Hyatt. What do these names have in common? For starters, they are behind some of the largest family firms in the world. But not only. They are also associated with a revolution in finance and are at the head of a new set of practices: investing for return and impact. But why are prominent business families engaging on this path? And what are the behavioral mechanisms leading to it? In our research, we find that individuals in business families use impact investing to build their own identity by either building on, reshaping, or deconstructing their family’s legacy.
Summary: Property rights of firms are believed to exist and quite often are taken-for-granted. Notable, the internal and external environment of family firms contribute to how well property rights can be captured.
Summary: Entrepreneurs deal with the unknown. Before starting a venture, individuals need to assess whether or not they should be going forward. A positive response will happen if they see a market for the solution and if they believe to be technologically able to make the idea become a viable product.
Summary: Entrepreneurs can enhance their work by engaging in leisure. By taking time away from work to proactively structure their leisure time to focus on goal setting, social connections, and personal development, referred to as leisure crafting, entrepreneurs can overcome venture-related hurdles, enhance their creativity, recognize opportunities, and perform at higher levels.
Summary: Entrepreneurs highly depend on how others perceive them. Audiences such as entrepreneurial peers,investors, or crowdfunders rate the impression that they have from an entrepreneur as one of the most important criteria when providing resources. Hence, acquiring resources from critical audiences requires skilled storytelling – during pitches, in business talks, or when sharing content on social media. Thereby, one of the biggest challenges is that audiences expect entrepreneurs to stand out from other entrepreneurs and also expect them to make a prototypical impression.
Summary: “Entrepreneurism is widely regarded as being one way in which women can sidestep the sexism of male-dominated institutionalized work environments and enter into a world in which men and women operate on a level playing field.” – Jones, K. and Clifton, J.
Summary: As an entrepreneur, the more trustworthy you are perceived by the investors, the more likely you are to get investment. The research in both management and economics consistently shows that. Is this really the case, no matter who you are?
Summary: Entrepreneurial growth is often met by positive stakeholder reactions as it signifies the output of the hard work by entrepreneurs. However, this reaction may not be extended to entrepreneurs in high identification entrepreneurial spaces, where entrepreneurs and stakeholders define themselves based on both what they “are” and what they “are not”, and there is a “magical” quality to the origins and inspiration of their product or service offering.
Summary: Have you ever wondered if it would help or hurt your career to start a side venture? Across two studies, I find that employees with side ventures have more success transitioning between employers than employees that do not, but also face unique challenges along the way.
*Award Winner - Kauffman Foundation Award for Best Research Translation*
Summary: We know social entrepreneurs are motivated to change the world for the better. For first-time social entrepreneurs, the zeal for social change may even surpass their need for money, affecting how they communicate their missions and how they’re perceived by investors.
Summary: IPOs are all about the exchange and interpretation of information. However, recent changes in regulations and technology have shaken up the traditional information exchange model. Hype – or intense group sentiment – plays an important role in how an IPO is established and its long-term performance.
Summary: Innovation is important for business success and family firms have a higher conversion rate of innovation inputs into outputs compared to non-family firms. In fact, family firms can attain more innovative behaviors when perceptions of creative nonfamily employees align with the values of family firms.
Summary: Mission-first ventures bear authenticity risks that other ventures do not, and commonplace strategic changes can be interpreted as betrayal. Communications justifying these changes can repair, but cannot prevent, perceived inauthenticity and the losses that accompany that perception.
Summary: Does a firm’s purpose matter? How does their purpose affect the kinds of value created in strategic alliances? Do their stakeholders care? This study identifies key success factors that fuel performance within strategic alliances and how firms can leverage specific behaviors to improve customer satisfaction, perceived value, and likelihood to secure future firm-level partnerships.
Summary: Narratives are key to entrepreneurial success. Within entrepreneurship, an effective narrative generates meaning, captivates listeners, and conveys a message that resonates with venture
audiences. But what narrative strategies can be used to shape effective venture tales?
Summary: Entrepreneurship is known to be psychologically taxing. This is exacerbated when individuals simultaneously maintain wage work and self-employment, also known as ‘hybrid entrepreneurship’. To alleviate potential ill-being, hybrid entrepreneurs unleash their “HERO within”, by strengthening their psychological capital resources. Consequently, hybrid entrepreneurs experience superior performance both in their ventures and in employing organizations.
Summary: Beating rivals is an ever-present aspect of your successful entrepreneurial journey. However, our research found that entrepreneurs' competitiveness changes over time and can have many faces that impact your job enjoyment, psychological health, and goal achievement.