Entrepreneurship

Abstract: The development of an entrepreneurial strategic orientation is of growing concern for global corporations. Through a human capital lens, we probe how and when firms can develop and cultivate managerial entrepreneurial resources; by explicitly encouraging cross-cultural experiences that stimulate systematic shifts in mindset and behavior. Drawing on paradox theory and intercultural psychology, we put forth a model positing that cross-cultural experience (an endowment firms can either hire for or facilitate themselves) develops managerial entrepreneurialism—consisting of (a) venture ideation, (b) opportunity recognition, and (c) entrepreneurial behavior—through the intervening mechanism of a paradox mindset. As a boundary condition we uncover that paradox mindset formation partially hinges on home cultural tightness-looseness. We employ three distinct experiments on multinational samples of individual professionals (n = 506), active entrepreneurs (n = 370), and current managers in global firms (n = 288) to test our theorizing. Finding general support for our model, with analyses yielding important theoretical and practical implications from non-findings too, we conclude that a paradox mindset is a necessary, but not de facto, mediating step between cross-cultural experience and the cultivation of entrepreneurial managers. We also find that paradox mindset formation is conditional and related to home cultural tightness-looseness.

Abstract: In their recent Academy of Management Review article "Heisenberg Effects in Experiments on Business Ideas," Shelef, Wuebker, and Barney (2024) develop a theory concerning firm experimentation with new business ideas, The article extends and enhances extensive prior work on the informational gains and attendant costs of experimentation.

Abstract: Entrepreneurial alertness is a psychological aptitude generally associated with aspects of nascent venturing, centered on individuals’ environmental observations, the association of resources, and idea evaluation. A decade following the Tang et al. (2012) consensus construct and scale, critiques remain questioning its utility and unique value to the major conversations in entrepreneurship. Proponents put great emphasis on entrepreneurial alertness’s proven association with opportunity recognition and entrepreneurial actions. Yet, critics suggest it might be an unnecessary step offering little more than a positive association with opportunity recognition in a highly generalized and static way. The purpose of this paper is to address this tension. We do so through a ‘steel man’ approach to these valid concerns. Further, we question the logic of limiting a cognitive construct to a singular event: ‘opportunity recognition’ for a new venture (which we term here, the “Big O”). Drawing on a comprehensive framework inclusive of the full entrepreneurship phenomenon, and integrating insights from cross-cultural psychology, we put forth the case for an ongoing culturally contextualized process perspective towards venturing where individuals are alert to and pursue opportunities (and cope with threats) continuously. This paper provides a new framework for delineating a theoretically grounded “what” and “when” of entrepreneurial alertness.