The article uses experiential learning theory to magnify the importance of learning within the process of entrepreneurship. Previous research details the contributions of prior knowledge, creativity, and cognitive mechanisms to the process of opportunity identification and exploitation; however, the literature is devoid of work that directly addresses learning. The extant research assumes learning is occurring but does not directly address the importance of learning to the process. To fully understand the nature of the entrepreneurial process, researchers must take into account how individuals learn and how different modes of learning influence opportunity identification and exploitation. This article makes connections between knowledge, cognition, and creativity to develop the concept of learning asymmetries and illustrates how a greater appreciation for the differences in individual learning will fortify entrepreneurship research.

In the search for ways in which the family firm context is unique to organizational science, the construct of “familiness” has been identified and defined as resources and capabilities that are unique to the family's involvement and interactions in the business. While identification and isolation of a construct unique to family firms is both groundbreaking and important for family firm research, it is also important that the development of the construct continues to be examined from complementing theoretical viewpoints. As such, we set out to review the development of the familiness construct and identify its dimensions. We also explore the nomological relationships of the construct based on a social capital theory perspective and offer a theory of familiness.

Microloans garnered from crowdfunding provide an important source of financial capital for nascent entrepreneurs. Drawing on cognitive evaluation theory, we assess how linguistic cues known to affect underlying motivation can frame entrepreneurial narratives either as a business opportunity or as an opportunity to help others. We examine how this framing affects fundraising outcomes in the context of prosocial lending and conduct our analysis on a sample of microloans made to over 36,000 entrepreneurs in 51 countries via an online crowdfunding platform. We find that lenders respond positively to narratives highlighting the venture as an opportunity to help others, and less positively when the narrative is framed as a business opportunity.

In small firms, high–performance work systems (HPWS) may not always yield benefits that outweigh their costs. Using a sample of 145 small enterprises (SEs) with 10–100 employees, we examine how small firms may realize mutually reinforcing effects of group culture on HPWS to increase employee retention and improve perceived labor productivity. Using a novel methodology, we find that employee retention does not mediate the effects of HPWS on perceived labor productivity, but that mediation becomes significant and increases with greater levels of group culture. This study provides insights into conditions in which HPWS can enhance SE perceived labor productivity.

The creation and intentional pursuit of entrepreneurial ideas lies at the core of the domain of entrepreneurship. Recent empirical work in a number of diverse fields such as cognitive psychology, social cognition, neuroscience, and neurophysiology all suggest that dual processes involving affect and cognition have a significant impact on judgment and decision making. Existing cognitive models ignore this significant role. In this article we develop a framework for understanding the role of affect on idea perception and the intention to develop the entrepreneurial idea. We present a set of testable propositions that link affect to entrepreneurial idea perception through its influence on attention, memory, and creativity. A second set of propositions links affect to the intention to pursue these ideas further. We explore the boundary conditions and moderators of the proposed relationships, and discuss the implications of this framework for existing cognitive and psychological perspectives on entrepreneurship.

We investigate the effect of innovativeness on crowdfunding outcomes. Because crowdfunding campaigns characterized by greater incremental innovativeness are more comprehensible and generate more user value for typical crowdfunders, incremental innovativeness may result in more favorable funding outcomes. By comparison, campaigns that feature greater radical innovativeness are riskier to develop, harder for crowdfunders to understand and result in less favorable funding outcomes. This negative effect of radical innovativeness may be mitigated by incremental innovativeness, which may help crowdfunders to understand and appreciate radical innovativeness more. A sample of 334 Kickstarter campaigns provides support for our hypotheses.

While the personality of entrepreneurs can be cast in positive and negative lights, it is essential that researchers understand the complex process through which personalities shape behavior and influence outcomes. Building on Miller's observations on downsides of entrepreneurs’ personalities, we present five broad lines of inquiry derived from the organizational behavior literature to guide future research on the role of personality in entrepreneurial phenomena. These streams of research have implications for how personality is conceptualized in the entrepreneurship literature, and we urge researchers to examine interactions among different personality traits, and between traits and contextual and affective variables which play a critical role in personality–outcome relationships. Finally, we encourage scholars to consider the personality of new venture team members, and how some traits may serve important resource–conservation roles.

Organizational culture is an important strategic resource that family firms can use to gain a competitive advantage. Drawing upon the resource–based view (RBV) of the firm, this study examines the association between four dimensions of organizational culture in family vs. non–family businesses and entrepreneurship. Using data from 536 U.S. manufacturing companies, the results show a nonlinear association between the cultural dimension of individualism and entrepreneurship. Further, there are positive linear relationships between entrepreneurship and an external orientation, an organizational cultural orientation toward decentralization, and a long– versus short–term orientation. With the exception of an external orientation, each of these dimensions is significantly more influential upon entrepreneurship in family firms when compared with non–family firms.

Conceptual arguments for the association between cultural characteristics and entrepreneurship have existed for decades but only in the last 10 years has this relationship been the focus of empirical scrutiny. In this article, we review and synthesize the findings of 21 empirical studies that examine the association between national cultural characteristics and aggregate measures of entrepreneurship, individual characteristics of entrepreneurs, and aspects of corporate entrepreneurship. The study concedes that a predominant number of empirical studies have used Hofstede's conceptualization of national culture and that other domains have been underdeveloped. A preliminary model that integrates past findings is extended. The review highlights fruitful avenues for future research.

To advance understanding of the entrepreneurship process in developing economies, this article evaluates whether registered enterprises that initially avoid the cost of registration, and focus their resources on overcoming other liabilities of newness, lay a stronger foundation for subsequent growth. Analyzing World Bank Enterprise Survey data across 127 countries, and controlling for other firm performance determinants, registered enterprises that started up unregistered and spent longer operating unregistered are revealed to have significantly higher subsequent annual sales, employment, and productivity growth rates compared with those that registered from the outset. The theoretical and policy implications are then discussed.