Presentations

While the performance implications of firms’ entrepreneurial orientation (EO) have been extensively studied, less is known about EO antecedents. Furthermore, most studies that have examined EO predictors have focused on external or organizational factors. We identify start-up founders’ human capital, which has been found to influence business outcomes of start-ups, as an antecedent of the firms’ EO. We study the influence of four sub-dimensions of founders’ human capital (higher education, business leadership experience, entrepreneurial experience, and international experience) on three EO sub-dimensions (innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking) in a longitudinal study of 1,029 start-ups from China, South Korea and Japan. While the founders’ higher education is not related to any EO sub-dimension, their entrepreneurial experience is positively related to the start-ups’ proactiveness, and their business leadership experience and international experience are positively related to all three EO sub-dimensions. From a theoretical perspective, our findings demonstrate a need to differentiate between sub-dimensions of founders’ human capital when studying their influence on start-ups’ EO. In addition to commonly used sub-dimensions, we highlight the importance of international experience. From a practical perspective, our results indicate that founders can leverage their business leadership experience, entrepreneurial experience and international experience to strengthen their firms’ EO.

As entrepreneurship development programs are becoming more popular, mentoring is gaining attention for its role in facilitating entrepreneurial learning. In recent years, serial-to-novice entrepreneur mentoring research has flourished, and understanding of mentoring functions has increased. However, it is still unclear what results can be achieved by peer mentoring between novice entrepreneurs. In order to address this gap, this study observed a Japanese entrepreneurship development program called MAKERS UNIVERSITY. The results showed similar findings to previous studies and also confirmed the existence of secondary effects among novice mentoring groups. Strong psychological support may also occur in peer mentoring between novice entrepreneurs. In the long term, the continued interaction between novice entrepreneurs has the potential to support the next generation of entrepreneurs and society as a whole.

As entrepreneurship development programs are becoming more popular, mentoring is gaining attention for its role in facilitating entrepreneurial learning. In recent years, serial-to-novice entrepreneur mentoring research has flourished, and understanding of mentoring functions has increased. However, it is still unclear what results can be achieved by peer mentoring between novice entrepreneurs. In order to address this gap, this study observed a Japanese entrepreneurship development program called MAKERS UNIVERSITY. The results showed similar findings to previous studies and also confirmed the existence of secondary effects among novice mentoring groups. Strong psychological support may also occur in peer mentoring between novice entrepreneurs. In the long term, the continued interaction between novice entrepreneurs has the potential to support the next generation of entrepreneurs and society as a whole.

We examine the long-term transformations of an emerging industry exchange field of the ICT entrepreneurial ecosystem in Japan, and the possible field-to-field interactions in these. A distinction between cross-field and intra-field institutional work is drawn and used as a lens to analyse data. We investigate institutional work on interactions (the informal interactions in virtual and physical spaces), intersections (the more formalised and structural arrangements that govern resources and shared issues), and interfaces (the communication protocols that affect interactions among actors) that relate to the resources of financing and labour. The data is based on qualitative interviews with selected ecosystem stakeholders. The findings contribute to the study of organisational fields and institutional work, and the nascent scholarship on entrepreneurial ecosystems as fields. Key insights are: 1) for an emerging industry exchange field functioning within a mature business system, if there is incompatibility between the fields, high power imbalance and low mutual resource dependence, it is the intra-field institutional work that matters more for the field’s development; 2) institutional work on intersections alone is insufficient for the development of comprehensive linkages between heterogenous actors within the field or across fields – the work on interactions and interfaces is also needed; 3) the main underlying mechanism for the intra-field institutional work that lead to the field’s development across phases is the cross-generational networking related to financing and labour; 4) if a field is growing, the institutional work on one of the resources has an enhancing impact on the institutional work done on other resources.

In family firms, the co-habitation of incumbent and successor during intra-family succession may be particularly challenging because of the tendency of the former to preserve traditional ways, and the eagerness of the latter to introduce changes with a view of future developments. Our longitudinal case study begins to shed light on the potential influence of nonfamily members on the unfolding of the co-habitation. Our analysis reveals three distinct types of nonfamily members, whom we label defenders, prospectors, and connectors, and their alternating and complementary roles in reconciling the past-orientation of the incumbent and the future-orientation of the successor.