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Research Summary: This work explores the intersection of strategic entrepreneurship and craft‐based ventures, focusing on the integration of materiality, authenticity, and tradition in the creation of competitive advantage. Craft, historically rooted in artisanal, small‐scale production, has evolved into "advanced craft," requiring high expertise while also engaging with modern economic goals such as scaling, technological adoption, and global value chains. Craft‐based strategic entrepreneurship embraces creativity and innovation, alongside traditional values and high‐quality production, to engage with the modern economy without the alienating effects of industrialization. We highlight how craft entrepreneurs balance the pursuit of innovation with the preservation of authenticity and heritage. By examining the materiality, authenticity, and tradition embedded in craft, our work contributes to the understanding of how these elements influence competitive advantage and the broader relationship between economy and society in entrepreneurial ventures. Managerial Summary: We offer practical insights for owners and managers in craft‐based ventures seeking to balance tradition with modern business strategies. As the craft sector evolves into "advanced craft," entrepreneurs must integrate artisanal expertise with scalable operations, technology adoption, and global market engagement. We highlight how successful craft ventures maintain high quality, authenticity, and cultural heritage while embracing strategic entrepreneurship practices like innovation, planning, and partnerships with larger organizations. For owners and managers, the key takeaway is the importance of preserving the unique values of craftsmanship—such as materiality, authenticity, and tradition—while also adopting modern tools like advanced technology and marketing strategies to scale and compete. By understanding these dynamics, craft‐based businesses can enhance their competitive advantage, foster meaningful customer engagement, and navigate challenges like technological disruption and market expansion without losing their core identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: Studying the organizational design of entrepreneurial ventures involves investigating how entrepreneurs design the (formal) structure of their ventures as well as the roles, rules, and procedures that those who are active within these ventures must obey. The topic lies at the intersection of entrepreneurship with multiple fields, including organization science, organizational economics, and strategic management. However, to date, it has attracted limited attention. This special issue includes six articles that develop novel theory and provide new empirical evidence on the antecedents and consequences of the organizational design of entrepreneurial ventures. Collectively they offer fresh perspectives on this neglected topic and open avenues for future work. In this article, we briefly describe the state of the field, introduce the articles, and suggest opportunities for further research. Managerial Summary: There are countless how‐to guides for entrepreneurs describing start‐up legal structures, incubation and acceleration opportunities, and financing options. Conversely, there is relatively little guidance for how entrepreneurs should design their organizational structure, decision systems, and managerial practices. This special issue contains six articles addressing the organizational design of entrepreneurial ventures from multiple perspectives and with diverse methods. This introduction describes the state of the field prior to the special issue, introduces the special issue articles and identifies topics that still need further investigation. We distill the current state of knowledge and offer a roadmap for future scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: We develop a two‐step selection model between entrepreneurial ventures and venture capital (VC) investors in a thin VC market. The model predicts that in a thin VC market, the availability of VC reduces the propensity of firms to self‐select into the market for VC (demand‐side selection) but not the probability that firms entering the market for VC will receive financing (supply‐side selection). We test these predictions using survey‐based data on 190 new technology‐based firms in Italy during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The empirical evidence supports the predictions of the model. Managerial Summary: Venture capital (VC) is an important ingredient of an environment that is conducive to the birth and the growth of entrepreneurial ventures, but VC markets are often highly local and thin in terms of participants. We show that the scarcity of VC supply may cause a drop in the demand for VC because entrepreneurs, anticipating that competition for VC money will be tough, will not seek VC in the first place. The more a market is thin, the more the demand‐side selection is likely to become more important than the supply‐side selection of VC investors. Demand‐side selection may involve a significant number of otherwise good targets for VC investment, which will not be in the radar of VC investors. In turn, this may deter new VC investors from entering the local market, thus creating a vicious cycle that raises concerns for both policy makers and VC general partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: We examine whether start‐ups attract employees with different pecuniary and non‐pecuniary motives than small or large established firms. We then explore whether such differences in employee motives may lead to differences in innovative performance across firm types. Using data on more than 10,000 U.S. R&D employees, we find that start‐up employees ("joiners") place lower importance on job security and salary but greater importance on independence and responsibility. Start‐up employees have higher patent output than employees in small and large established firms, and this difference is partly mediated by employee motives—especially joiners' greater willingness to bear risk. We discuss implications for research as well as for managers and policy makers concerned with the supply of human capital to entrepreneurship and innovation. Managerial Summary: Start‐ups and established firms play different roles in the economy and differ with respect to their organizational features. Recent research has started to also explore differences in their human capital. While prior work focuses on employees' skills and experience, we broaden the notion of human capital to include motivational characteristics. We find that start‐up employees differ from those working in established firms with respect to their motives, most notably a weaker concern with job security. Moreover, such differences can partly explain higher innovative performance in start‐ups. Our findings suggest that founders may derive significant benefits from hiring "joiners" with entrepreneurial motives. Our findings also have implications for corporate managers who seek to acquire start‐ups or who consider creating entrepreneurial units that replicate features of young and small organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretically, social capital allows entrepreneurial firms to capitalize on learning advantages of newness and gain access to knowledge as the foundation for improved performance. But this understates its complexity. We consider whether learning through social capital relationships has a direct effect on performance and whether absorptive capacity mediates and moderates this relationship. We find that network-based learning has no direct relationship with performance, but this is mediated in each instance by absorptive capacity and is moderated twice. Our findings challenge the learning advantages of newness thesis and reveal how absorptive capacity can enable business performance from a firm's network relationships. Copyright © 2014 Strategic Management Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]