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This section focuses on several symposia abstracts presented at a conference on international management. "Transfer of HR Systems and Practices in MNCs" centers on the effects that diffusion of human resource practices has on the management of multinational corporations from a comparative perspective. "Careers Across Cultures: Toward an International Vision of Career Management" focuses on understanding alternatives to the Euro-American model of careers by examining career behavior and management in different national and cultural contexts. The symposium, "Strategy in Chinese Firms: Institutional Antecedents, Processes and Outcomes," is designed to further the understanding of Chinese management with particular emphasis on indigenous Chinese firms' strategies and their continuing internationalization.

This section presents abstracts of several papers on entrepreneurship. The first paper proposes a multi-dimension, multi-contingent fit perspective for examining different practices adapted by entrepreneurial firms in acquiring human resources. Another paper elaborates theoretical foundations for opportunity-based entrepreneurial discovery research and presents an empirical study providing evidence for examining the validity of an opportunity-based research approach. One more paper explores innovation as a corporate entrepreneurial outcome in recently established small firms.

This section presents abstracts of several symposia on entrepreneurship. One symposium explores how the concept of institutional entrepreneurship has the potential to advance understandings of institutional change, entrepreneurship and innovation. Another symposium brings together scholars who are creating a new vision of entrepreneurship in the 21st century. These scholars will present both traditional and non-traditional views of the domain of entrepreneurship research and their definitions of entrepreneurship.

This section presents conference symposia abstracts related to business policy and strategy. Some of the symposium's include "Set-Theoretic Methods in Management and Strategy Research," that focuses on set-theory in management and strategy research; "Interdependence in Organizations, Circa 2005," about how interdependence in organizations affects people within that organization; and "Contractual Design of Technology Alliances," regarding how contract structures affect incentives.

This section presents conference paper abstracts on entrepreneurship, including a study of how the individual trait of Entrepreneurial Orientation positively predicts how entrepreneurs evaluate business opportunities, an examination of the development of effective boards in venture capital-backed initial public offerings, and a discussion of how a cognitive perspective can provide important insights into the nature of opportunity recognition.

In entrepreneurial firms, firm success is not only dependent on entrepreneurs' but also on employees' performances. In this study, we empirically analyze whether entrepreneurs stimulate or diminish their employees' intrinsic motivation when they rely on effectual logics. Further, we analyze whether the effect of effectuation on employees' intrinsic motivation is contingent on environmental dynamism. To do so, we apply a multi-level field study among entrepreneurs and their employees. Our findings suggest that the effect of effectuation on employees' intrinsic motivation is negative when the firm's environment is dynamic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reviews and analyzes the literature on human resource management in entrepreneurial firms; and identifies the theoretical gaps requiring further work. It will contribute by providing an understanding of how the field of human resource management in entrepreneurial firms evolved, shedding light on the points of consensus and divergences among scholars and diagnosing whether the intellectual structure within the discourse of a given theme has been properly discussed in the field. A systematic review method was adopted in order to identify, critically evaluate and integrate the findings of articles about human resource management in entrepreneurial firms and SMEs in particular; published from 1999 to August 2016 in the main journals in the fields of general management, entrepreneurship, and human resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A prevalent line of reasoning in strategic human resource management argues that different configurations of human resource management activities can contribute to higher firm performance. Inherent to this configurational view of HRM systems are the notions of equifinality and internal fit, i.e. different types of HRM systems can be maximally effective and different elements of the HRM system synergistically complement each other. Yet, extant empirical research has primarily focused on the practice level and argued that HRM systems consisting of high-performance practices can increase organizational effectiveness. However, we argue that the HRM philosophy is the better level to examine how different elements of the HRM system act together in influencing organizational outcomes. Specifically, we draw on the literature stream of employment models and particularly the employment model taxonomy by Baron, Burton, & Hannan (1996) as a firm's basic approach to people management. Our aim is to explore the diffusion of different employment models among entrepreneurial technology firms and to investigate performance effects of different employment models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the essence of market orientation concerns customer satisfaction, majority of past studies on market orientation have focused on intra-firm and inter- firm factors. Drawing on the theory of cooperation and competition, this study advances the theory by investigating how different forms of goal interdependence between a firm and its customer may influence the firm's responses to both customers and competitors. Results of a survey study conducted with employees from 120 entrepreneurial firms demonstrated that developing cooperative goals with customers facilitates collaboration among internal departments, which ultimately strengthens the market orientation of firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to understand how the involvement of venture capitalists (VCs) affects alliance formation and alliance characteristics in entrepreneurial firms. Specifically, we examine the linkages between VCs and the likelihood, number, type and geographic characteristics of the strategic alliances implemented by entrepreneurial firms. We draw from a sample that allows us to compare VC- backed firms against their counterparts with fewer concerns tied to endogeneity biases than previous studies. While our results show that both the statistical and the economic significance of VCs' contribution to alliance formation are sizable, the types of partnerships and partner characteristics are indifferent for VC- and non-VC-backed firms alike. A number of implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thesis of this research is that environmental uncertainty can act as a driver for small firms to be innovative resulting in a positive impact on performance. This paper examines the role of environmental uncertainty and its impact on performance through the mediating effects of strategic business activities, decision making style, relationships and strategic orientation. The research examines how strategic business activities drive decision making style and relationships. A combination of strategic business activities, decision making style, and relationships creates a firm's strategic orientation, and these in turn impact a firm's financial performance. This research tests the various hypothesized relationships by developing and testing a path model. A representative sample of 152 small firms is used to test the research model and the associated hypothesized path relationships. The various antecedent and mediating variables affect a firm's financial performance and explain about 31% of the variance. Strategic orientation is impacted by strategic business activities, relationships, and decision making style and these three variables explain over 45% of the variance. The results of the empirical analysis indicate overall support for the research model. The conclusion section of the paper addresses limitations of this research, and discusses implications and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We model theoretically the optimal capital structure of entrepreneurial firm relying on an endogenous estimation of the return requested by entrepreneurs that compensates for the risk they incur in case of bankruptcy. We estimate the probability according to the Bayesian approach. We also consider the fact that the entrepreneurs can invest additional wealth in their venture by providing personal guarantees. The implications for start-ups and established entrepreneurial firms are then examined. The model derivations and implications are robust with respect to the evidences of previous empirical research on small firms capital structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A critical event in the life of a firm is when it undergoes an initial public offering (IPO). Drawing on the Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) literature, which evidences a psychological condition that produces heightened pessimism and risk aversion during the fall and winter months, this study focuses on understanding the potential implications of SAD for entrepreneurial firms. Our results confirm the influence of SAD on IPO underpricing and demonstrate that younger firms and those of larger size and/or that operate in high-tech industries experience even higher underpricing, particularly during periods most heavily associated with SAD. Implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]