Search

The relationship between environmental management and firm performance is evident but not conclusive because of the diversified findings of existing studies that have been conducted in different contextual settings. This study separates environmental management into two dimensions—environmental management depth and environmental management breadth—based on the number of environmental management techniques used by entrepreneurial firms and the level of integration of environmental management with other functions. The framework was created with the theoretical backing of the resource-based perspective. Structural equation modeling was utilized to evaluate the assumptions on a sample of 384 entrepreneurial Pakistani firms. The findings demonstrate a direct relationship between environmental management and the long-term viability of entrepreneurial firms. Furthermore, the relationship between environmental management depth and environmental management breadth and the sustainable performance of entrepreneurial firms is mediated by green product innovation. Furthermore, transformative leadership attenuates the effects of both environmental management depth and environmental management breadth on the long-term viability of entrepreneurial firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

There is extensive research on the consequences of implementing various environmental practices across countries and industries. The results show that this issue is highly context-dependent, and further research is required considering the institutional context and features of the industry and firms under study. Similarly, the underlying relationship mechanisms between environmental criteria adoption and performance also require further research. This paper analyzes this relationship and the mediating role of innovation practices in Spanish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It examines SMEs in four industries, distinguishing between micro, small, and medium-sized firms. A stratified sample of 1,044 Spanish SMEs was collected. The sample was representative of the SME population in terms of industry, size, and region. The PROCESS macro and bootstrapping were employed to estimate the indirect, total, and direct effects and test the proposed hypotheses. This research sheds light on the relationships between environmental criteria adoption and performance, thereby addressing recent calls in the literature. The total effect of environmental criteria adoption on firm performance is positive and significant, regardless of size or industry. However, the direct relationship between environmental criteria adoption and performance may be small and sometimes non-significant. In contrast, the effect is higher and statistically significant under mediation by innovation practices. Industry and company size moderate the impact of environmental criteria adoption on performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractAs more stakeholders pay increased attention to environmental concerns, the importance and application of green entrepreneurial orientation and green innovation have increased. Moreover, resource acquisition with firm age also plays a major role in giving confidence to invest in green activities. Therefore, the objective of the study is to identify the mediating role of green innovation and moderating role of resource acquisition with firm age between green entrepreneurial orientation and performance of entrepreneurial firms. The data was collected using simple random sampling. We found stimulating findings on the mediating role of green innovation and the moderating influence of resource acquisition with firm age on the relation between green innovation and performance of entrepreneurial firms based on the analysis of 384 enterprises operating in Karachi and Sialkot cities of Pakistan. More interestingly, our practical research implies that businesses that have been established for a longer time gain more compared to younger enterprises depending on green invention innovation and green utility-model innovation. These findings were a major contribution to the resource-based view and green utility-model. Our study adds to knowledge on both green entrepreneurial orientation and green innovation and guides the future researchers as well as practitioners about policies that they need to follow to gain the best out of green practices. Furthermore, we suggested the government authorities to motivate businesses to invest in green practices and guided the future researchers to identify the same influences of longer period, thereby guiding to go for longitudinal studies over the same model.

This article addresses the dynamics of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) during the commercialization process in high-tech sectors, particularly in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) field. Except for early-stage entrepreneurial activities in technology firms, SMEs in the commercialization stage have received limited attention. Employing the Construal-Level Theory (CLT) and a concrete-abstract dimensional narrative approach, the study explores the relationship between narrative construal levels and SMEs' success in Chinese cities. Encompassing ICT firms with 6 to 1000 employees, the study utilizes a Multilevel Mixed Method approach. Findings reveal that concrete narratives play a moderating role in the relationship between specific business technology and firm performance, emphasizing the importance of aligning a firm's business with its target audience during commercialization. However, the competition level (ICT firms' population) in the city reduces the firm's success. The study extends our understanding of entrepreneurial activity in the ICT sector, CLT, and potential policy guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to enhance disruptive innovation to build sustainable competitive advantage has become an essential issue in strategic management research. However, few studies exist to elucidate the influencing mechanism of disruptive innovation in the context of the digital era. Using multivariate regression analysis and bootstrapping method, we examine the underlying mediating mechanism and contextual condition in the relationship between digital transformation and disruptive innovation. Our results demonstrate that the digital transformation of entrepreneurial firms has a significant positive effect on disruptive innovation. Interorganizational collaboration mediates the relationship between digital transformation and disruptive innovation. Moreover, we demonstrate that dynamic capabilities positively moderate the indirect effect of digital transformation on disruptive innovation through interorganizational collaboration. Our findings contribute to disruptive innovation research by explaining the mediating mechanism of how to utilize digital transformation to promote disruptive innovation vis interorganizational collaboration. Our results also explain how dynamic capabilities interact with interorganizational collaboration and significantly affect disruptive innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the technology transfer mechanisms used to protect intellectual property by small, entrepreneurial firms that received Phase II research awards from the US Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The technology transfer mechanisms considered are patenting and publishing. Controlling for the agencies that funded the Phase II research (DOD and NIH), we find that the presence of a university as a research partner engenders greater patenting and publishing. We also find that minority-owned firms patent more intensely than do other firms. A portion of the firms patent and publish; we define these firms, based on our advanced review of the literature, to be ambidextrous. Ambidextrous firms are more likely to include a university as a research partner, to be male-owned and minority-owned, and to be relatively small. Our findings represent a new and important advancement to the literature. Plain English Summary: This paper considers the technology transfer activity of small, entrepreneurial firms that are conducting research funded by the US Small Business Innovation Research program. Patenting and publishing are the technology transfer mechanisms used to protect firms' intellectual property from the funded research. We show that firms use these mechanisms more often when a university is a research partner. Larger firms do not appear to be more active in patenting or publishing than smaller firms, although smaller firms tend to use both mechanisms. Also, minority-owned firms patent more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the hierarchical effects of Public Health Responses (PHRs) and fiscal policy measures (FPMs) on the tax morale (TM) of entrepreneurial firms in Nigeria during the COVID-19 pandemic. The theoretical basis for the study is based on social contract theory (SCT) and fiscal exchange theory (FET), which oblige entrepreneurs to pay taxes to the state in return for public goods and social services. Using a cross-sectional survey design, we collected primary data from 177 professional managers of entrepreneurial firms in Nigeria using online questionnaires. The sampled firms were accessed with the support of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce. Data collected at a point in time reflecting respondents’ views on the impact of PHRs and FPMs on TM were analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis. Three estimates emerged from the hierarchical regression analyses. The first estimation suggests that the PHRs have a significant positive effect on the TM of entrepreneurial firms. The second estimate suggests that the FPMs do not have a significant positive effect on the TM of entrepreneurial firms. The third estimation found that the interactive effects of PHRs and FPMs do not have a significant positive effect on the TM of entrepreneurial firms. The study, although modest, contributes to the literature on the entrepreneurial behavior of firms and tax morals in a period of economic uncertainty. The study provides valuable insights and validates the social contract and fiscal exchange theories in the recessionary period.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the hierarchical effects of Public Health Responses (PHRs) and fiscal policy measures (FPMs) on the tax morale (TM) of entrepreneurial firms in Nigeria during the COVID-19 pandemic. The theoretical basis for the study is based on social contract theory (SCT) and fiscal exchange theory (FET), which oblige entrepreneurs to pay taxes to the state in return for public goods and social services. Using a cross-sectional survey design, we collected primary data from 177 professional managers of entrepreneurial firms in Nigeria using online questionnaires. The sampled firms were accessed with the support of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce. Data collected at a point in time reflecting respondents' views on the impact of PHRs and FPMs on TM were analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis. Three estimates emerged from the hierarchical regression analyses. The first estimation suggests that the PHRs have a significant positive effect on the TM of entrepreneurial firms. The second estimate suggests that the FPMs do not have a significant positive effect on the TM of entrepreneurial firms. The third estimation found that the interactive effects of PHRs and FPMs do not have a significant positive effect on the TM of entrepreneurial firms. The study, although modest, contributes to the literature on the entrepreneurial behavior of firms and tax morals in a period of economic uncertainty. The study provides valuable insights and validates the social contract and fiscal exchange theories in the recessionary period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this exploratory study, we employed multiple case-based approaches to explore and advance our understanding of how some entrepreneurial firms in unstable and extreme contexts achieve and sustain high growth. We included five Palestinian entrepreneurial firms from different sectors. The findings suggest that several factors play a significant role in how entrepreneurial firms in an extreme context such as Palestine achieve and sustain high growth. These factors are innovation and know-how, family growth, opportunities for exploration and exploitation, human capital, focusing strategy, business and social networks, foreign aid, and flexibility and adaptability.

The digital platform market has evolved into a critical location for firms to engage in innovation and entrepreneurship. However, there is no clear answer to the question of when entrepreneurial firms should enter the digital platform market in order to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. A balanced panel and an individual fixed effect model were built using monthly product data from game developers on the Steam platform. Furthermore, in accordance with first-mover advantage theory, this study empirically investigated the impact of entry timing on product performance of entrepreneurial firms in the digital platform market, as well as the moderating effect of product updates. The results show that the impact of entrepreneurial firms' entry timing on product performance in the digital platform market has a U-shaped relationship, which is moderated by product updates. These findings not only have implications for entrepreneurs looking to compete in the digital platform market, but also contribute to the sustainable development of the digital platform ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurial orientation is the key factor for enterprises to obtain competitive advantages in dynamic circumstances. Thus, prior studies established the effect of psychological factors, for instance, entrepreneurial self-efficacy on entrepreneurial orientation using social cognitive theory. However, prior studies presented two main opposite views consisting of a positive and negative relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial orientation as well as providing no alleyway to enrich this relationship. We join the conversation on the positive linkage and argue on the essence of exploring the black box mechanisms to strengthen enterprises' entrepreneurial orientation. We employed the social cognitive theory and collected 220 valid responses from CEOs and TMTs from 10 enterprises in the high-tech industrial development zones of nine provinces in China to clarify the effect of top management team (TMT) collective efficacy, and CEO-TMT interface on the link between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial orientation. Our findings show that entrepreneurial selfefficacy positively affects entrepreneurial orientation. In addition, we found that a higher level of TMT collective efficacy strengthens the positive relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial orientation. Moreover, we discovered differential moderating effects. First, CEO-TMT interface positively affects entrepreneurial orientation when it interacts with TMT collective efficacy and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Second, CEO-TMT interface has a significant negative indirect effect on entrepreneurial orientation, when it only interacts with TMT collective efficacy. Our study enriches the entrepreneurial orientation literature by positioning TMT collective efficacy and CEO-TMT interface as social cognitive mechanisms underlying the development of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial orientation nexus. Thus, we open a window of opportunities for CEOs and decision-makers to maintain a sustainable position in the market, grasping more opportunities in uncertain conditions via timely entries into new markets and maintaining pre-existing ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact that external sources of information have on the effectiveness of R&D in small, entrepreneurial firms. The effectiveness of R&D is measured in terms of two probabilities: the probability that a firm that received and completed a Phase I SBIR-funded research project is invited to submit a proposal for a Phase II award, and given such an invitation, the probability that a firm receives the Phase II award. Information from competitors is an important, in a statistical sense, covariate with the probability of being asked to submit a Phase II proposal, whereas information from suppliers and customers is an important covariate with the probability of receiving a Phase II award. Plain English Summary: Tweetable headline: Market information, especially from suppliers, customers, and competitors, increases the effectiveness of publicly funded R&D among small, entrepreneurial firms. The R&D considered in this paper came from research awards from the National Institutes of Health's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The analysis presented shows a relationship between the effective use of the SBIR research awards and the use of several external sources of information—namely, suppliers, customers, and competitors—related to the market demand for the technology resulting from the funded research. This finding has a policy implication. For government agencies that participate in the SBIR program to be diligent stewards of public resources, small, entrepreneurial firms who receive such funding should be advised on how to identify and use relevant external source of market information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given their small size and young age, entrepreneurial firms are resource deprived. However, to successfully compete in dynamic environments, these firms are still required to build their dynamic capabilities. Using the ever-changing Korean retail fashion industry, we suggest that entrepreneurial firms deprived of formal marketing departments can learn from their main external repositories of market and product knowledge and develop their strategic marketing (dynamic) capabilities as routines, which, in turn, improve the entrepreneurial firms' performance. Moreover, following the microfoundations argument of dynamic capabilities, we argue that these strategic marketing capabilities in the form of routines can be further enhanced by the entrepreneurial firm's human resource flexibility. Our data reveals support for our arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this exploratory study, we employed multiple case-based approaches to explore and advance our understanding of how some entrepreneurial firms in unstable and extreme contexts achieve and sustain high growth. We included five Palestinian entrepreneurial firms from different sectors. The findings suggest that several factors play a significant role in how entrepreneurial firms in an extreme context such as Palestine achieve and sustain high growth. These factors are innovation and know-how, family growth, opportunities for exploration and exploitation, human capital, focusing strategy, business and social networks, foreign aid, and flexibility and adaptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Event interpretation and acknowledgement drive behaviour and identity formation in organisations. Extant studies exploring this link have focused on large, stable organisations. We extend these studies to entrepreneurial contexts where individual behaviour and organisational identity are especially fluid. We analyse narratives of success and failure in entrepreneurial firms to identify and explore acknowledgement practice, which is the ad-hoc action (or inaction) of organisational actors and groups responding to observed events. We explore how uncertainty affects event interpretation and acknowledgement. Within entrepreneurial contexts, we show that event interpretation and acknowledgement biases influence responses to success and failure. The combination of these biases reveals four broad emergent organisational characteristics, which have important implications for organisational identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The entrepreneurial firms may be more vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the entrepreneurs of entrepreneurial firms are also threatened by the revenues decline and business failure, which vehemently affect their well-being. The mental health of the entrepreneur decides whether the entrepreneurial firms can make the right decision, which is related to the healthy development of the entrepreneurial firms. Based on the event system theory and the cognitive appraisal theory, this paper aims to explore the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the entrepreneur anxiety, and the threat perception and performance pressure are introduced to investigate the mediating mechanism and boundary of this effect. Using the simple random sampling to obtain questionnaire survey data, 168 entrepreneurs of entrepreneurial firms have participated in the empirical study, and the research results are as follows. First, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly positively affects entrepreneur anxiety. Second, the entrepreneur threat perception plays a mediating role between the COVID-19 pandemic and the entrepreneur anxiety, which means the COVID-19 pandemic can enhance the external threat perception of entrepreneurs, and then affect the entrepreneur anxiety. Third, the positive effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the entrepreneur anxiety is strengthened by the entrepreneur performance pressure, while the positive effect of entrepreneur threat perception on entrepreneur anxiety is weakened by the entrepreneur performance pressure. The above findings are helpful to explore the mechanism of the COVID-19 pandemic and other critical crisis events on entrepreneurs' mental health from the new perspective of cognitive appraisal theory and event system theory, filling the research gaps between the COVID-19 pandemic and entrepreneur anxiety. Besides, this study broadens the applied range of the cognitive appraisal theory and the event system theory in the fields of crisis situations and entrepreneur research, and enriches the research outputs. Furthermore, this study will help provide a new theoretical analysis insight for the related research on how the COVID-19 pandemic affects entrepreneurs' psychology, and further deepen researchers to understand the mechanism of entrepreneur anxiety under the COVID-19 pandemic, providing theoretical inspirations for reducing entrepreneur anxiety. What's more, this study finds that individual pressure can affect their cognitive appraisal, which means that future research should take the pressure influential mechanism into consideration in the process of exploring "external stimulus--cognitive appraisal--emotional response," further expanding the theoretical model of cognitive appraisal proposed from the perspective of pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies show that research and development (R&D) may not always benefit entrepreneurial firms. This paper focuses on the double-edged effect of R&D activities on attracting institutional investment in entrepreneurial firms. Based on a panel dataset of 700 listed entrepreneurial firms in ChiNext, we document: (1) an inverted-U relationship between R&D intensity and future institutional investment, which we argue is evidence that institutional investors are concerned about R&D overinvestment; (2) an inverted-U relationship between R&D capitalization and future institutional investment, which we argue shows suspicion of the institutional investors towards high R&D capitalization. Furthermore, by splitting institutional investors into venture capitals (VCs) and non-venture capitals (non-VCs), we confirm that VCs have higher acceptance of both R&D intensity and capitalization as VCs have more expertise to alleviate a certain level of risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents arguments toward developing a theory of entrepreneurial differentiation. The comprehensive theory enables the distinction between entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial firms by providing a clear framework based on the idea of differentiation. In developing our framework, we relied heavily on previous research and prior theoretical developments as well as established understanding of entrepreneurial phenomena. Our theory delineates eight specific dimensions of differentiation we utilize to determine and assess the entrepreneurial profile of the firm. We argue that these eight dimensions work together to increase the overall amount of differentiation of the firm, and therefore, entrepreneurial nature of the firm. We then present formal propositions of the Theory of Entrepreneurial Differentiation as we relate our eight dimensions of differentiation to entrepreneurial orientation, management objectives, and organizational outcomes with specific relationships between each of these constructs. The resulting framework provides a comprehensive explanation of how entrepreneurial firms compete. We then assess how these theoretical conceptualizations impact existing research and how future research might proceed given these ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vast empirical literature on strategic alliances has often overlooked their theoretical foundations. We pose a hypothesis: do small and medium enterprises run by professional managers (managerial firms) have a rationale to incur in more alliances than firms run by their owners (entrepreneurial firms)? We consider an industry whose firms may decide to enter or not enter an alliance that decreases the marginal costs for members, while leaving them to operate on a non-cooperative basis. When firms are run by their owners, an alliance is more likely to be implemented the fewer the members of the alliance, while the optimal alliance size is very small as compared to the number of firms in the industry. However, when firms are run by managers (with separation of ownership and control), an alliance is always profitable for the members, irrespective of the synergy it leads to, and is therefore more likely to occur with managerial firms than with entrepreneurial firms. Thus, in a professionalized sector, we should not only observe more alliances but also larger alliances than in an entrepreneurial environment. In any case, since alliances never incorporate all firms, a desirable public policy may be to promote cooperation among firms prior to the market stage. The results are discussed in relation to the empirical literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the contagion process of entrepreneurial passion and its effects on employee outcomes. We develop a mediation model showing entrepreneurs' entrepreneurial passion affects an employee passion response, which in turn affects employee outcomes. We draw on a dual-process perspective to analyze how entrepreneurs' emotional and identity displays interact to create employees' perceptions of entrepreneurs' passion, and question whether the contagion effect uniformly works for all employees. Our empirical studies, one field study and one experiment, provide empirical support for a contagion effect of entrepreneurial passion, and show the particularities of the effects of entrepreneurs' passion on employee outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study makes a contribution to the growing literature on the board's resource provision role by examining a specific type of resource provision (i.e., industry experience supplementing) and demonstrating the criticality of the liabilities of newness to this particular role. In this study, we find that among younger entrepreneurial firms, a dearth of top management industry experience is offset by the presence of outside directors with significant managerial industry experience, providing evidence of experience supplementing by outside directors. Our study highlights that the notion of experience supplementing at the upper echelons prevails in young firms as they try to alleviate the burdens of the liability of newness. Experience supplementing underscores board-management collaboration during early years of firm development. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]