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The rise of digital technologies and open innovation has revolutionized innovation practices, creating new opportunities for moving born-physical open innovation settings to metaverse-like virtual environments. This study explores a virtual corporate-startup collaboration program in the energy industry to understand how digital feature usage facilitates trusted relationships and enables successful pilots. This article presents a framework that emphasizes the strategic use of digital information and interaction features for targeting and bonding with partners. Program managers can tackle the unrealized metaverse through ubiquitous program management and overcome social barriers through adaptive social engineering of digital interactions. This article also provides an outlook on evolving technologies and hybrid designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growth of the sport-for-development and peace (SDP) field, the sector remains heavily resource-constrained whereby organizations have limited resources but also operate in resource-scarce environments. Given this, we draw on the theoretical concept of bricolage to explore how such resource constraints are overcome. In this study, an organization implementing SDP for refugees and throughout their existence have been confronted with resource constraints is examined. Across the organization's start-up phase and growth stage, multiple forms of bricolage are identified, which enabled the organization to address the social needs of refugees through SDP. We discuss these findings in relation to existing literature on bricolage as well as social entrepreneurship in SDP, emphasizing the way in which the recombination of resources offers opportunities for organizations and practitioners to effectively manage a scarce resource base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We find that male participants in Harvard Business School's New Venture Competition who were randomly exposed to more venture capital (VC) investors on their panel were substantially more likely to start a VC-backed startup post-graduation, indicating that access to investors impacts fundraising independent of the quality of ideas. However, female participants experience no benefit from exposure to male or female venture capitalists (VCs), which appears related to a reduced propensity to reach out to VCs to whom they were exposed. Our results therefore also demonstrate gender-based differences in the degree to which increased exposure to investors can address networking frictions in venture capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, magnetic skyrmion-based spin-torque nano-oscillators (STNOs) have attracted considerable interest for their prospect in future-generation communication and spintronic technologies. However, some critical issues, which hamper their practical applications, e.g., the long start-up time and variable skyrmion gyration orbit, remain to be resolved. Here, we numerically demonstrate the realization of a fixed-orbit STNO, which is based on an interlayer-coupled meron–skyrmion (MS) pair instead of a magnetic skyrmion. In this STNO, the MS pair possesses a structurally defined, fixed orbit within a broad range of driving currents, even in the presence of random defects. The output frequency range of the STNO based on an MS pair far exceeds that of the STNO typically featuring a single skyrmion. Moreover, the output frequency of this STNO can be further elevated if more MS pairs are incorporated. Our results reveal the nontrivial dynamics of the interlayer-coupled MS pair, opening perspectives for the design and optimization of fundamental spintronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To hedge unforeseen risk, investors may prioritize male-led ventures that they anticipate most other investors will prefer, arriving at decisions that are biased against women. Yet, little is known about how investors infer such gendered preferences and when they are particularly likely to do so. Integrating insights from third-party bias research with social role theory, we posit that when women propose novel ventures, investors are more apt to make unpromising social approval forecasting—an anticipation of the extent to which other investors will endorse these ventures—and thus withhold funding support. This is because the intensified gender role violations due to women being entrepreneurial in tandem with being novel lead investors to impose harsher judgments that these ventures violate normative business practices. Our hypotheses receive support from results of three methodologically complementary studies, including an archival study of Shark Tank (2009–2019) coupled with preregistered online and field experiments. By casting light on how venture novelty, a key determining factor of entrepreneurial success, makes third-party bias against women particularly salient, our work identifies a less overt "entrepreneurial gender dilemma" and derives new insights into policy-making designed to help women entrepreneurs surmount financial and social barriers in the innovation-based economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic crises have profound effects on societies, motivating many individuals to launch their own firms in order to make a living. Although these firms created "out of necessity" possess few resources besides their founder's human capital, the role that this critical endowment plays in establishing a successful firm during a crisis is unclear, as existing knowledge offers diverging predictions about the value of general and specific human capital. We argue that this debate remains unresolved because we lack a holistic understanding of how each human capital type influences performance when founding conditions vary, and aim to reconcile the contrasting claims by considering how "hard" a crisis hits a given industry. Analyzing data collected from 500 founders who created firms in Greece during the Great Recession, combined with data from the Greek Statistical Office, we find that general human capital provides the greatest benefits, on average, during a crisis; yet specific human capital is more valuable in both the most favorable and the most unfavorable industry contexts. These results reveal how the value of human capital in entrepreneurship is contingent on founding conditions, and call into question existing notions of what it means to be resilient in a crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interorganizational partnerships can spur innovation, but their value may be diminished by friction in knowledge flows between firms. We consider how a partner's organizational structure may influence the knowledge that is accessible via partnerships. We focus on how a partner's structure trades off localized autonomy for its managers, which facilitates timelier decision making, and unified control, which facilitates integration. By shaping this balance, centralization of decision rights within the partner organization shapes access to its knowledge. Centralized structures generate wide-ranging internal knowledge pathways that enable access to a broader array of a partner's knowledge. However, the reduced managerial autonomy afforded by centralization makes decision making more cumbersome, which constricts the rate of access to a partner's knowledge. We find evidence of this tradeoff in the context of corporate venture capital relationships between incumbents and startups in the pharmaceutical industry. An increase in the incumbent's diversity of knowledge or in the knowledge required by the startup enhances the value of a greater breadth of access, whereas the degree to which the startup can leverage social ties (affinity) or hierarchical fiat (authority) alleviates the costs of a reduced access rate. Each of these features makes an incumbent organization's centralization more valuable to the startup. By highlighting this tension related to centralization, our findings suggest that new firms striving to maximize their partnership benefits may need to carefully consider their partners' internal structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Startup accelerators, which aim to improve the set of choices representing a startup's entry strategy, have become increasingly influential in both regional development and the strategies of individual startups. This article explores an accelerator's impact on startup performance and whether that impact varies substantially by features of the startup's founding environment. Leveraging data from a leading startup accelerator, I use a regression discontinuity framework to hold startup quality constant so that I can compare the performance of admitted startups to those that do not make the cut, and I examine whether any observed performance differentials are driven by accelerator admission and by characteristics of the startup's earlier environment. I find evidence that startups from better pre-accelerator environments experience stronger gains from accelerator admission. I also find evidence of home bias, as local startups have a stronger treatment effect. These results provide evidence of ecosystem effects whereby the impact of one organizational sponsor in an ecosystem is strongly moderated by other features in the ecosystem. The findings help to explain the concentration of accelerator programs in already successful entrepreneurial ecosystems and reveal how such programs may interact with founding environments to complement resource abundance or magnify prior resource inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using proprietary data from AngelList Talent, we study how startup job seekers' search and application behavior changed during the COVID-19 downturn. We find that workers shifted their searches and applications away from less-established startups and toward more-established ones, even within the same individual over time. At the firm level, this shift was not offset by an influx of new job seekers. Less-established startups experienced a relative decline in the quantity and quality of applications, ultimately affecting their hiring. Our findings uncover a flight-to-safety channel in the labor market that may amplify the procyclical nature of entrepreneurial activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have long been interested in understanding how a firm's "pre-history" shapes its behavior and performance, with recent scholarship highlighting the fact that industry entrants stem from different knowledge sources. Knowledge sources, the context in which entrants develop the knowledge they bring as they enter an industry, are argued to be important, because they may have differential effects on firm strategy and performance. We explore the effects of five different knowledge sources on firm behavior and survival using a mixed-methods approach. Survival analysis shows that user-founded new ventures outsurvive academic-founded new ventures, employee-founded new ventures, related diversifying entrants, and unrelated diversifying entrants. Qualitative analysis suggests that user-founded new ventures often enter niche markets defined by the clinical expertise of their founders and remain in these markets over time, honing their product offerings to specific clinical needs. Our analyses are based on novel, hand-collected archival data on the population of entrants in the modern medical imaging industry. We discuss the implications of these findings for the evolutionary theory, strategic management, and entrepreneurship literatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much of the academic literature on spinouts focuses on new ventures launched by the ex-employees of incumbent firms within the same industry, recent research shows that spinouts may also enter a focal industry from "knowledge contexts" outside of the incumbent industry. In particular, recent studies show that spinouts may enter from both upstream and downstream industries related to a focal industry along the value chain. Such spinouts have been called user-industry and supplier-industry spinouts. In this article, evidence from existing studies is collected to provide an indication of the relevance of such spinouts across various industries. This survey also includes an analysis of industry studies in which user- and supplier-industry spinouts may have been present but were not identified as such by scholars due to a difference in focus. The paper then considers the evidence accumulated to date in order to explore the industry contexts in which these two types of spinouts appear and to develop propositions concerning differences in the entry timing and product/market strategies of these startups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We exploit the staggered introduction of liability waivers when investors hold stakes in conflicting business opportunities as a shock to venture capital (VC) investment and director networks. After the law changes, we find increases in within-industry VC investment and common directors serving on startup boards. Despite the potential for rent extraction, same-industry startups inside VC portfolios benefit by raising more capital, failing less, and exiting more successfully. VC directors serving on other startup boards are the primary mechanism associated with positive outcomes, consistent with common VC investment facilitating informational exchanges in VC portfolios. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How much should an entrepreneur experiment and when should they pivot? Do the answers to these questions change if the entrepreneur is subject to behavioral biases, such as overconfidence? In this paper, we develop a conceptual logic to address these questions. We focus on the design of a "program of experimentation," which we define as a sequentially interdependent set of experiments and pivot decisions an entrepreneur undertakes to develop a viable business idea. This conceptualization highlights two dimensions of program design: the number of experiments to run and the pivot threshold for evaluating experimental outcomes. Our computational model suggests that while experimenting and pivoting can improve new venture performance, it can also be taken too far. Programs of experimentation that generate frequent and early pivots may impede learning and underperform more conservative programs that generate fewer pivots. We also show that an effectively designed program of experimentation can partially remedy an entrepreneur's behavioral biases. Our work informs ongoing scholarly efforts to more fully understand the Lean Startup's strengths and limitations and advances the theoretical apparatus underlying a scientific approach to venturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how labor mobility restrictions like noncompete agreements affect firms' investment decisions. Using matched employee-employer data from LinkedIn, I show that increases in the enforceability of noncompete agreements lead to widespread declines in employee departures, specifically in knowledge-intensive occupations. Established firms that rely more on these knowledge-intensive occupations increase their investment rate in physical capital. However, new firm entry in corresponding sectors declines. I provide evidence for different mechanisms to explain these patterns. Together, the findings show that labor frictions play an important role in investment decisions. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) has tended to focus on the role that characteristics internal to the EE play in determining EE-level outcomes. Notwithstanding the insights that academics, policy-makers, and entrepreneurs have gleaned from these studies, prior research has yet to explain whether, how, and why these outcomes might also be impacted by an EE's position within the larger network of EEs. Given broad acceptance for the important role that networks play in facilitating entrepreneurship at the firm level, we contend that adopting a network-based view of EEs may also help predict and explain aggregate entrepreneurial outcomes at the EE level. Specifically, we adopt a double embeddedness lens to examine the impact of both inter-EE (i.e., structural embeddedness) and intra-EE (i.e., cultural embeddedness) factors on EE-level new venture creation. Using a longitudinal sample of regional data in the United States from 1994 to 2016, we develop and test hypotheses where the relationship between structural embeddedness and new venture creation follows an inverted "U" shape that is itself moderated by cultural embeddedness. We conclude by discussing how these findings inform theory and practice in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies how changes in investor protection regulations affect local entrepreneurial activity, relying on the heterogeneous impact of a 2011 SEC regulation change on the definition of accredited investors across U.S. cities. Using a difference-in-differences approach, I show that cities more affected by the regulation change experienced a significantly larger decrease in local angel financing, entrepreneurial activity, innovation output, employment, and sales. I find that small business loans and second-lien mortgages became entrepreneurs' partial substitutes for angel investment. My cost-benefit analysis suggests that the costs of protecting angel investors through the 2011 regulation change outweigh its benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does proprietary knowledge protection (PKP) spur or hinder the product-market performance of new firms? Exploiting the staggered adoptions of the inevitable disclosure doctrine by U.S. State Courts, which enhance PKP, we show that treated firms increase industry-adjusted sales growth by 2% compared to control firms. The effect is concentrated among small and young firms and increases with the scope of proprietary knowledge and rivals' access to external finance. PKP encourages firms to develop new products and stimulates initial public offering activity. Our results suggest that PKP alleviates predation risk associated with "deep-pocket" rivals by allowing firms to maintain competitive advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Once scaled, online platforms reconfigure value to remain competitive. Reconfiguration in online platforms may take a different form than in pipelines, as online platforms are intermediaries that generate network effects among the sides they connect. They also face stiff competition from other spheres due to lower barriers to entry. Why and how do online platforms reconfigure value? By examining 13 Indian online platforms that have achieved a certain level of success (such as tipped markets, investor confidence, or profitability), this article offers four strategies for reconfiguring online platforms: enhance interactions, enhance capabilities, offer new services, and nurture new transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile platforms provide important entrepreneurial opportunities by facilitating access to a global market composed of more than a hundred countries. These opportunities are crucial for mobile app startups as they seek to reach a wider audience and accelerate growth. Nevertheless, performing in foreign countries is challenging as mobile app startups face a "foreignness liability" since they are competing against complementors (i.e., app developers) who have experience in their domestic market. We offer a research model that assesses the impact of cultural distance on the app-level performance of mobile app startups in foreign countries. We hypothesize the moderating effects of investor-consumer cultural distance and environmental characteristics within foreign countries. We test the model using a dataset of over 550 mobile app startups operating on the iOS platform. Our findings support our hypotheses and provide insights into whether mobile platforms are level playing fields. Our study sheds light on the interactions between a startup and its investors' cultural distances highlighting configurations of cultural distance that are beneficial for app performance in foreign countries when the environment is stable or uncertain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women are underrepresented in startups, but research on "joiners"—nonfounder employees attracted to startup work—offers limited explanations for why such underrepresentation occurs and how it persists. We argue that, even among joiners, women are less interested than men in applying for startup jobs and that this gender gap is associated with differential reactions to information about the gender composition of prospective employers. We analyze unique field data obtained from a job-matching mobile-application platform for startups, finding the hypothesized gender gap and showing that women, but not men, are sensitive to information about organizational gender composition, especially for startups signaling "diversity debt"—that is, no or only a token representation of women. A preregistered experiment further reveals that women's identity threat concerns mediate these effects. Gender disparities in startups are reproduced in a vicious cycle as existing underrepresentation deters women from applying. Our findings have implications for research and practice concerning joiners, the underrepresentation of women in entrepreneurship, and startups' ability to shape the gender composition of their applicant pools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship between a founder's occupational background and the survival rate of technology-based startups, focusing on founders with prior research positions. Utilizing a unique tech-based startup database, the study discovers that startups founded by researchers exhibit a lower survival rate compared to those led by founders with other backgrounds. Nevertheless, prior entrepreneurial experience positively moderates the relationship between a founder's research experience and startup survival rate, indicating that practical business knowledge can offset the inherent lack of business expertise in a researcher's background. Moreover, the study reveals that startups established by researchers from large companies have an even lower survival rate, as specialization within large organizations may impede the acquisition of essential management skills. These findings emphasize the importance of developing a diverse skill set for startup success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many academics often have to face the pressure to constantly publish or quietly perish. The Publish or Perish Game™, a new tabletop game created by Max Bai, flips the script and offers a satirical reflection on the academic publishing process, turning the often‐stressful endeavor into an entertainment experience. In this interview, Max Bai discusses the inspiration behind the game, the creative processes, and the broader impact he hopes the game will have on the academic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the measurement verification of a novel strategy for inrush current reduction in an unloaded three-phase Dy transformer. The strategy combines appropriate pre-magnetization of transformer cores with an original control switching system using initial phase values of the supply voltage as control variables. Measurements were recorded for primary voltages and currents as well as secondary voltages during transient states at start-up under no-load conditions. Various inrush scenarios were examined across the full angular spectrum of initial phase angles, both polarities, and in regard to different pre-magnetization current values. A detailed analysis of the inrush currents was performed using proprietary automated software based on the recorded data. A comparative study with a nonlinear mathematical model of the transformer was also conducted. Additionally, key technical aspects of the designed system for implementing the proposed pre-magnetization strategy with controlled voltage energization are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of active adhesion control to the traction control system of an electric train holds great appeal for maximizing longitudinal acceleration force. Most of the currently reported works regulate the adhesion between wheel and rail by adjusting the torque reference of a cascade motor drive controller, which suffers from slow speed response and excessive start torque. This article proposes a cascadefree predictive adhesion control strategy for electric trains powered by an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM) to address these issues. The proposed control scheme utilizes an improved perturbation and observation method to predict the time-varying wheel-rail adhesion state and determine the optimal slip speed. The initial setpoint reference command from the driver master is then adjusted to a dynamic reference that continuously adapts to the predicted adhesion conditions. Finally, the predictive speed control method is employed to ensure rapid convergence of the tracking objective. The simulation and hardware-in-the-loop testing results confirm that this approach achieves excellent dynamic performance, particularly during the train start-up phase and in the high-speed weak magnetic area of the IPMSM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Technological start-ups are significant contributor to the innovation and employment provider in an economy. Numerous technological start-ups are established every year; however, only a miniscule percentage of these technological start-ups sustain and scale up in the long run. The aim of this study is to investigate the factors that affect Indian technological start-ups' competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach: Case study analysis of two technological start-ups (namely, WayCool and Moglix) is undertaken to study the factors affecting the competitiveness of technological start-ups in India. Being a relatively underexplored theme of study in entrepreneurship and strategy, case analysis facilitates exploration and validation of factors influencing competitiveness. Information for case study analysis is drawn from secondary sources of information. The collected data undergoes deductive thematic analysis to systematically identify and examine recurring themes and patterns relevant to the competitiveness of Indian technological start-ups. Findings: Case analysis reveals that innovation intensity, organisational agility and internationalisation influence competitiveness of technological start-ups. The importance of the role of each of these factors for entrepreneurial ventures has been highlighted in literature; however, their effect on competitiveness has not been examined in extant literature. Research limitations/implications: Being among the few studies on the competitiveness of technological start-ups in specific and start-ups in general, this study highlights the gap in the literature and suggests the need for examining the competitiveness of technological start-ups. Practical implications: For the practitioners, this study reinforces the need for entrepreneurs to emphasise fundamental factors that build competitiveness. Subsequently, the sources of competitiveness shall enable the start-up to gain a competitive advantage. Originality/value: This is among the few studies to have explored the competitiveness of technological start-ups in the Indian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young Innovative Companies have received considerable attention in the last decade in entrepreneurship and management literature. These firms need financial resources to develop but lack legitimacy in the eyes of investors. This paper empirically explores the determinants of fundraising by analysing 545 Italian innovative start-ups, as defined by the Law 221/2012. In an institutional perspective we propose a model that considers the effect of three different sources of legitimacy. Results show that team educational and professional diversity, incubation and IPRs play a significant role in legitimating the company in the fundraising process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological innovation is critical for high‐tech new ventures (HTNVs), and the position of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) has become increasingly crucial in top management teams (TMTs). Drawing upon the upper echelons theory and the attention‐based view of the firm, we examined a sample of 429 HTNVs in China between 2014 and 2019 to test whether and how appointing a CTO and the CTO's characteristics affect the new ventures' innovation activities. The results show that having a CTO position promotes HTNVs' exploratory innovation activities but does not affect exploitative innovation activities. While a longer CTO tenure positively affects exploratory innovation, it hinders exploitative innovation. In addition, a CEO serving as the CTO in a HTNV has a negative effect on exploitative innovation activities but no effect on exploratory innovation activities. This effect is contingent on the CEO's technological background and whether the CEO owns shares in the HTNV. The findings of this study enrich the literature on the upper echelons theory, the attention‐based view, and entrepreneurship and innovation and provide rare empirical evidence on whether and how appointing a CTO, CTO characteristics, and the interaction of CTO characteristics and CEO characteristics affect HTNVs' innovation activities in emerging markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sequential direct start-up of four asynchronous machines (AM) with a capacity of 8 MW each from a 6 kV electrical network is considered. The start-up transient modes that arise in the network as a result of such an AM start-up are investigated, as well as the possible consequences for the network. To facilitate the direct start of AM with a capacity of 8 MW, it is proposed to use a conditional twelve-phase controlled compensating converter, which limits the amount of starting over currents in the network. References 10, figures 6. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a new comprehensive fully coupled elastic-hydrodynamic model is developed for a multi-layer gas foil thrust bearing (GFTB). The interaction effects among the top foil, back board, middle foil, and bottom foil, as well as the Coulomb friction effect, are considered. The stiffness and static characteristics obtained by the experimental and theoretical approaches are in good agreement, which verifies the accuracy of the model. The contribution of each foil layer to the overall stiffness and the load-carrying mechanism are analyzed. Interaction effects of the load, preload, and rotational speed on the static performance are investigated comprehensively. Furthermore, start-stop tests are performed to achieve the lift-off speed, start-up torque, and shut-down torque under various operating conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the role that both macroeconomic indicators and financial factors play as drivers for the birth and the evolution of the Italian innovative start-ups over time. The analysis makes use of a novel machine learning algorithm, working in high-dimensional graphical models, to select, among the multitude of potential determinants, the relevant explanatory variables for the number of innovative start-ups. Being the variables involved in the analysis sampled at different frequencies, mixed data sampling models are employed for estimation and forecasting purposes. The need to reduce the number of regressors of these models, for reasons related to their estimability, is met by resorting to principal component analysis of the potential determinants. An empirical application to the set of Italian innovative start-ups, either in their entirety or split according to some specific requirements, highlights the effectiveness of this approach. The analysis results provides useful information for the assessment of national innovation policies and for the evaluation of the capability of the innovative start-ups to persist and contribute at the recovery during the actual crisis still affected by the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how business incubator support affects subsequent firm performance. We build on and extend a recent focus on organisational sponsorship mechanisms, applying the lens to business incubators. We first ask: Is there an overall effect of business incubator sponsorship on subsequent firm performance? Second, we ask: To what extent do the decisions of business incubator managers, in terms of allocating resources to start-up firms, impact the subsequent firm performance? We use a unique dataset consisting of the entire population of business incubators in Sweden and their start-ups from 2005 to 2015. Results indicate that business incubator sponsorship has a positive effect on firm performance, while the effects of various forms of sponsorship vary from large positive to neutral effects. Thus, we confirm earlier research on the positive effects of sponsorship and give input on how business managers can use sponsorship theory to provide more optimal resource allocation over time. It appears that coaching and legitimacy have more positive impact on firm level performance compared to other sponsoring activities. Sponsorship is a complex issue, meriting increased theoretical and managerial understanding of its forms and mechanisms. In this respect, our study of how the sponsorship activities of business incubators affect start-up performance complements and extends previous studies of how the effects of business incubator sponsorship depend on external contingencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study examines whether Venture capitalists (VCs) prefer independent or syndicated investments when faced with exit uncertainty. By exploiting an initial public offering (IPO) suspension in China, our analysis reveals that VCs are more likely to independently invest in start-ups during such a suspension, which is driven by the screening and monitoring roles of VCs. Specifically, we find a greater likelihood of VC exits and a higher return on investment for VCs investing in start-ups during the suspension. Further, start-ups that obtain financing from VCs during the suspension are strictly monitored by VCs and reduce the extent of upward earnings management in the pre-IPO year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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While new ventures strive to align with prevailing demand and expectations to gain and maintain legitimacy and successfully overcome the liability of newness, sharing economy ventures face additional legitimacy pressure before and after they achieve scale. Based on an inductive single case study approach, using the example of Airbnb Inc., this study investigates how digital platform‐based ventures navigate the tension between remaining legitimate yet distinctive throughout the organizational lifecycle. Adopting a processual perspective, our findings reveal the strategies used by Airbnb to navigate the temporal dynamics of entering established industries. With a particular focus on the digital platform's efforts to achieve and maintain cognitive and sociopolitical legitimacy, this study aims to enhance knowledge regarding the formation and adjustment of organizational strategy and identity over time. Our proposed model of digital platform development reveals three distinct stages of strategy shifts, including demonstrating a sense of novelty, establishing dominant positioning in a broader market, and competitive differentiation to create value for customers. Furthermore, we show the primary triggers for change and the organizational identity change process in different stages of the organizational lifecycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lean startup, effectuation, creation theory, and the theory-based view represent four different descriptive theories of how new ventures emerge and/or normative theories of how new ventures should be developed. We juxtapose the four approaches and describe their similarities and differences, which provides a foundation for considering complementarities among the approaches and constructing a future research agenda for additional reconciliation and contextualization regarding how successful new ventures are, or should be, developed under varying circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this short essay, Steve Blank describes his personal experiences and his role in founding the Lean Startup movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Lean Startup movement fundamentally changed entrepreneurial education and the way new ventures evolve. While Steve Blank and other founders of the movement embraced academic ideas, the movement grew among practitioners largely disconnected from academic entrepreneurship research. The purposes of this special issue are (1) to better connect Lean Startup practice to academic entrepreneurship research and (2) to advance theory regarding Lean Startup practices and their outcomes. After a brief and personal story of Lean Startup's beginnings by its founder, Steve Blank, the first set of papers in this special issue juxtapose Lean Startup with alternative approaches to new venture creation developed by scholars outside the influence of the Lean Startup movement. The second set of papers describe how Lean Startup might be contextualized for different unique situations. The third set dives into different Lean Startup practices to help researchers and practitioners think more deeply about decisions and trade-offs made during implementation of Lean Startup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practitioner framework, the Lean Startup, largely based on the experience of Blank (2013), and developed separately from scholarly work, has none-the-less made inroads in the academic literature. In reconciling The Lean Startup framework with entrepreneurship theory, Blank and Eckhardt argue that theory work in entrepreneurship is fragmented. However, this paper argues that these theories may not be as fragmented as implied. Indeed, many theories in entrepreneurship can be grouped into two "families"—one of which is broadly consistent with the model in The Lean Startup, while the other is deeply inconsistent with this model but consistent with an important theory in entrepreneurship: the Creation Theory of Entrepreneurial Opportunities. What this paper shows is that there are important differences that lead to boundary conditions between these two families of theory. More profound, these different approaches to the entrepreneurship process suggest they should be applied in different entrepreneurial settings and at different points in the process. This paper examines the link between the Creation Theory of Entrepreneurship and its associated family of theories and the Lean Startup framework and its associated family of theories, such as Discovery, IO Nexus, The Scientific Method, and so forth. The paper concludes by describing the different contexts under which each family of theories apply and suggests future research that empirically test the boundary conditions of these different theory families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can innovative solutions to address societal grand challenges be cultivated in a pragmatic and impactful way? In this article, we propose the "lean impact start-up" framework, which integrates the principles of the lean start-up methodology with fresh perspectives from new stakeholder theory—and specifically, stakeholder governance. The lean impact start-up framework is characterized by its experimental and learning-oriented nature and consists of a three-step process: value search, value creation, and value distribution. For each step, we propose a key mechanism and chart pathways for future research. At its core, the lean impact start-up framework differs from other start-up frameworks by an active consideration of diverse primary stakeholders and an expanded focus encompassing both economic and noneconomic outcomes. This framework serves as a transformative bridge that helps to close the divide between scholarly research and tangible, real-world impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there is increasing interest in building theories that offer actionable guidance to the practice of entrepreneurship. Here I present a general theoretical framework, called CAVE, for understanding, assessing, and enhancing existing tools that offer such guidance. The framework encompasses a two-dimensional space with prediction and control as its axes. The CAVE framework accommodates a wide variety of extant practical tools as well as relevant concepts from psychology and economics. Specifically, I compare and contrast effectuation with lean startup within this framework. Whereas lean startup centers around hypothesis testing, effectuation focuses on cocreative commitments from self-selecting stakeholders. In other words, the former takes markets as exogenous, while the latter explicates how they can be made endogenous and why that matters. More generally, I show how these differences connect with and delineate the scientific method from the entrepreneurial method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the intersection between the lean startup methodology and research on business models. We note that both perspectives are anchored on a systematic approach to needs discovery and highlight the importance of value creation (vs. value appropriation). However, while the lean startup is centered on creating value for customers through discovery of product-market fit, research on business models concerns value creation for all stakeholders through establishing product-market-business model fit. We also discuss how the lean startup method informs research on business models and vice versa. We observe that the promise of applying lean startup to business models lies in probing the viability of new business models with an efficient and effective process. We find that business model research, in turn, can contribute to the lean startup methodology by (a) suggesting extensions to the method that derive from the holistic, system-level nature of the business model construct and (b) highlighting a range of specific experimental subprocesses, refinements, and tools that could be applied to refine the customer needs discovery process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building and deploying a minimum viable product (MVP) is often considered a necessary step in the venture development process. Although MVPs are ubiquitous in practice, foundational scholarly work on MVPs is virtually nonexistent. We leverage and build upon the lean start-up literature and the scientific approach to entrepreneurship to develop theory related to the dimensionality, forms, risks, and trade-offs of MVPs. We first define and identify the conceptual boundaries of MVPs and explain the relationship between MVP dimensionality and MVP development decisions. We then specify how MVP risks emerge and how these risks relate to the trade-off decisions that entrepreneurs must grapple with when building and deploying MVPs. We conclude by presenting future research opportunities on this important but previously overlooked phenomenological artifact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]