Aaron H. Anglin

A Review and Road Map of Entrepreneurial Equity Financing Research

Equity financing in entrepreneurship primarily includes venture capital, corporate venture capital, angel investment, crowdfunding, and accelerators. We take stock of venture financing research to date with two main objectives: (a) to integrate, organize, and assess the large and disparate literature on venture financing; and (b) to identify key considerations relevant for the domain of venture financing moving forward. The net effect is that organizing and assessing existing research in venture financing will assist in launching meaningful, theory-driven research as existing funding models evolve and emerging funding models forge new frontiers.

An Archival Approach to Measuring Family Influence An Organizational Identity Perspective

Drawing from a framework highlighting how family influence is reflected in organizational identity, we present archival and content analytic adaptations for three key factors signifying alignment between family and organizational identities: family visibility, transgenerational sustainability, and family self-enhancement. We validate these measures using archival data sources, “About Us” pages, and shareholder letters from S&P 500 firms. Random coefficients modeling indicates our measures are largely shaped by temporal and firm, followed by industry, differences. Our work paves the way for further investigation exploring the relationships between family involvement and organizational identity while simultaneously addressing lingering methodological challenges in family business research.

What Doesn’t Get Measured Does Exist: Improving the Accuracy of Computer-Aided Text Analysis

Computer-aided text analysis (CATA) is a form of content analysis that enables the measurement of constructs by processing text into quantitative data based on the frequency of words. CATA has been proposed as a useful measurement approach with the potential to lead to important theoretical advancements. Ironically, while CATA has been offered to overcome some of the known deficiencies in existing measurement approaches, we have lagged behind in regard to assessing the technique’s measurement rigor. Our article addresses this knowledge gap and describes important implications for past as well as future research using CATA. First, we describe three sources of measurement error variance that are particularly relevant to studies using CATA: transient error, specific factor error, and algorithm error. Second, we describe and demonstrate how to calculate measurement error variance with the entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, and organizational ambidexterity constructs, offering evidence that past substantive conclusions have been underestimated. Third, we offer best-practice recommendations and demonstrate how to reduce measurement error variance by refining existing CATA measures. In short, we demonstrate that although measurement error variance in CATA has not been measured thus far, it does exist and it affects substantive conclusions. Consequently, our article has implications for theory and practice, as well as how to assess and minimize measurement error in future CATA research with the goal of improving the accuracy of substantive conclusions.

The Impact of Collective Optimism on New Venture Creation and Growth: A Social Contagion Perspective:

Social contagion research suggests that individual decision making is shaped by collective, social processes. We extend the entrepreneurial optimism literature by arguing that collective optimism—the shared, positive expectations about future outcomes—is salient to key entrepreneurial outcomes. We test our position by examining how fluctuations in U.S. collective entrepreneurial optimism influence venture creation and growth using 1993–2010 NFIB entrepreneurial optimism data. Results indicate that collective entrepreneurial optimism exhibits a curvilinear relationship with venture creation and growth, which is moderated by environmental dynamism. We validate the NFIB measure by constructing an alternative measure of collective entrepreneurial optimism using media reports.

The Role of Charismatic Rhetoric in Crowdfunding: An Examination with Computer-Aided Text Analysis

Abstract nPurpose nSocial entrepreneurs often make public appeals for funding to investors who are motivated by nonfinancial considerations. This emerging research context is an opportunity for researchers to expand the bounds of entrepreneurship theory. To do so, we require appropriate research tools. In this chapter, we show how computer-aided text analysis (CATA) can be applied to advance social entrepreneurship research. We demonstrate how CATA is well suited to analyze the public appeals for resources made by entrepreneurs, provide insight into the rationale of social lenders, and overcome challenges associated with traditional survey methods. n n nMethod nWe illustrate the advantages of CATA by examining how charismatic language in 13,000 entrepreneurial narratives provided by entrepreneurs in developing countries influences funding speed from social lenders. CATA is used to assess the eight dimensions of charismatic rhetoric. n n nFindings nWe find that four of the dimensions of charismatic rhetoric examined were important in predicting funding outcomes for entrepreneurs. n n nImplications nData collection and sample size are important challenges facing social entrepreneurship research. This chapter demonstrates how CATA techniques can be used to collect valuable data and increase sample size. This chapter also examines how the rhetoric used by entrepreneurs impacts their fundraising efforts.