Keith M. Hmieleski

Proclivity for Improvisation as a Predictor of Entrepreneurial Intentions

This study examines the relationship between improvisation and entrepreneurial intentions. Of specific interest is whether or not a proclivity for improvisation explains any variance in entrepreneurial intentions beyond what is accounted for by other relevant individual difference measures. Using a sample of 430 college students, entrepreneurial intentions are found to be significantly associated with measures of personality, motivation, cognitive style, social models, and improvisation. The strongest relationship is found between entrepreneurial intentions and improvisation. The results of hierarchical regression show that improvisation accounts for a significant amount of variance in entrepreneurial intention above and beyond what is accounted for by the other variables.

The Role of Human Capital in Technological Entrepreneurship

This special issue addresses the role that the human capital characteristics of individuals and teams play in the complex process of technological entrepreneurship. In this article, we position the special issue on human capital and technology–based entrepreneurship within the literatures concerning academic entrepreneurship, technology transfer and innovation, and corporate spin–offs. We summarize the articles in the special issue and also outline a research agenda at the firm, entrepreneurial team, and individual entrepreneur levels. Finally, we discuss managerial and policy implications.

New Venture Teams A Review of the Literature and Roadmap for Future Research

As entrepreneurship research has matured, scholars have increasingly recognized that the formation of new ventures is commonly accomplished by teams as opposed to lone entrepreneurs. Over the past two decades, the upper echelons perspective has served as the primary lens for investigating new venture team functioning and performance. However, researchers have begun to move beyond the relationship between team characteristics and team outcomes, to explore intermediary mechanisms that more precisely explain how team inputs lead to team effectiveness. In this article we apply an inputs-mediators-outcomes framework, which has served as a foundation for teams research in organizational behavior over the past 50 years, to first organize and review prior work on new venture teams, and then to provide a roadmap for future research. By integrating the upper echelons approach from strategic management with the inputs-mediators-outcomes framework from organizational behavior, we clarify what is known about new venture teams and shed light on important issues that could help the field of entrepreneurship to develop a more comprehensive understanding of why some new venture teams, but not others, achieve successful outcomes.

Shared Authentic Leadership and New Venture Performance

This study applied affective events theory (AET) as a framework for understanding the relationship between the shared authentic leadership of new venture top management teams (TMTs) and the performance of their firms. Results, based on a national (United States) random sample of new ventures, demonstrated a positive indirect effect of shared authentic leadership behavior on firm performance, an effect that operated through TMTs’ positive affective tone. These findings contribute to entrepreneurship and strategic management literatures by illustrating that AET (a micro-level theory) is a conceptually relevant framework for understanding the impact of TMTs on firm performance (i.e., upper echelons theory and research). With respect to the leadership and organizational behavior literatures, the authors’ results indicate that authentic leadership may be particularly beneficial when shared among team members.

Why Entrepreneurs Often Experience Low, Not High, Levels of Stress The Joint Effects of Selection and Psychological Capital

While creating and running new ventures, entrepreneurs are exposed to conditions known to generate high levels of stress (e.g., rapid change, unpredictable environments, work overload, personal responsibility for others). Thus, it has been assumed that they often experience intense stress. A markedly different possibility, however, is suggested by Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) theory. This perspective suggests that persons who are attracted by, selected into, and persist in entrepreneurship may be relatively high in the capacity to tolerate or effectively manage stress. In contrast, persons who are relatively low in this capacity tend to exit from entrepreneurship either voluntarily or involuntarily. As a result, founding entrepreneurs as a group are predicted to experience low rather than high levels of stress while running new ventures. Results supported this reasoning: Founding entrepreneurs reported lower levels of stress when compared to participants in a large national survey of perceived stress. Additional findings indicate that entrepreneurs’ relatively low levels of stress derive, at least in part, from high levels of psychological capital (a combination of self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resilience). Psychological capital was negatively related to stress, and stress, in turn, was negatively related to entrepreneurs’ subjective well-being. Furthermore, and also consistent with ASA theory, the stress-reducing effects of psychological capital were stronger for older than younger entrepreneurs.

The Conflicting Cognitions of Corporate Entrepreneurs

Research in the entrepreneurial cognition domain has demonstrated that entrepreneurs tend to draw from similar sets of event schemas when considering to start a new venture. The social cognition literature also explains that role schemas affect how individuals encode, process, and use information. In this article, we examine the interplay and divergence between the role schema of individuals in corporations and the event schemas necessary to launch a new venture. By examining these schemas together, we show how the corporate context can create tension between corporate entrepreneurs’ role schemas and the event schemas necessary for entrepreneurship. We then construct a theoretical framework for explaining why this tension results in corporate entrepreneurs emphasizing certain event schemas in a manner that is distinct from independent entrepreneurs. Important implications regarding the relationship between context and entrepreneurial cognition are outlined for researchers, entrepreneurs, corporate managers, and educators.

The Dark Triad and Nascent Entrepreneurship: An Examination of Unproductive versus Productive Entrepreneurial Motives

This study examined relationships of the dark triad personality characteristics (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) with entrepreneurial intentions and motives. Results from samples of business undergraduates (Nu2009=u2009508) and MBA students (Nu2009=u2009234) found narcissism to be positively related to entrepreneurial intentions. In addition, results from subgroups of business undergraduates and MBA students high in entrepreneurial intentions (i.e., early‐stage nascent entrepreneurs) indicated differences in motives for engaging in the startup process. Specifically, we found all facets of the dark triad to be positively associated with unproductive entrepreneurial motives, and observed differential associations of the dark triad characteristics with productive entrepreneurial motives.

Differences in the Outcomes of Work and Family Conflict between Family‐ and Nonfamily Businesses: An Examination of Business Founders

This study examined the effects of work and family conflict on work tension for founders of family versus nonfamily businesses. Drawing on a model of conflict between work and family roles, it was predicted that founders of family businesses would experience significantly greater work tension from family–work conflict than for founders of nonfamily businesses. Conversely, it was predicted that work–family conflict would exert more negative effects on founders of nonfamily businesses than for those running family businesses. Results from a national (United States) sample of business founders supported these predictions. Implications for the management of work and family conflict in family versus nonfamily businesses are discussed.