Robert A. Baron

Different Roles, Different Strokes: Organizing Virtual Customer Environments to Promote Two Types of Customer Contributions

In recent years, many companies have established virtual customer environments (VCEs) that offer facilities ranging from online discussion forums to virtual product design centers to partner with their customers in product development and product support activities. In this study, we focus on one form of VCE, online customer forums, and propose that the relevance of four distinct theoretical perspectives---social capital theory, social exchange theory, involvement, and social identity theory---to explaining customer participation will be contingent on the nature of the customer contribution context, that is, whether the contributions are to the customer community (through product support) or to the company (through product ideation). We propose a model suggesting that customers prosocial behavior and expectations of private rewards will shape contributions to the community, whereas their perceived innovation partnership with the company and expectations of private rewards will shape a contribution to the company. We also contend that these effects will be moderated by customers identification with the community and with the company. Our empirical findings offer support for the model and indicate that online customer forums (and more broadly VCEs) should be tailored to fit the nature of customer contribution sought. Implications for research and practice in customer co-innovation, online peer-to-peer communities, and customer relationship management are discussed.

Entrepreneurship in innovation ecosystems: : Entrepreneurs' self-regulatory processes and their implications for new venture success.

Innovation ecosystems have emerged as an important context for entrepreneurship. Ecosystem entrepreneurs, however, face a unique set of challenges associated with the need to balance the goals and priorities set by the ecosystem leader with the goals and priorities of the new venture. We focus on ecosystem entrepreneurs’ self–regulatory processes and the potential role of these processes in entrepreneurs’ efforts to successfully balance requirements set by the ecosystem leader with the goals of their own ventures.

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.

Bringing Political Skill into Social Networks: Findings from a Field Study of Entrepreneurs

The authors integrate the entrepreneurship literatures sociological and behavioural perspectives and examine the processes through which entrepreneurs first build social networks and then use the network resources for enhancing venture performance. Field interviews of entrepreneurs during a six-month period reveal that political skill is an important individual-level factor that influences the construction and use of social networks. Theoretical and practical implications of the major findings are discussed.

Regulatory Modes and Entrepreneurship: The Mediational Role of Alertness in Small Business Success

Previous studies suggest that entrepreneurs play a key role in the success of their ventures. But relatively little is currently known about how they produce such effects. The present research provides data suggesting that two modes of entrepeneurs’ self‐regulation—locomotion and assessment—enhance a firms success through their effects on the components of alertness. This mediational model was tested and supported with data from 120 entrepreneurs. Locomotion was positively related to the scanning and search component, while assessment was positively related to the association and evaluation components. These findings are discussed in terms of the role of founders’ self‐regulation in the performance of their companies.

Prototype models of opportunity recognition and the decision to launch a new venture: identifying the basic dimensions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to obtain evidence concerning the basic dimensions included in cognitive prototypes pertaining to opportunity recognition and decision to launch a new venture; identifying the underlying dimensions of both prototypes – the cognitive frameworks current or nascent entrepreneurs employ in performing these important tasks. Design/methodology/approach – The bi-dimensional models were tested in a sample of 284 founder entrepreneurs, using a 48-item questionnaire. It was used as structural equation confirmatory factor analysis to compare fit indices of uni-dimensional second-order and third-order bi-dimensional models of business opportunity and decision to launch a venture. Findings – Results support the bi-dimensional models and offer support that both prototypes include two basic dimensions. For the business opportunity prototype these are viability and distinctiveness while for the decision to launch a new venture, the basic dimensions are feasibility and motivational a...

The role of affective biasing in commercializing new ideas

This paper explores the role of ‘affective attachment’ (powerful, emotional attachment) to ones ideas as a source of bias in market entry decisions concerning, but not limited to, technological initiatives. We investigated the effects of such attachment on: evaluations of new ideas and the idea developers’ desire to retain control over the commercialization of these ideas. Our results indicate that entrepreneurs who are experiencing strong affective attachment to their ideas are more willing to accept poorer financial terms, than might be otherwise available to them, in order to maintain control over the ideas. Overall, our findings indicate that affective attachment can interfere with a persons objective evaluation of their ideas, and hence with their potential for future commercialization.

From Social Value to Social Cognition: How Social Ventures Obtain the Resources They Need for Social Transformation

Abstract Academic and popular discussions of social entrepreneurship often point to the importance of social value creation in contributing to a social ventures success. Implied in these discussions is the assumption that the more pressing the social problem addressed by the mission or the greater the social value generated, the more successful and attractive the venture will be. The present theoretical framework uses social cognition theory to examine the link between dimensions of the social mission and the ventures appeal to resource providers, and suggests that the magnitude of social value created is only one of a broader set of mission characteristics that influence social venture outcomes, such as resource acquisition from potential resource providers. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.