{"title":"Close but not nearby? Rethinking proximity in the digital era of entrepreneurial ecosystems","authors":"Olivier Lamotte","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00521","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00521","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recent literature has increasingly challenged the traditional view of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) as geographically bounded entities, highlighting how entrepreneurial activities span spatial boundaries through networks, digital platforms, and various forms of collaboration. Building on these insights, this article proposes an analytical framework based on the proximity approach to understand better how EEs function in an increasingly digitalized world. We argue that while geographic proximity remains relevant, other forms of proximity (cognitive, social, organizational, and institutional) are equally crucial in shaping resource interactions and coordination within EEs. We also examine how digitalization transforms these proximity dynamics, creating new possibilities for entrepreneurial activities while potentially reducing the importance of geographic proximity. The key insight of our study is that beyond mere geographic closeness, diverse forms of proximity shape actors’ interactions within EEs, while digitalization reconfigures these dynamics, extending EEs boundaries. This research contributes to the literature by offering a more nuanced theoretical framework for understanding the spatial and non-spatial dimensions of EEs, with implications for both research and policy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"23 ","pages":"Article e00521"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143549384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Crowdfunding beyond borders: Geographic disparities in crowdfunding success","authors":"Liran Maymoni , Eliran Solodoha","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00520","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00520","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates how geographic location influences the effectiveness of entrepreneurial signals in crowdfunding, integrating Regional Development Theory and Signaling Theory. Using data from 2578 reward-based crowdfunding campaigns on the Israeli platform Headstart (2012–2022), we find that structural advantages in central areas enhance the effect of entrepreneurial signals, such as prior experience and reward diversity, while systemic barriers in peripheral regions weaken these signals' effectiveness. The principal insight of this study is that geographic context not only shapes crowdfunding success but also moderates the effectiveness of signaling strategies, thereby intensifying regional disparities. These findings contribute to the literature by demonstrating how geographic context moderates the strength and interpretation of entrepreneurial signals, ultimately influencing funding success and engagement. Practical recommendations include enhancing campaign visibility for peripheral entrepreneurs and developing tailored training programs to optimize their signaling strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"23 ","pages":"Article e00520"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143512054","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Griffin W. Cottle , Jessica Jones , Brian S. Anderson , Jeffrey S. Hornsby
{"title":"Weathering the pivot: Stability and turnover in new venture teams","authors":"Griffin W. Cottle , Jessica Jones , Brian S. Anderson , Jeffrey S. Hornsby","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00518","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00518","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Research on strategic change and NVT turnover suggests that members of the new venture team are likely to depart during a pivot as a result of structural changes within the firm. However, this perspective overlooks the relational aspect of venturing, which bonds team members to their ventures. Although NVT members are critical to both the creation of economic profit and the operational viability of the firm, at present we have little understanding of whether the decision to pivot strengthens or weakens their commitment to the firm. Using the employment data of 91 new venture teams that underwent a pivot, we examine how the sudden changes that are brought about affect the stability of the team in the 12-weeks leading up to and following their occurrence. In doing so we help integrate the literature on NVT turnover and entrepreneurial bonding, and provide a fuller distribution of the outcomes that accompany new venture pivots.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"23 ","pages":"Article e00518"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143478535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Too nice, but not too wise: The curvilinear effects of employee orientation on new venture performance","authors":"Myeongho David Park , Shawn L. Berman","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00519","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00519","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the mechanisms of stakeholder management within the context of entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on a primary stakeholder group: employees. We propose a novel curvilinear relationship between employee orientation and new venture performance and further explore the moderating role of entrepreneurial team human capital. Using longitudinal data from the Kauffman Firm Survey, we confirm the presence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between employee orientation and new venture performance. We also find that the human capital of entrepreneurial teams moderates this curvilinear relationship, shifting the optimal point of the curve toward a lower employee orientation. Our study contributes to the literature on the intersection of stakeholder management and entrepreneurship.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"23 ","pages":"Article e00519"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143419151","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hana Milanov , Katharina Prantl , Sheri Sheppard , Xiao Ge
{"title":"“I could, but why should I?”: Entrepreneurial women's career pathways and how founding fits in (or doesn't)","authors":"Hana Milanov , Katharina Prantl , Sheri Sheppard , Xiao Ge","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00516","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00516","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Why do highly qualified women with entrepreneurial self-efficacy choose not to pursue tech-venture founding? We adopt a career-perspective and interview 17 female Stanford engineering graduates—women who possess high entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), educational prestige, access to Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial networks, and who already overcame hurdles associated with entering and succeeding in a gender-incongruent setting. Despite these seemingly uniform conditions for tech entrepreneurship, we reveal four distinct career pathways: Skill Hunters, Life Masters, Strategists, and Idealists. While Skill Hunters remain attracted to entrepreneurship, the other groups are disillusioned with it, despite having experience as corporate entrepreneurs, business owners, and founders of not-for-profits. Our findings demonstrate how (in)congruency of women's career principles and context-based entrepreneurial outcome expectations shapes their entrepreneurial engagement.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"23 ","pages":"Article e00516"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143172158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sexual harassment by multiple stakeholders in entrepreneurship: The case of Japan","authors":"Takanori Kashino","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00517","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00517","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sexual harassment in entrepreneurial contexts remains a critical yet underexplored issue. While workplace harassment in traditional employment settings has been widely researched, little is known about how power dynamics and cultural norms shape the sexual harassment risks faced by entrepreneurs. To address this gap, we conducted an exploratory study within Japan's entrepreneurial context, where cultural norms and limited institutional protections create distinct vulnerabilities. Through an anonymous online survey of 197 participants (105 of whom identified as female entrepreneurs), we collected both quantitative and qualitative data. We found that 52.4% of female entrepreneurs reported experiencing sexual harassment by multiple stakeholders in the past year. Investors emerged as the primary perpetrators (43.2% of cases), followed by customers, mentors, and members of entrepreneurial support organizations. Qualitative insights suggest that power asymmetries, especially in funding and mentorship relationships—create unique vulnerabilities for entrepreneurs to sexual harassment that differ from those in a traditional workplace. Our study not only advances research on Japanese entrepreneurship, but also provides actionable insights for other contexts with similar cultural and institutional barriers. These findings can inform efforts to combat gender stereotypes and strengthen legal protections against harassment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"23 ","pages":"Article e00517"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143172212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Jingle bells and juggling stress: An IPA analysis of well-being and ill-being among market entrepreneurs in outdoor finnish christmas markets","authors":"Regina Casteleijn-Osorno , Linh Duong","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00515","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00515","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Christmas markets evoke joyful, emotional, and nostalgic impressions to just about everyone. But what about the people behind the booths? Through semi-structured interviews with six sellers and a market organizer in Finland, we apply an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach to illustrate that positive and detrimental effects on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being co-exist, addressing both physical and emotional stressors of entrepreneurs when selling at Christmas markets. Also, the results showcase well-being trade-offs that bring the sense of fulfillment when doing entrepreneurial activities. This study contributes to entrepreneurship well-being research and research concerning societal implications to the market seller community.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"23 ","pages":"Article e00515"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143172211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Esther Salvi , Diana M. Hechavarria , Daniela Gimenez-Jimenez
{"title":"Opportunity amidst explosions: How armed conflicts spark informal entrepreneurship in emerging economies","authors":"Esther Salvi , Diana M. Hechavarria , Daniela Gimenez-Jimenez","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00514","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00514","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Armed conflicts, such as a surge in bombings, shelling, and other violent outbreaks, dramatically affect national economies and business activities. This article aims to merge the previously separate research streams on foreign direct investment (FDI) and informal entrepreneurship, illustrating how these elements interact within the context of armed conflict. Utilizing data from eight emerging economies over 16 years, we construct a two-step mediation model to demonstrate that increased armed conflict reduces FDI, enabling informal entrepreneurship. Our study offers two important insights: First, it introduces a novel perspective on armed conflict as an external enabler of informal entrepreneurship. Second, it uncovers three pivotal mechanisms—<em>legitimation, demand substitution,</em> and <em>resource access</em>—through which the decline in FDI resulting from armed conflict intensification stimulates informal entrepreneurial activity. The findings of this study contribute not only to academic discourse at the intersection of international business and entrepreneurship, but also provide practical insights that are essential for shaping policies, guiding international business strategies, and fostering economic resilience in regions affected by violence and instability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"23 ","pages":"Article e00514"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143172210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Empirical entrepreneurial ecosystem research: A guide to creating multilevel datasets","authors":"Sophia Hess","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00511","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00511","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) are multilevel phenomena crucial for understanding and promoting productive entrepreneurship and economic development. The key insight of this study is that there is an actionable path to build and manage multilevel, longitudinal datasets for EE research, facilitating deeper insights into patterns and dynamics across different levels—often missed in single-source and cross-sectional data studies. It guides the integration of data spanning founders, firms, and socio-economic indicators from diverse sources, including archival records and self-reported data. Combining and triangulating these sources fills a significant methodological gap, supporting robust empirical EE analyses and enabling evidence-based policy formulation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"23 ","pages":"Article e00511"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142748326","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The myth of entrepreneurship as a tool: Reorienting business venturing as a goal in itself in a post-growth society","authors":"Leonardo Mazzoni , Wim Naudé , Niccolò Innocenti","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00512","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00512","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>An enduring myth is of entrepreneurship as <em>the</em> means to the goal of economic growth. With a growing realization that perpetual economic growth and firm growth are not sustainable and violate the planet's biophysical limits, entrepreneurship should focus on contributing to a post-growth society. However, in this paper, we argue that the problems with this are twofold: one, the notions of a post-growth society are not at present compatible with entrepreneurship, and two, such an orientation continues to consider entrepreneurship as a means to a goal - in other words as a tool to fix the problems caused by excessive economic growth. In this light, we call for a de-emphasis on entrepreneurship as a means to economic growth and for more research and policies towards business venturing as a goal. Such a reorientation may also provide a basis for conceptualizing entrepreneurship in a post-growth society.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"23 ","pages":"Article e00512"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142748422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}