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}
{"title":"Self-employment and inflammation in older adults: Examining biomarkers in the survey of health, ageing and retirement in Europe","authors":"Pankaj C. Patel , Marcus T. Wolfe","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00510","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00510","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Previous studies using SHARE data explored self-employment and perceived well-being in older adults, and extending this line of prior studies, this study examines the link between self-employment and inflammation, a key biological pathway related to health and well-being. Incorporating C-reactive protein (CRP) levels from SHARE biomarker data assesses whether perceived self-reports correlate with longer-term biomarkers of well-being. Accounting for demographic, socioeconomic, health, and other biomarker variables, our findings show a non-significant relationship between self-employment and CRP levels, with no evidence of heterogeneity in effects across participants.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"23 ","pages":"Article e00510"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142701675","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}
Sepideh Yeganegi , André O. Laplume , Bradley Bernard
{"title":"Not all leavers are equal: How rank and destination influence enforcement of restrictive covenants","authors":"Sepideh Yeganegi , André O. Laplume , Bradley Bernard","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00505","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00505","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Restrictive covenants like non-competes, non-solicitations, and non-disclosures may pose barriers to spinout ventures and mobility to competitors. However, we know little about the enforceability of these agreements despite their widespread use and associated chilling effects. Examining 332 Canadian court decisions, we find a higher rate of enforcement in cases involving high rank leavers (i.e., managers and owners) versus low rank leavers (regular employees and contractors) especially those who form spinout ventures. Our key insight is that enforcement rates differ significantly across different types of leavers. Low rank leavers and their previous employers may overestimate the potential for enforcement, creating chilling effects (i.e., where employees think they are more restricted by their employment agreements than they really are) that can deter employee mobility and entrepreneurship.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"23 ","pages":"Article e00505"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142701674","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}
Wolfgang Drobetz , Sadok El Ghoul , Omrane Guedhami , Jan P. Hackmann , Paul P. Momtaz
{"title":"Entrepreneurial finance and sustainability: Do institutional investors impact the ESG performance of SMEs?","authors":"Wolfgang Drobetz , Sadok El Ghoul , Omrane Guedhami , Jan P. Hackmann , Paul P. Momtaz","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00498","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00498","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Institutional investors improve the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Our difference-in-differences framework shows that the backing from private equity and venture capital funds leads to an increase in SMEs’ externally validated ESG scores compared to their matched non-investor-backed peers. Consistent with “ESG-as-insurance” theory, the ESG performance of SMEs with a higher probability of failure is more likely to benefit from the backing of institutional investors. This positive effect is heterogeneous; while SMEs with high ex-ante ESG performance further improve their ESG performance following institutional investor backing, SMEs with low ex-ante ESG performance are unlikely to implement any improvements. Entrepreneurial finance seems to help sustainable entrepreneurs transform into “sustainability champions,” while neglecting the betterment of non-sustainable SMEs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"22 ","pages":"Article e00498"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142552941","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":"Overcharged or fair play? Exploring interest rates and profitability in debt-based crowdfunding","authors":"Ehsan Ghasemi , Nima Vafai , Alireza Sheikh-Zadeh","doi":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00508","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00508","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":38078,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Venturing Insights","volume":"22 ","pages":"Article e00508"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142697836","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}