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In this study, we examine how gender stereotype biases affect the social support given to entrepreneurs by members of the digital entrepreneurial community. While entrepreneurship is a socially embedded activity, extant social support research in entrepreneurship remains scant. We hypothesize that in the digital entrepreneurial community, when entrepreneurs' conversation topics match their gender role (i.e., being a male and struggling with work-life balance or being a female and struggling with business difficulties), social media commenters' perceived gender role congruity tends to be higher, which in turn leads to a higher likelihood of providing social support. We also hypothesize that social media commenters' gender will moderate the relationship between entrepreneurs' gender and social media commenters' perceived gender role congruity. The results from three studies confirm our hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing big data requires the use of more powerful big data analytical techniques. The risk of not employing such techniques is that we misunderstand the true relationships in fundamental issues. In the study, we replicate and extend Evans and Leighton (1989) to revisit the entrepreneurial entry problem using a traditional logistic regression and one type of big data techniques -- random forests. Through comparing the discrepant findings of these two models, we assert the benefits of using contemporary approaches to handle big data in revisiting fundamental questions in entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that the matching model, which suggests individuals self-select themselves into a career in which they have relative advantages, may explain serial entrepreneurship. To test this theoretical argument, we propose to investigate the qualitative differences of prior entrepreneurial experience. In particular, we believe that prior entrepreneurial experience can be decomposed into three dimensions: (1) venture success experience (i.e., the extent to which an individuals' previous venture was financially successful), (2) venture managerial experience (i.e., managerial expertise individuals have developed through leadership experience in their previous entrepreneurial spell) and (3) venture industry experience (i.e., venture industry expertise individuals have developed specific to the target industry in their previous entrepreneurial spell). While some experience dimensions are more transferrable to wage employment (i.e., venture industry experience), leading to higher financial payoffs, some are more specific and useful in entrepreneurship (i.e., venture success experience and venture managerial experience). Individuals with more transferable experience may prefer to become wage-employed, but those with more specific experience may self-select to return to entrepreneurship. Testing from the sample of 16,888 entrepreneurs who were at risk of making a career choice between serial entrepreneurship or wage employment partially confirms this conjecture. Our study then provides a fine-grained view for the motivation of serial entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At least three challenges hinder the analysis of online WOM. First, the process of transform unstructured online WOM data can generate many variables, increasing the need for dimension reduction. Second, the volume and valence of online WOM may dramatically change in a short period before and after an incident. Third, important events might trigger symmetric or asymmetric reactions in online WOM across rival products or services. We introduce a new method--multi-view sequential canonical covariance analysis to solve the myriad WOM conversational dimensions, detect WOM dynamic trends, and examine its concurrent effects across multiple firms. This new method also provides greater computational efficiency, and thus can be referred as a more advanced manifold optimization approach. We illustrate the advantages of this new method through an empirical example--the 2017 United Express Flight 3411 incident. We find that United Airlines and its rivals all experienced a sudden increase of negative emotions and a sudden decrease of positive emotions because of the Incident, yet the magnitudes of the changes were more dramatic for United Airlines. This new method provides a novel insight into the online WOM dynamics and can contribute to a wide range of fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that the standard statistical models commonly used by management scholars to investigate the relationship between prior entrepreneurial experience and the probability of switching into entrepreneurship from wage employment are less capable of unveiling the true relationship, especially in the context of big data. In particular, because the immense volume of data means that almost everything can be significant, the statistical significance relying on p-values may not imply economic significance. In addition, in the context of big data, more flexible relationships than simple linear relationships (linear, curvilinear, cubic, etc.) are possible, yet the standard statistical models that pre-specify the linear relationships between the independent and dependent variables lack the capability of detecting such relationships. To illuminate these concerns, we re-visit this important relationship using two different models: logistic regression - a standard statistical model commonly used by management scholars, and random forests - a powerful machine learning tool for analyzing big data. Through comparing the discrepant findings of these two models, we assert the benefits of using contemporary approaches to handle big data in re- visiting fundamental questions in management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building from human capital theory, we investigate the relative financial payoffs to prior entrepreneurial experience inside versus outside the entrepreneurial context. Testing from the sample of 26,235 entrepreneurs who were at risk of making a career choice between serial entrepreneurship or wage employment, we find that greater prior entrepreneurial experience leads to a higher financial payoff in wage employment than in serial entrepreneurship, implying that the financial payoffs to prior entrepreneurial experience can be extended, and much higher, outside the entrepreneurial context. Our findings hold a host of novel implications for understanding the motivation of entrepreneurship and also add to the research of serial entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies on microfinance institutions (MFIs) have mainly focused on one-on-one relationship between micro loans and the MFI client's entrepreneurial activity and provided inconclusive findings. Drawing on research on the social capital perspective, this study aims to provide new insights in the role of MFIs in entrepreneurship. We suggest that MFIs and their clients create social capital in a country and further argue that social capital from the microfinance community can improve an individual's opportunity-motivated entrepreneurship in developing countries. We also propose that the relationship is influenced by both individual and institutional factors. For Empirical results based on a sample of 66,953 observations across 33 countries show that microfinance community helps individuals identify and exploit business opportunities. We also find that the relationship becomes stronger for women and when a country has a higher level of gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop the thesis that the relationship between CEO stock ownership and at-IPO discretionary earnings management is U-shaped, with too little stock ownership being as bad for reducing earnings management as is too much stock ownership. We also argue that ownership dispersion within the firm's board moderates the relationship. When firm ownership is evenly dispersed within director groups, the U-shaped relationship will become inverted-U due to board monitoring and reduced CEO power. Conversely, when ownership is not evenly dispersed, we expect that ownership concentration in the VC will especially strengthen the U-shaped association. Testing from a sample of 266 firms that completed an IPO provides support for the thesis and the associated hypotheses. Our theory and findings hold a host of novel implications for understanding the consequences of CEO as well as director stock ownership on managerial opportunism in various organizational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While prior studies have explored the impact of CEO share ownership on IPO firm survival, the mixed findings imply that the association is far more complicated than a simple, direct relationship. We use the lens of agency theory to propose an important underlying mechanism - at-IPO discretionary earnings management and evaluate whether it channels the association between CEO share ownership and IPO firm survival. We also suggest that board members representing different principal groups may have varying motivation to monitor at the IPO stage. The levels of director monitoring supported by respective shareholdings therefore will affect the magnitude of CEOs' share ownership impact. Using a sample of 269 entrepreneurial firms that completed an IPO from 2001 to 2007, our results reveal that: (1) CEO share ownership has a U-shaped relationship with at-IPO discretionary earnings management; (2) CVC/BA/Founder directors share ownership moderates this association while VC director share ownership does not; and (3) at-IPO discretionary earnings management mediates the effects of CEO share ownership on IPO firm survival. These findings provide a more complete view of the impact of CEO share ownership on IPO firm survival and also have important implications for understanding entrepreneurial corporate governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As CEO tenure, which is defined as CEO's time in office, is one of the important attributes regarding managers, management scholars have searched the answers for this over-time impact on firm performance. Yet, prior studies have rendered mixed results on the relationship between CEO tenure and firm performance. Furthermore, while some studies have examined the impacts of CEO tenure under heterogeneous environments, less attention has been paid to alternative contingent influences, such as corporate governance and agency issues. Therefore, a more comprehensive study that explores the CEO tenure/firm performance relationship and conducts deeper contingent analyses is needed. Drawing on resource-based view and agency theory, we use a meta-analytical approach to answer the following questions: (1) how does CEO tenure relate to firm performance; (2) how does governance structure influence the above relationship. Using a sample of 195 studies, we find that CEO tenure is positively related to firm performance. We also find that CEO founder status, CEO ownership, and outsider director ownership intensify the CEO tenure/firm performance relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agency theorists attribute discretionary earnings management to the misaligned interests between CEOs (agent) and shareholders (principal). They suggest that CEOs have direct incentives to manipulate their firms' financial reports since they are compensated and evaluated based on firm performance. In addition, the extent of manipulation will be greater when CEOs have indirect incentives (e.g., prestige), have power of governance control (e.g., a dual CEO/Chair), or face less effective board monitoring (e.g., a higher proportion of insiders). When shareholders make non-optimal decisions based on misleading financial reports, agency costs arise. While prior studies have examined discretionary earnings management in a variety of contexts, the majority of them have focused on matured firms. Less attention has been paid to young entrepreneurial firms where CEOs are financially and psychologically attached to the firms. Moreover, as the separation of ownership and control is reduced, unexpected principal problem may emerge due to the diverse interests of heterogeneous principal groups. Board members that represent different principal groups may have varying motivation to monitor and render divergent impacts on CEOs' involvement in discretionary earnings management. Thus, earnings management related agency problem, as illustrated by prior studies, may not be germane in the entrepreneurial context. Using a sample of 149 young entrepreneurial firms, our study investigates how CEOs' involvement in at-IPO discretionary earnings management is affected by CEO power as well as two important board members - VC directors and founder directors. Our theory and findings demonstrate that if CEOs have a high level of ownership power, they are less likely to manipulate firm earnings. In addition, this negative relationship will be stronger when they have higher structural or prestige power. Meanwhile, VC directors and founder directors exhibit divergent impacts on CEOs' involvement in at-IPO discretionary earnings management. Our study enriches agency theory by extending its implications to young entrepreneurial firms. It also provides important insights into at-IPO discretionary earnings management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]