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This Article addresses the potentially negative implications of proposed antitrust legislation on the entrepreneurial ecosystem in general, with a particular focus on the venture capitalists (VCs) that fund it. First, it offers a review of how antitrust merger law currently works and how proposed legislative changes to antitrust may threaten the innovative Venture Capital (VC)-backed ecosystem that has made the United States the center of global innovation across many different industries. Accompanying this review are some empirical observations. Second, recognizing that the understanding of innovative entrepreneurial activity calls for a deep appreciation of those who back it, the Article also provides an overview of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and VCs' motivations within this niche environment. In so doing, the Article identifies the drivers of entrepreneurial innovation and explains why changes to merger law may threaten these models of facilitating innovative, growth-orientated entrepreneurs. Finally, the Article concludes that changes to merger law may negatively affect the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem and hinder innovation in the United States., TABLE OF CONTENTS I INTRODUCTION 256 II ANTITRUST MERGER LAW 258 III WHY DOES EXIT VIA ACQUISITION MATTER TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP? 262 IV A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE BUSINESS MODEL OF [...]

Research Summary: As the study of entrepreneurship advances, our appreciation for the role of theory in the development of the field has grown. In this paper, we build on our collective experiences to offer a peek into the inner workings of entrepreneurship theorizing, using specific examples to highlight ways of developing theoretical insights for advancing entrepreneurship research. Our journeys suggest an iterative process centered on asking an important and interesting question, challenging prevailing assumptions, understanding context and phenomenon, and developing conceptual models and analyses. We focus on the uniqueness of entrepreneurial phenomena, contexts, and actors as well as the interdisciplinary nature of the field. Managerial Summary: Entrepreneurship as a scholarly field has reached a stage of maturity where we need to think more carefully about our contribution to theory. Theory enriches managerial parctice. We offer helpful and actionable suggestions to develop and share rich theoerical insights that inform schaolrship and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that most ventures fail, yet there has been limited work on investors' views of entrepreneurs who have failed in the past. We address this gap and call attention to an innate asymmetry between past failure and success. This asymmetry arises because success requires skill and luck jointly, whereas failure materializes due to either lack of skill (mistakes) or bad luck (misfortune). We ask: Are investors "failure-averse" and discount a failed entrepreneur even in the presence of additional information about entrepreneurial skill? Or do they make "rational inferences" in light of the additional skill information and proceed to fund the new startup? To test whether investors are failure-averse or engage in rational inference, we use experiments in the context of equity crowdfunding. The results suggest that prospective crowdfunding investors rationally integrate informational cues regarding past outcomes and entrepreneurial skill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of experts has been called into question recently. Scholarly works debate whether expert judgement is given excessive reliance on innovation, science, and entrepreneurial decision-making. Increasingly, there are arguments that managers, founders, and funders would be better off relying on randomisation to a much higher degree. This article sheds light on the integration of randomisation in decision-making, presenting the pros and cons of expert advice, on the one hand, and randomisation, on the other hand. The discussion goes beyond the Expert – Randomisation dichotomy and lays the foundation for thinking about decision-making in the modern era, and specifically the role of Artificial Intelligence. This Version: 5 November2023 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on investment decisions in nascent, seed-stage startups, where information is scarce and uncertainty is intense. Entrepreneurship literature has shown that investment is a function of the investor-startup pair; some studies have investigated startup characteristics, while others have focused on investor traits. We complement extant work by studying factors beyond the investor-startup pair; namely, incidental contextual factors such as changes in the physical environment. Drawing on affect-asinformation theory, we conjecture that, in the face of intense uncertainty, sunnier days may affect investors' mood and result in a greater likelihood of investment. Archival and experimental analyses inform our predictions. The former utilizes proprietary data on 1,335 startups graduating from European accelerators. Every accelerator holds a "Demo Day," where startups pitch to investors. We find that graduating on a sunnier day increases the likelihood of investment. This effect is stronger under intense uncertainty, where (a) startups are nascent, or (b) founders have limited human capital. An experimental study where prospective investors evaluate a Demo Day pitch yields further insights. We find a positive sunshine-investment association, and show that the association is mediated by investors' mood. Our findings complement extant work and contribute insights regarding seed-stage investment decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: The platform literature offers keen insights on the pricing and non-pricing strategies that transaction platforms undertake. We supplement this work by studying how platforms mix together their strategic choices and the association with platforms' performance. To that end, we focus on crowdfunding platforms; a prominent setting of transaction platforms. We present an inductive large-N study of the population of 788 crowdfunding platforms that operated in EU-15 countries up to 2018. Our contribution is threefold: (a) identifying common mixes of strategic choices; (b) tracking deviations from these mixes; and (c) associating these with platforms' survival and growth. We discuss our findings and how they advance knowledge at the intersection of the platform and strategic management literatures. Managerial Summary: Notable transaction-platforms such as eBay, LinkedIn, and Tencent have an aggregate market-value in the hundreds of billions of dollars. We know that platforms' success is driven by the strategic choices they undertake. Yet, we know less about how they mix together these choices and the association with platforms' performance. Our study addresses this gap by focusing on a prominent setting: crowdfunding. Using data on the population of 788 crowdfunding platforms in EU-15 countries, we show that these platforms cluster around three common mixes of strategic choices. Moreover, crowdfunding platforms do not strictly adhere to the strategy mix they are affiliated with. Interestingly, there is a positive association between the degree to which a platform's choices differentiate from its strategy mix and platform's subsequent performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the crowdfunding phenomenon has attracted considerable practitioner and scholarly attention, existing research predominantly reflects a U.S.-centric perspective. This article examines crowdfunding platform creation in 15 European countries. Despite the omnipresent reach of the internet, national boundaries shape the evolution of the European crowdfunding industry. Specifically, crowdfunding platform creation varies across countries and distinct national patterns emerge for crowdfunding activity in general. Moreover, econometric analyses suggest that country-level factors influence platform creation in European countries, with interesting variations across four crowdfunding models: Donation, Reward, Lending, and Equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What can other entrepreneurs and managers in general learn from those entrepreneurs who overcome crises productively? SYNOPSIS OF VSI ARTICLES: PART I The five papers that explore I Entrepreneurial Responses To Crisis i (Part I of the VSI), broadly speaking, fall into three categories according to the level of analysis on which they focus: the entrepreneur, the entrepreneurial firm, or the entrepreneurial team. The study thus presents evidence of entrepreneurial firms turning a disadvantage (i.e., a crisis and the increased labor market imperfections it brings) into an opportunity by strengthening firm-level capabilities through adjusting human resource practices. The COVID-19 crisis, and past research on entrepreneurship during times of crisis in particular, throw into sharp relief not only the challenges and opportunities experienced by entrepreneurs, but also the great potential for research opportunities on entrepreneurship and crises. [Extracted from the article]

Research Summary : This article invites scholars to reconsider how the evolution of entrepreneurial phenomena affects the underlying theories employed in our field. We highlight three themes affected by changes to the entrepreneurial journey nowadays in a way that can challenge some foundational research in each area. To that end, we engage in a dual conversation; explicitly revisiting extant theories, as well as deliberately seeking out practice insights on how behaviors and actions are changing. This approach provides fertile ground for future work to re‐examine the theoretical assumptions we often take for granted. Such investigation can either provide fresh evidence of the robustness of extant theory, or create new pathways of inquiry. For entrepreneurship scholars who are dedicated to researching innovation and progress in firms and individuals, this is an exciting time to create innovation and progress in our field. Managerial Summary : Has the entrepreneurial journey remained unchanged over the past decades? And if there have been substantive changes, what are they? And what are their implications? These are critical questions that talk to entrepreneurship scholars and practitioners alike. The purpose of this article is to encourage a dialogue among and across the two groups. We present dual theory‐practitioner conversations around three points of dialogue; the origin of entrepreneurial opportunity, organizing and scaling, and resource acquisition. In each case, we show that drawing on both the practice and academic community is important in identifying the value of extant theories and frameworks and where there are important opportunities for new frameworks and predictions. We believe that this kind of theory‐practitioner dialogue offers invaluable guidance to further advance our field. A video abstract is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7o9Yy-Vtzs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conditions under which firms are likely to pursue equity investment in new ventures as a way to source innovative ideas are explored. It is found that firms invest more in new ventures commonly referred to as corporate venture capital in industries with weak intellectual property protection and to some extent in industries with high technological ferment and where complementary distribution capability is important.

Equity financing in entrepreneurship primarily includes venture capital, corporate venture capital, angel investment, crowdfunding, and accelerators. We take stock of venture financing research to date with two main objectives: (a) to integrate, organize, and assess the large and disparate literature on venture financing; and (b) to identify key considerations relevant for the domain of venture financing moving forward. The net effect is that organizing and assessing existing research in venture financing will assist in launching meaningful, theory-driven research as existing funding models evolve and emerging funding models forge new frontiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gary Dushnitsky's latest research seeks to uncover the reality behind the much talked about emergence of crowdfunding as a means of funding everything from the Statue of Liberty to rock albums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can established companies harness the innovative power of entrepreneurial ventures? Corporate venture capital is increasingly the answer as more and more corporations use it as a key component of their innovation strategy. Gary Dushnitsky examines its resurgence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The market for knowledge has grown dramatically over the past decades. Extant work underscores the factors shaping market efficacy: (a) the cost of searching for innovative knowledge; (b) asymmetric-information between inventors and investors; and (c) the inherent difficulty in maintaining ownership over knowledge. Recently, market transactions have been taking place online, matching disperse owners (entrepreneurs or inventors), and seekers (investors or licensees), of knowledge. This phenomenon constitutes a sharp departure from past practices where transactions tend to materialize around one's social circle (e.g., venture capitalists' social ties). We investigate the drivers of market efficacy in a setting where social ties are not available ex-ante, and identify alternative market mechanisms that emerge in such settings. Using novel hand-collected data for 30 online knowledge marketplaces, we find overwhelming evidence of adverse-selection-mitigating mechanisms (e.g., screening through upfront fees and disclosure requirements). We discuss theoretical explanations that are consistent with the observed mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate venture capital (CVC) investments serve as interfirm relationships that enable established firms to tap into emerging technology markets. Nevertheless, firms may also leverage their strategic alliances to this end. Does alliance formation reinforce or attenuate a firm's tendency to invest in entrepreneurial ventures? We introduce a resource-based perspective whereby resource complementarity and network resource visibility prompt a reinforcing association between CVC investment and alliance formation. In turn, external resource redundancy and internal resource allocation constraints yield an attenuating effect of alliance formation on CVC investment. Analyzing the alliances and CVC investments of 372 software firms during the 1990s, we reconcile these opposing arguments by revealing an inverted U-shaped association between CVC investment and alliance formation. Accordingly, the number of CVC investments first increases, but then decreases, with the number of alliances formed. Moreover, the positive association between CVC investment and alliance formation diminishes as firms invest in their internal resource stocks, mature, and accumulate experience with prior CVC investments. We advance strategic entrepreneurship research by elucidating the tendency of established firms to engage in CVC investment and by unpacking the complex association between different types of interfirm relationships that these firms leverage. Copyright © 2010 Strategic Management Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gary Dushnitsky explores the realities of crowdfunding - from its four common forms to the continuing importance of friends, family and followers - with Dan Marom, co-author of The Crowdfunding Revolution [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented related to the corporate venture capital (VC) that provides funds to biotech startups and this shift in financing is associated with the output of scientific publications and patenting.

The pharmaceutical industry is the testing ground for a major shift in how entrepreneurial companies understand and utilise different sources of venture capital. Gary Dushnitsky ventures inside the lab. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented to a virtual special issue of the publication on the theme of entrepreneurial new business development activities within existing corporations.

The article discusses the shift in trend of capital funding from venture capitalists (VC) to corporate venture capitalists (CVC) for the biotechnology startups. It reports biotechnology companies to be a major source of innovations and cites the example of corporate funding of RaNA Therapeutics Inc. and Anchor Therapeutics Inc. It adds the innovation track of several biotechnology companies based on publications and patenting output and reports that the CVC-backed startups lead in innovations.

Gary Dushnitsky and Thomas Klueter, 'Is there an eBay for ideas? Insights from online knowledge marketplaces', European Management Review 8, no. 1, 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]