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Action-orientation is portrayed as key for entrepreneurship. To understand the conditions under which action-orientation is indeed favourable for entrepreneurs, we introduce the personality-systems-interaction (PSI) theory to entrepreneurship research. PSI theory distinguishes action- versus state-orientation and explains how both dispositions influence an entrepreneur’s cognition (including goals), emotional reactions and the resulting behaviour. It provides a novel basis for understanding individual differences in persistence and progression through the venture creation process. Based on the tenets of PSI theory, we develop propositions to explain how action-oriented versus state-oriented individuals respond differently to the demands of the entrepreneurial process.

The assessment of the toxicity of airborne nanofibers is an important task. It relies on toxicological inhalation studies and validated exposure measurement techniques. Both require nanofiber-containing aerosols of known morphological composition and controlled fraction of individual fibers. Here, a dry powder dispersion method is presented that operates with mixtures of nanofibers and microscale beads. Aerosolization experiments of mixtures of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and glass beads that were continuously fed into a Venturi nozzle enabled high generation rates of aerosols composed of individual and agglomerate nanofiber structures. The aerosol process achieved good stability over more than 2 h with respect to concentration and aerodynamic size distribution. Its operation duration is limited only by the reservoir volume of the cyclone used to separate the beads from the aerosol. The aerosol concentration can be controlled by changing the mass ratio of MWCNTs and glass beads or by adapting the mass feed rate to the nozzle. For two agglomerated MWCNT materials, aerosol concentrations ranged from 1700 to 64,000 nano-objects per cm3. Comprehensive scanning electron microscope analysis of filter samples was performed to categorize and determine the morphological composition of the aerosol, its fiber content as well as fiber length and diameter distributions. High fractions of individual fibers of up to 34% were obtained, which shows the setup to be capable of dispersing also highly tangled MWCNT agglomerates effectively. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s11051-018-4262-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Given recent developments in information technology and intellectual property (IP) legislation, technology firms may benefit from an integrated IP strategy that combines patenting with strategic disclosure. This article presents a series of cases that introduce various aspects of strategic disclosure and provide a framework for how and when such practices may be merited as part of an integrated IP strategy. To help CEOs decide on the economics and efficiency of the practice, practical guidelines are provided for when it might be a useful complement to the firm's other IP management practices.

The transition from a founder-led start-up to a professionally managed firm entails significant change in the firm’s organizational design. This often constitutes a critical juncture for employee morale, with the risk of losing key talent. We posit that limiting the disruptive effect of changing organizational structures requires organizational members to not only adopt new roles and procedures but also change their cognitive representations regarding how the firm operates. We use an inductive multi-case study to explore changes in interpretive schemes of key organizational logics and the presence of catalysts that guide cognitive change during a founder-CEO succession. By contrasting our case material with exogenous employee satisfaction data, we develop testable propositions about key conditions that allow maintaining company morale during structural change of entrepreneurial organizations., Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018 (1), ISSN:0065-0668, ISSN:2151-6561, ISSN:1543-8643, ISSN:0896-7911

Despite calls to integrate opportunity formation into our understanding of entrepreneurial action, the opportunity discovery model continues to dominate scholarship and practice. Current research on entrepreneurial action assumes that the core challenge for entrepreneurs is the problem of running search calculations to discover an opportunity. This paper offers an alternative account of entrepreneurial action, suggesting that the core challenge lies, instead, in the creation and integration of the agent’s venture into the fabric of social reality. We describe a framework for understanding how this is done, and discuss its implications for theory development, practice, and pedagogy.

Recent research has produced concern about incongruence (the gap between conveyed and actual decision rationale) in strategic opportunity evaluation. Such incongruence can lead to inefficient decision-making, ineffective learning and will subsequently have performance implications in the entrepreneurial process. In this article we build on cognitive theory to investigate individual differences in opportunity-related decisions incongruence. Our assertion is that decision congruence is in large part based on the salience of the decision makers’ opportunity schema—formed through cognitive entrenchment—that is facilitated or impeded by individuals' images of self. In a study on 146 individuals with in total 7,008 opportunity decisions we investigate how images of vulnerability and capability affect opportunity decision congruence. The results indicate that the images of vulnerability negatively impact congruent decision making, while images of capability have a U-shaped effect on decision incongruence. Our findings extend prior literature on cognitive reasoning in opportunity evaluation and entrepreneurial expertise., Academy of Management Proceedings, 2014 (1), ISSN:0065-0668, ISSN:2151-6561, ISSN:1543-8643, ISSN:0896-7911

The procedural requirements and the high cost of the patenting process often cause innovative SMEs to deplete their resources and act as a barrier to obtain property rights, both of which may poten...

We examine how entrepreneurial managers direct and orchestrate growth-induced organizational change through an inductive, longitudinal study of six new ventures. Taking on a cognitive perspective, ...

The procedural requirements and the high cost of the patenting process often cause innovative SMEs to deplete their resources and act as a barrier to obtain property rights, both of which may poten...

In this paper we use data from the 2012 Innovation Strategy Survey (485 responses) to compare motives and choices with respect to IP strategy in firms with sizes ranging from micro to very large. Our results confirm significant differences across firm size when it comes to strategic goals, availability of means to deal with open innovation environments, the ability to generate licensing revenues, as well as the in the practice and motivations for the use of non-patenting disclosure. We find, for example, that the potential of licensing as a means of appropriating value only holds in the context of the very large firms, which has implications for the IP strategy of smaller actors. Likewise, we also begin to see a pattern emerging concerning the openness of firms’ innovation strategy wherein the extremes of the firm-size scale tend to express similar behavior but for apparently different reasons; thus they apply differing IP strategies. By our interpretation, smaller firms exhibit a predominant preference for open IP strategies while very large firms tend to exhibit more closed IP strategies. We also find that the majority of firms—in particular micro-sized firms—is interested in securing freedom to operate. This provides further reason for us to believe that the practice of strategic disclosure—a competitive and cost effective means to enhance freedom to operate—is underrepresented in awareness and use within integrated IP strategies.

We examine the impact of globally diverse market operations on a firm’s choice to openly disclose some of its technology. We suggest that this strategic disclosure offers solutions to specific needs in the commercialization strategy of globally operating firms where exclusivity or secrecy may not offer the best protections. Our empirical findings indicate that with greater market diversity a firm’s tendency to strategically disclose increases. The availability of complementary assets and the type of innovation moderate this relationship. We discuss our findings and explore the potential of non-patent disclosure to protect market options for a growing group of globally operating firms that are not multi-billion dollar operations.