Search results for: Robert A. Baron

Items from 1 to 19 out of 19 results

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Regulatory Modes and Entrepreneurship: The Mediational Role of Alertness in Small Business Success

Clara Amato, Robert A. Baron, Barbara Barbieri, Jocelyn J. Bélanger, more

Journal of Small Business Management > 55 > S1 > 27 - 42

Previous studies suggest that entrepreneurs play a key role in the success of their ventures. But relatively little is currently known about how they produce such effects. The present research provides data suggesting that two modes of entrepeneurs’ self‐regulation—locomotion and assessment—enhance a firm's success through their effects on the components of alertness. This mediational model was tested...

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Self-efficacy and entrepreneurs' adoption of unattainable goals: The restraining effects of self-control

Robert A. Baron, Brandon A. Mueller, Marcus T. Wolfe

Journal of Business Venturing > 2016 > 31 > 1 > 55-71

Goal setting theory suggests that difficult goals enhance performance on many tasks. When goals are so difficult as to be unattainable, however, they may generate discouragement and reduced motivation, with the result that performance, too, is decreased. Previous research indicates that entrepreneurs are high in self-efficacy and, as a result, may tend to set goals that are so difficult that they...

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Bringing Political Skill into Social Networks: Findings from a Field Study of Entrepreneurs

Ruolian Fang, Lei Chi, Manli Chen, Robert A. Baron

Journal of Management Studies > 52 > 2 > 175 - 212

The authors integrate the entrepreneurship literature's sociological and behavioural perspectives and examine the processes through which entrepreneurs first build social networks and then use the network resources for enhancing venture performance. Field interviews of entrepreneurs during a six‐month period reveal that political skill is an important individual‐level factor that influences the construction...

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Personal Motives, Moral Disengagement, and Unethical Decisions by Entrepreneurs: Cognitive Mechanisms on the “Slippery Slope”

Robert A. Baron, Hao Zhao, Qing Miao

Journal of Business Ethics > 2015 > 128 > 1 > 107-118

Entrepreneurs sometimes make unethical decisions that have devastating effects on their companies, stakeholders, and themselves. We suggest that insights into the origins of such actions can be acquired through attention to personal motives and their impact on moral disengagement—a cognitive process that deactivates moral self-regulation, thus enabling individuals to behave in ways inconsistent with...

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Entrepreneurship in Innovation Ecosystems: Entrepreneurs' Self‐Regulatory Processes and Their Implications for New Venture Success

Satish Nambisan, Robert A. Baron

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice > 37 > 5 > 1071 - 1097

Innovation ecosystems have emerged as an important context for entrepreneurship. Ecosystem entrepreneurs, however, face a unique set of challenges associated with the need to balance the goals and priorities set by the ecosystem leader with the goals and priorities of the new venture. We focus on ecosystem entrepreneurs' self‐regulatory processes and the potential role of these processes in entrepreneurs'...

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Entrepreneurs' dispositional positive affect: The potential benefits – and potential costs – of being “up”

Robert A. Baron, Keith M. Hmieleski, Rebecca A. Henry

Journal of Business Venturing > 2012 > 27 > 3 > 310-324

Dispositional positive affect (DPA) – the stable tendency to experience positive moods and emotions – has been found to be related to several beneficial outcomes (e.g., enhanced career success, development of high quality social relationships, improved personal health). Evidence on this issue is not entirely consistent, however, and high levels of dispositional positive affect have sometimes been...

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The role of entrepreneurs in firm-level innovation: Joint effects of positive affect, creativity, and environmental dynamism

Robert A. Baron, Jintong Tang

Journal of Business Venturing > 2011 > 26 > 1 > 49-60

Innovation is often a crucial ingredient in new venture success but at present, we know relatively little about the role of individual entrepreneurs in encouraging its occurrence. The present research addressed this issue by investigating the joint effects, on firm-level innovation, of two variables pertaining to entrepreneurs (their creativity and positive affect) and a key environmental variable...

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Job design and entrepreneurship: Why closer connections = mutual gains

Robert A. Baron

Journal of Organizational Behavior > 31 > 2‐3 > 370 - 378

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Does experience in starting new ventures change the way entrepreneurs think? Perhaps, but for now, “Caution” is essential

Robert A. Baron

Journal of Business Venturing > 2009 > 24 > 4 > 310-315

The preceding paper by Wiltbank et al. reports that highly successful and experienced entrepreneurs rely, to a greater degree than novices (MBA students), on effectual logic. This finding raises a key question: Why do these two groups differ? The authors imply that this difference is the result of entrepreneurs' experience in starting new ventures. This is a reasonable suggestion but unfortunately,...

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Social sources of information in opportunity recognition: Effects of mentors, industry networks, and professional forums

Eren Ozgen, Robert A. Baron

Journal of Business Venturing > 2007 > 22 > 2 > 174-192

Effects on opportunity recognition of three social sources of opportunity-related information (mentors, informal industry networks, participation in professional forums) were investigated. Results indicated that all three sources had direct, positive effects on opportunity recognition by entrepreneurs. In addition, the effects of two sources (mentors and professional forums) were mediated by schema...

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Interactions in virtual customer environments: Implications for product support and customer relationship management

Satish Nambisan, Robert A. Baron

Journal of Interactive Marketing > 2007 > 21 > 2 > 42-62

Virtual customer environments (VCE), which provide services ranging from online discussion forums to virtual design toolkits, enable firms to involve their customers in innovation and value creation. Evidently, companies can benefit from operating such VCEs; however, most firms do not seem to attach sufficient importance to the nature of customers’ interactions in the VCE. In this study, we examine...

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The cognitive perspective: a valuable tool for answering entrepreneurship's basic ''why'' questions

Robert A. Baron

Journal of Business Venturing > 2004 > 19 > 2 > 221-239

It is suggested that a cognitive perspective may provide important insights into key aspects of the entrepreneurial process. Specifically, it is proposed that this perspective-which has yielded impressive results in many other fields-can help the field of entrepreneurship to answer three basic questions it has long addressed: (1) Why do some persons but not others choose to become entrepreneurs? (2)...

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Potential benefits of the cognitive perspective: expanding entrepreneurship's array of conceptual tools

Robert A. Baron

Journal of Business Venturing > 2004 > 19 > 2 > 169-172

Entrepreneurship is a highly complex process influenced by an enormous range of variables. In view of these facts, it seems reasonable to suggest that entrepreneurship, as a field, can benefit greatly from expanding the array of conceptual tools at its disposal. The cognitive perspective provides a potentially rich source of such tools. Consistent with this reasoning, the papers in this special issue...

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VCs' decision processes - Evidence suggesting more experience may not always be better

Dean A. Shepherd, Andrew Zacharakis, Robert A. Baron

Journal of Business Venturing > 2003 > 18 > 3 > 381-401

Decision-making processes employed by venture capitalists (VCs) varying in experience were compared. Results show that for relatively inexperienced VCs, increasing experience is associated with improvements in reliability and performance relative to a benchmark (a bootstrapping model). Beyond a specific point, however, further gains in experience are associated with actual reductions in reliability...

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Human resource management and entrepreneurship: some reciprocal benefits of closer links

Robert A. Baron

Human Resource Management Review > 2003 > 13 > 2 > 253-256

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Person-entrepreneurship fit: why some people are more successful as entrepreneurs than others

Gideon D. Markman, Robert A. Baron

Human Resource Management Review > 2003 > 13 > 2 > 281-301

Person-organization fit research suggests that the closer the match between individuals' attitudes, values, knowledge, skills, abilities, and personality, the better their job satisfaction and performance. We suggest that the closer the match between entrepreneurs' personal characteristics and the requirements of being an entrepreneur (e.g., creating new companies by transforming discoveries into...

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Beyond social capital: the role of entrepreneurs' social competence in their financial success

Robert A. Baron, Gideon D. Markman

Journal of Business Venturing > 2003 > 18 > 1 > 41-60

Two studies investigated the hypothesis that the higher entrepreneurs' social competence (their ability to interact effectively with others as based on discrete social skills), the greater their financial success. Entrepreneurs working in two different industries (cosmetics and high-tech) completed a questionnaire designed to measure several aspects of their social competence (e.g., accuracy in perceiving...