Organ Entrepreneurs

The supply of human organs for transplantation might seem an unlikely place to begin thinking about entrepreneurship. After all, there is no production market for human organs and, with the surprising exception of Iran, legal rules around the world make the sale of human organs for transplantation a criminal offense. Yet entrepreneurs have been present throughout the history of organ transplantation — a history of the active exploration, innovation, and management of a potentially very controversial exchange at the seemingly clear boundaries that separate giving from selling, life from death, and right from wrong. This article explores the role of entrepreneurial activity in the organ transplantation industry, with the goal of showing how the specific case helps us understand the more general phenomenon of innovation in the shadow of the law, and the role of reciprocity and gift exchange in that process. We begin with a more general point about the connection between structures of exchange and their social legitimacy, illustrating it with a familiar current case from the (conventionally entrepreneurial) world of the “sharing economy”. We then describe three innovations in the world of organ transplantation, discussing the legitimation problems faced by innovators in each case, and the strategies they have drawn on. First, Kidney Paired Donation (KPD), one of the first entrepreneurial attempts to bridge the gap between kidney supply and demand, allows patients with willing, but biologically incompatible donors, to “swap” with a similarly situated pair. Second, Non-simultaneous, Extended Altruistic Donor chains (or “NEAD” chains), removed the simultaneity constraint imposed by KPD, allowing more flexibility and a greater number of transplants, but also inserting the possibility of strategic behavior by donor-recipient pairs. Finally, we consider the most recent innovation, Advanced Donation, in which a donor donates a kidney before her paired recipient has been matched to a specific donor or scheduled for surgery, creating new challenges and risks

Space and social capital : The degree of locality in entrepreneurs' contacts and its consequences for firm success

Social capital is valuable for entrepreneurs starting a business. Although many small businesses are located at the entrepreneurs’ dwelling, little is known about entrepreneurs’ local ties and their relevance for firm success. Distinguishing between local and non-local social capital, this contribution looks at the following: (1) The availability of local social capital (2) The relation between social capital and local social capital, and characteristics of firms and entrepreneurs (3) The relation between social capital and local social capital and firm performance. Analysing data from the Survey of the Social Networks of Entrepreneurs, which contains information on entrepreneurs and their networks in 141 Dutch neighbourhoods, this study finds a positive relation between social capital and firm performance.

Comparative social capital: Networks of entrepreneurs and investors in China and Russia

Most studies on entrepreneurs’ networks incorporate social capital and networks as independent variables that affect entrepreneurs’ actions and its outcomes. By contrast, this article examines social capital of the Chinese and Russian entrepreneurs and venture capitalists as dependent variables, and it examines entrepreneurs’ social capital from the perspectives of institutional theory and cultural theory. The empirical data are composed of structured telephone interviews with 159 software entrepreneurs, and the data of 124 venture capital decisions in Beijing and Moscow. The study found that social networks of the Chinese entrepreneurs are smaller in size, denser in structure, and more homogeneous in composition compared to networks of the Russian entrepreneurs due to the institutional and cultural differences between the two countries. Furthermore, the study revealed that dyadic (two-person) ties are stronger and interpersonal trust is greater in China than in Russia. The research and practical implications are discussed.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40169/3/wp783.pd

Banks versus venture capital when the venture capitalist values private benefits of control

If control of their firms allows entrepreneurs to derive private benefits, it also allows other controlling parties. Private benefits are especially relevant for venture capitalists, who typically get considerable control in their portfolio firms, but not for banks, which are passive loan providers. We incorporate this difference between banks and venture capital and analyze entrepreneurs' financing strategy between the two. We find that, in all strict Nash Equilibria, entrepreneurs who value private benefits more choose banks while the rest choose venture capital. Thus, bank-financed entrepreneurs allocate more resources to tasks that yield private benefits while VC-backed entrepreneurs have higher profitability

Necessity and Opportunity Entrepreneurs and their Duration in Self-employment: Evidence from German Micro Data

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (GSOEP), we analyze whether necessity entrepreneurs differ from opportunity entrepreneurs in terms of self-employment duration. Using univariate statistics, we find that opportunity entrepreneurs remain in self-employment longer than necessity entrepreneurs. However, after controlling for the entrepreneurs’ education in the professional area where they start their venture, this effect is no longer significant. We therefore conclude that the difference observed is not an original effect but rather is due to selection. We then go on to discuss the implications of our findings for entrepreneurship-policy making, and give suggestions to improve governmental start-up programs

Do Entrepreneurs Matter?

Publisher PD

Unfolding the role of marketplace resources in forming entrepreneurial narratives

The narrative perspective has discussed the role of entrepreneurs as mindful actors who contextualise innovation through their relational, temporal, and performative efforts. Although the agency of material elements is recognised in the narrative perspective, the materials’ role is reduced to be controlled and mobilised by entrepreneurs with some existing possibilities of showing resistance. This reductionist approach toward materials has restricted our understanding of the ways materials actively impose their agency, form narratives, and contextualise innovations along with entrepreneurs. This study adopts ANT (Actor-Network Theory) as a lens and explores the role of materials in entrepreneurship process. Specifically, it explores how materials (non-human actors) interact with entrepreneurs, impose their agency, challenge the efforts of entrepreneurs in contextualising innovation, and in turn shape the emerging entrepreneurial narratives

The Kauffman Index: Startup Activity National Trends - 2016

This report provides a broad index measure of business startup activity in the United States. It is an equally weighted index of three normalized measures of startup activity:The Rate of New Entrepreneurs in the economy, calculated as the percentage of adults becoming entrepreneurs in a given month.The Opportunity Share of New Entrepreneurs, calculated as the percentage of new entrepreneurs driven primarily by "opportunity" vs. "necessity."The Startup Density of a region, measured as the number of new employer businesses normalized by total business population