Pathways of Fire: An Empirical Look at Entrepreneurial Passion

This paper develops and tests a theory of entrepreneurial passion. We draw from the literature on identity theory to investigate the influence of entrepreneurial identities on entrepreneurial passion, as well as the relationship of entrepreneurial passion to behavior. Empirical analyses of responses from 247 entrepreneurs confirm that entrepreneurial passion rises and falls in connection with entrepreneurial identity centrality. Moreover, entrepreneurial passion influences entrepreneurial behavior through multiple pathways involving intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy and positive affect. This research provides new insights into the factors that impact entrepreneurial passion as well as the mechanisms through which that passion stokes the fire of entrepreneurial action

Reconceptualizing Entrepreneurial Exit: Divergent Exit Routes and Their Drivers

We develop a conceptual model of entrepreneurial exit which includes exit through liquidation and firm sale for both firms in financial distress and firms performing well. This represents four distinct exit routes. In developing the model, we complement the prevailing theoretical framework of exit as a utility-maximizing problem among entrepreneurs with prospect theory and its recent applications in liquidation of investment decisions. We empirically test the model using two Swedish databases which follow 1,735 new ventures and their founders over eight years. We find that entrepreneurs exit from both firms in financial distress and firms performing well. In addition, commonly examined human capital factors (entrepreneurial experience, age, education) and failure-avoidance strategies (outside job, reinvestment) differ substantially across the four exit routes, explaining some of the discrepancies in earlier studiesEntrepreneurial Exit; Prospect Theory; Human Capital

Entrepreneurial Passion: Sources and Sustenance

Entrepreneurial passion helps coordinate cognition and behavior of entrepreneurs, providing the fire that fuels innovation, persistence, and ultimate success. But where does entrepreneurial passion come from? Using a phenomenological approach, we conduct a qualitative study of 80 entrepreneurs and analyze their oral histories to explore the sources of entrepreneurial passion, as experienced by entrepreneurs. Our discovery process in the interviews suggests six major sources of entrepreneurial passion: passion for building/developing the venture, passion for people, passion for the product or service, passion for inventing, passion for competition, and passion for a social cause

Little Village Playhouse: The Challenges of Social Entrepreneurship

Copyright 2013, Pace University. This case was developed for class discussion, and is not intended as an endorsement, source of primary data, or illustration of effective or ineffective management. Descriptions involving student participants are stylized depictions, and do not refer to any individual participant. The authors thank the Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship for financial support, and the principals of Little Village Playhouse for their cooperation and support

Bridging the Basics of Business Law through Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is a powerful and effective instructional tool to engage students in active learning and to support problem based learning. This paper reviews the AACSB standards for quality teaching as a starting point for the creation of a digital storytelling project for use in the undergraduate business law class in the College of Business Administration. The project provided an opportunity for students to learn 21st century skills by creating their own digital stories of actual legal cases in a collaborative learning environment. Each digital story served as a case to be presented to the class for legal analysis, discussion and debate. This paper provides an overview of the digital storytelling project. Benefi ts and challenges are addressed

SkewC : Identifying cells with skewed gene body coverage in single-cell RNA sequencing data

The analysis and interpretation of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) experiments are compromised by the presence of poor-quality cells. For meaningful analyses, such poor-quality cells should be excluded as they introduce noise in the data. We introduce SkewC, a quality-assessment tool, to identify skewed cells in scRNA-seq experiments. The tool's methodology is based on the assessment of gene coverage for each cell, and its skewness as a quality measure; the gene body coverage is a unique characteristic for each protocol, and different protocols yield highly different coverage profiles. This tool is designed to avoid misclustering or false clusters by identifying, isolating, and removing cells with skewed gene body coverage profiles. SkewC is capable of processing any type of scRNA-seq dataset, regardless of the protocol. We envision SkewC as a distinctive QC method to be incorporated into scRNA-seq QC processing to preclude the possibility of scRNA-seq data misinterpretation.Peer reviewe

Functional annotation of human long noncoding RNAs via molecular phenotyping

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) constitute the majority of transcripts in the mammalian genomes, and yet, their functions remain largely unknown. As part of the FANTOM6 project, we systematically knocked down the expression of 285 lncRNAs in human dermal fibroblasts and quantified cellular growth, morphological changes, and transcriptomic responses using Capped Analysis of Gene Expression (CAGE). Antisense oligonucleotides targeting the same lncRNAs exhibited global concordance, and the molecular phenotype, measured by CAGE, recapitulated the observed cellular phenotypes while providing additional insights on the affected genes and pathways. Here, we disseminate the largest-todate lncRNA knockdown data set with molecular phenotyping (over 1000 CAGE deep-sequencing libraries) for further exploration and highlight functional roles for ZNF213-AS1 and lnc-KHDC3L-2.Peer reviewe

Measuring Entrepreneurial Passion: Conceptual Foundations and Scale Validation

Along with other affective and emotional dimensions, passion is at the heart of entrepreneurship. Yet past research on entrepreneurial passion (EP) has been hindered by the lack of a sound measurement instrument. Through a series of empirical studies conducted with samples from relevant populations, we develop and validate an instrument to capture EP and its inherent dimensions. We show that the task-specific dimensions of EP (intense positive feelings toward the domains of inventing, founding and developing, and the centrality of these domains to entrepreneurs\u27 self-identity) are conceptually and empirically distinct from one another, and from other emotions and cognitions known to play a role in entrepreneurship. Our theory and results indicate that proper measurement of entrepreneurial passion incorporates the interaction between entrepreneurs\u27 feelings and identity centrality for each domain. We discuss the implications of our model, instrument and findings for future research on the affective components of innovation and entrepreneurship. We also develop specific guidelines for using our validated instrument in future research

Pathways of Passion:: Identity, Centrality, Passion, and Behavior Among Entrepreneurs.

This study examines the role of passion among entrepreneurs. In particular, the authors integrate identity theory with the literature surrounding passion to investigate the possible pathways through which entrepreneurial identities might influence passion, as well as the relationship between entrepreneurs’ passion and behavior. Structural equation modeling of responses from 221 entrepreneurs suggests that passion rises and falls in connection with entrepreneurial identity centrality and, furthermore, that passion is associated with individual entrepreneurial behavior and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. This research provides a starting point for investigating the factors that may impact the development of entrepreneurs’ passion as well as the specific mechanisms through which passion energizes entrepreneurial action

Entrepreneurial Passion as Mediator of the Self-Efficacy to Persistence Relationship

What makes some entrepreneurs persist in their venture efforts while others quit? Self-efficacy has robustly been found to drive persistence, yet recent work suggests that affect, in particular entrepreneurial passion, may also enhance persistence. We empirically examine the possibility that the long-standing relationship between self-efficacy and persistence might be mediated by entrepreneurial passion. Using data from 129 entrepreneurs, we find that the self-efficacy to persistence relationship is mediated by passion for inventing and for founding but not by passion for developing firms. The passion of entrepreneurs appears to help explain the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and sustained entrepreneurial action