Cognitive and affective determinants of entrepreneurial decisions experimentally examined

Objectives. Our study investigates the role of emotions and cognitions in the pre-entrepreneurial decision-making process, i.e., the process prior to the decision to exploit an entrepreneurial opportunity, which has only looked at by few researchers so far. Methods. An online questionnaire experiment with three different samples, i.e., employees, students, and entrepreneurs (N = 578) using 16 different experimentally manipulated entrepreneurial scenarios was conducted. Results. Findings indicate that the relationship between the characteristics of an entrepreneurial opportunity and the evaluation of it is mediated by cognitive appraisals. Moreover, negative and positive affects moderate the relationship between the evaluation of an entrepreneurial opportunity and the decision to exploit it. Conclusion. This study confirms the central assumption of cognitive appraisal theories of emotion which state that the subjective representation of objective entrepreneurial opportunities better predicts the decision to exploit an entrepreneurial opportunity than the objective characteristics of the entrepreneurial situation

A Taxonomy of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are trustless organizations that automate transactions, operations, and decisions without a trusted third party (Wang et al. 2019). So far, this research area is missing a taxonomy that investigates the different dimensions and characteristics of DAOs and the many different forms they can take. This paper addresses this research gap by creating a data-driven taxonomy analyzing 72 DAOs. In doing so, we identify the three main categories treasury, community, and governance, seven sub-categories, 20 dimensions, and 53 characteristics. In addition, we provide dimensions with inadmissible characteristics DAOs cannot take, as well as dimensions used to assess DAOs. The results of our agglomerative clustering are five distinct DAO types: On-chain product and service DAOs, off-chain product and service DAOs with community focus or with investor focus, investment-focused DAOs, and networking-focused community DAOs

Disrupting Industries with Blockchain: The Industry, Venture Capital Funding, and Regional Distribution of Blockchain Ventures

The blockchain (i.e., a decentralized and encrypted digital ledger) has the potential to disrupt many traditional business models. This study investigates the emerging blockchain business-application landscape by analyzing its industry, venture capital funding, and regional distribution. By matching four venture databases on blockchain-based startups we create a unique database to analyze the technology from a diffusion of innovation theoretical perspective. First, our results show that blockchain startups are present across all industry segments and are most prominently represented in the Finance & Insurance and Information & Communication industries. A fine-grained analysis of financial services yields increasing novel applications in existing service offerings. Second, we find that mainly Finance & Insurance and Information & Communication industries are funded by venture capital, but that blockchain startups are present across all industries. Third, our regional distribution analysis of the emerging ventures identifies two leading geographical blockchain clusters (i.e., the US and UK)

The Interaction of Trait Competitiveness and Leaderboard Design - An Experimental Analysis of Effects on Perceptions and Usage Intention

Gamification is a valuable approach to foster user engagement, raise motivation, and induce behavioral change. As a maturing field of research, the complex interactions of the various elements of gameful systems remain opaque. However, understanding these interactions, especially between user and gamified system, builds the foundation for the vast application of gamified systems. To advance our knowledge in this field, we employ an experimental research design with 192 participants. Thereby we show that users’ personal development competitiveness positively affects the perception and usage intention of a competitive gamified system in a work scenario. Further, this relationship is moderated by the system’s design. Focusing on a team-based rather than a player-based leaderboard supports the usage intentions and perceptions of individuals high in personal development competitiveness. Our study supports the need for individualized gameful systems rather than relying on one-system-fits-all approaches often found in business practice

Decentralized Finance – A Systematic Literature Review and Research Directions

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is the (r)evolutionary movement to create a solely code-based, intermediary-independent financial system—a movement which has grown from $4bn to$104bn in assets locked in the last three years. We present the first systematic literature review of the yet fragmented DeFi research field. By identifying, analyzing, and integrating 83 peer-reviewed DeFi-related publications, our results contribute fivefold. First, we confirm the increasing growth of academic DeFi publications through systematic analysis. Second, we frame DeFi-related literature into three levels of abstraction (micro, meso, and macro) and seven subcategories. Third, we identify Ethereum as the blockchain in main academic focus. Fourth, we show that prototyping is the dominant research method applied whereas only one paper has used primary research data. Fifth, we derive four prioritized research avenues, namely concerning i) DeFi protocol interaction and aggregation platforms, ii) decentralized off-chain data integration to DeFi, iii) DeFi agents, and iv) regulation

Entrepreneurship Performance Deutscher Hochschulen 2023: Munich Impact Study

Ziele Neben den traditionellen Aufgaben von Forschung und Lehre etabliert sich bei Hochschulen zunehmend die "Third Mission“ als zusätzliche Aufgabe, d.h. der Technologie- und Wissenstransfer in die Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft z.B. über die Ausbildung zukünftiger Gründer:innen und die Förderung von entstehenden Startups. Die Wichtigkeit der Innovationskraft deutscher Hochschulen spiegelt sich zum Beispiel auch in der Verabschiedung des Bayerischen Hochschulinnovationsgesetzes wider, welches explizit die Gründung von Unternehmen aus Hochschulen fördern soll. Die Studie zur Entrepreneurship Performance Deutscher Hochschulen hat das Ziel, die Entrepreneurship Performance aller Hochschulen in Deutschland als Teil der "Third Mission“ zu quantifizieren und zu vergleichen. Damit soll die Studie als Orientierung für Akteure in der Hochschulleitung, in der Hochschulpolitik und Gründer:innen dienen. Methode und Daten - Basierend auf Daten des Handelsregisters über StartupDetector sowie der Plattform Dealroom wurden 27.988 von 2014 bis 2022 in Deutschland gegründete Startups identifiziert (davon wurde für 4.305 Startups mindestens eine Finanzierungsrunde verzeichnet). Auf Basis der Angaben zu Ausbildung und Arbeitserfahrung der Gründer:innen in LinkedIn und Dealroom, der Startup-Webseiten, sowie über Suchmaschinen-Ergebnisse wurden die Startups 296 Deutschen Hochschulen zugeordnet. Die Anzahl der einer Hochschule zugeordneten Startups wurde mit der jeweiligen Studierendenzahl, Mitarbeitendenzahl und dem Etat der Hochschule relativiert (Daten des Statistischen Bundesamts). Wichtigste Ergebnisse - Im absoluten Ranking schneidet die TU München (810 Startups), gefolgt von der TU Berlin (446) und der LMU München (397) am besten ab. In den relativen Rankings führen ausschließlich private Hochschulen wie ESCP (112 Startups / 973 Studierende), HHL (70 / 659) und WHU (136 / 1.878). Die Universität Potsdam bringt die meisten Startups (40% aller Startups) mit mindestens einer Frau im Gründungsteam hervor. Von insgesamt 539 als Deep Tech klassifizierten Startups können 64 der TU München zugeordnet werden, gefolgt von der TU Berlin mit 33. Die meisten (81%) der Gründer:innen bleiben nach ihrem Abschluss in Berlin zur Unternehmensgründung, München hält 64% der Gründer:innen. Im Europäischen Vergleich der gründungsstärksten Hochschulen findet sich die erste Deutsche Hochschule auf Platz 11, im internationalen Vergleich auf Platz 31

Empirical competence-testing: A psychometric examination of the German version of the Emotional Competence Inventory

The “Emotional Competence Inventory“ (ECI 2.0) by Goleman and Boyatzis assesses emotional intelligence (EI) in organizational context by means of 72 items in 4 clusters (self-awareness, self- management, social awareness, social skills) which at large consist of 18 competencies. Our study examines the psychometric properties of the first German translation of this instrument in two different surveys (N = 236). If all items are included in reliability analysis the ECI is reliable (Cronbach’s Alpha = .90), whereas the reliability of the four sub dimensions is much smaller (Alpha = .62 - .81). For 43 items the corrected item-total correlation with its own scale is higher than correlations with the other three clusters. Convergent validity was examined by using another EI instrument (Wong & Law, 2002). We found a significant correlation between the two instruments (r = .41). The German version of the ECI seems to be quite useful, although the high reliability is achieved by a large number of items. Possibilities of improvement are discussed

Employer branding: A brand equity-based literature review and research agenda

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A Multi-Level View of the Antecedents and Consequences of Trust in Virtual Leaders

Although trust is widely acknowledged as critical to virtual teams, little is known regarding the causes and consequences of trust in leaders of virtual teams. This paper examines the antecedents and consequences of trust in virtual team leaders. Using survey and archival data from a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), this study’s findings show that trust in the leader is affected by team members’ use of synchronous communication and breadth of communication with leaders as well as team members’ distance from each other. Furthermore, reasoning that team size and culture create a shared context qualifying team members’ experiences, we found that team size and collectivistic values diminished the benefits of synchronous communication and breadth of communication, respectively. The findings also revealed that trust in leaders had a positive relationship to team performance. Detailed discussion of the findings is provided in the conclusion of the paper