Entrepreneurial experience and the innovativeness of serial entrepreneurs

Purpose - This paper examines the effects of past entrepreneurial experience on the reported innovativeness of serial entrepreneurs’ subsequent ventures. Building on insights from the generative entrepreneurial learning process and from cognition theories, we propose that regardless of the type of entrepreneurial experience, positive or negative, such experience enriches the cognitive schemas of serial entrepreneurs leading them to greater reported innovativeness. Knowing this will expand our knowledge of entrepreneurial career development. Design/Methodology/approach - The proposed hypotheses are tested using Heckman regression models relating past entrepreneurial experience, current business ownership and reported innovativeness of current businesses on a unique sample drawn from a Catalan adult population survey. The data on the past entrepreneurial experience of the Catalan adult population were collected specifically for the purpose of this study. Findings - Results reveal that practical experience is an essential prerequisite for entrepreneurial learning, and even negative entrepreneurial experience may induce generative entrepreneurial learning suitable for subsequent outperforming ventures for the psychologically strong who have managed to learn from their experience. Implications - This paper offers insights on how the nature of the past entrepreneurial activity influences future venturing decisions. This study contributes to the academic debate on whether increased entrepreneurial experience and generative learning processes best explain serial entrepreneurial behaviors. Originality/Value - The paper further explores the influence of previous entrepreneurial experience on current entrepreneurial activity by analyzing the relationship between serial entrepreneurship and reported innovativeness.Preprin

Balance rather than critical mass or tokenism: gender diversity, leadership and performance in financial firms

Purpose: This study analyzes how board’s gender diversity, and more specifically a gender-balanced configuration—i.e., a proportion of women in the boardroom ranging between 40% and 60%—affects economic and risk oriented performance in financial firms. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical application uses a rich dataset that includes detailed accounting and organizational information for all financial firms in the Costa Rican industry during the period 2000-2012. The proposed hypotheses are tested using panel data (fixed-effects) regression models that emphasize that bank performance is affected by various dimensions of the banks’ gender diversity. Findings: The longitudinal analysis of the Costa Rican banking industry reveals that, unlike a proportion indicating a particular critical mass of women on the board, a balanced gender configuration yields superior economic performance (ROA and net intermediation margin). Additionally, the findings show that the performance benefits of gender diversity only exists in the presence of a gender balanced board configuration, and that this positive effect is not conditioned by the presence of women leadership in the corporate hierarchy (Chair or CEO). Originality/value: The paper further explores the influence of board gender diversity on organizational performance by adopting an approach to the gender diversity-performance relationship that goes beyond the mere representation of women within the corporate hierarchy.Peer ReviewedPreprin

Monitoring bank performance in the presence of risk

This paper proposes a managerial control tool that integrates risk in efficiency measures. Building on existing efficiency specifications, our proposal reflects the real banking technology and accurately models the relationship between desirable and undesirable outputs. Specifically, the undesirable output is defined as nonperforming loans to capture credit risk, and is linked only to the relevant dimension of the output set. We empirically illustrate how our efficiency measure functions for managerial control purposes. The application considers a unique dataset of Costa Rican banks during 1998–2012. Results’ implications are mostly discussed at bank-level, and their interpretations are enhanced by using accounting ratios. We also show the usefulness of our tool for corporate governance by examining performance changes around executive turnover. Our findings confirm that appointing CEOs from outside the bank is associated with significantly higher performance ex post executive turnover, thus suggesting the potential benefits of new organisational practices.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Analysis of competitiveness in Colombian family businesses

Purpose: Building on the resource-based view and the configuration theory, the purpose of this study uses a systemic and multidimensional competitiveness index (CI) i.e. that incorporates system constraints among the 10 competitive pillars that form the index to assess the competitiveness level and the connection between competitiveness and economic performance [return on assets (ROA)] in family businesses (FBs). Design/methodology/approach: For the empirical application, the use a unique primary data set drawn from the global competitiveness project (www.gcp.org) that includes information for 77 Colombian FBs for 2017. Cluster analysis is used to evaluate the potential relationship between competitiveness, the configuration of competitive pillars and economic performance (ROA). Findings: The results for the CI show that the main competitive strengths of the analysed firms are related to the introduction of product innovations and networks (suppliers and customers), while the limited use of technologies in their operations and the low online presence are the main competitive weaknesses of these firms. Additionally, the findings of the cluster analysis reveal that different configurations of competitiveness pillars are associated with different performance levels. Therefore, the results contribute to identifying how specific strategies aimed at improving different resources or capabilities contribute to enhance business competitiveness, and ultimately, performance. Originality/value: By using an index number that takes into account the multiple interactions between resources and capabilities, the proposed analysis not only sheds light on the drivers of competitiveness i.e. resources and capabilities, and its connection to performance but also contributes to understanding the boundaries of the businesses’ competitiveness system, as well as the strategies that can potentially enhance competitiveness, and subsequently, business performance.Peer ReviewedPreprin

Assessing the performance of technology transfer offices: An analysis of the relevance of TTO’s outcome configuration and aspiration performance

The paper investigates the technology-transfer productivity of Spanish public universities. The proposed approach allows the development of a framework that matches universities’ technology transfer concerns with the need to accurately analyze the role of the outcome configuration of technology transfer offices (TTOs). We analyze technology transfer productivity of Spanish universities during 2006-2011 by computing total factor productivity models rooted in non-parametric techniques, namely the Malmquist index. The results confirm that technology transfer productivity is affected by changes in the configuration of the TTO’s outcome portfolio that result from benchmarking own and market peers’ performance levels. While benchmarking own performance levels facilitates the exploitation of internal resources and yields superior productivity results, changes in TTO’s portfolio based on comparisons with market peers might generate greater operational costs that negatively impact productivity.Postprint (published version

From export entry to de-internationalisation through entrepreneurial attributes

Purpose: This study examines export behaviour from a broad perspective considering the influence of entrepreneurial attributes on export entry, export sustainability and de-internationalisation in Romanian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach: Based on theoretical underpinnings from the Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm and the Institutional Economics (IE) framework, the proposed hypotheses are tested with a rich survey dataset of 319 Romanian SMEs. The data are analysed by means of a multinomial logit regression. Findings: The study reveals that exporting is not a single event and that variables commonly used to study export propensity linked to the entrepreneurial attributes have a differential influence over the export decisions. More concretely, export entry is positively impacted by the presence of management studies and an entrepreneurial team while sustainment in the international arena is strongly and positively influenced by decision-makers’ prior labour experience. De-internationalisation is explained by the entrepreneurs’ fear of business failure. The conclusions of this study point towards a holistic view of export policy-making revealing relevant implications for SMEs’ internationalisation. Originality/value: This study enriches the international business literature by simultaneously examining different export decisions, namely export initiation, sustainability and de-internationalisation, at the SMEs’ level in a Central and Eastern European (CEE) emerging market. The paper also highlights the dynamic character of entrepreneurial resources and suggests that at distinct stages in the international development of a SME, different entrepreneurial attributes may play a significant role.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

The differentiated impact of role models and social fear of failure over the entrepreneurial activities of rural youths

The main objective of this study is to determine the differential impact of certain socio-cultural variables (such as entrepreneurial self-confidence, role models and fear of failure) on the entrepreneurial process of Spanish rural youths. In consonance with the new rural policy paradigm, the European Commission and the OECD are proposing entrepreneurship as a tool for economic diversification and endogenous rural development. Entrepreneurship is associated in rural areas with economic vitality and prosperity. Entrepreneurship in rural areas becomes a means for capturing and optimizing the true natural, social and human capital of a territory as well as a source of opportunity and welfare for the local population. However, in a context where many rural areas are suffering from an aging and retiring population, the emphasis on developing an entrepreneurially active community becomes especially important within the segment of rural youths. Environmental and social-cultural factors have been used to explain differences in entrepreneurship across territories, including the rural urban divide. This line of research has found that certain variables, such as the local presence of role models and the social stigma of failure, have a differential impact over entrepreneurial activity across certain segments of the population (gender, immigrant status). Therefore, this study has the objective to verify whether age affects the impact that certain socio-cultural variables have on the entrepreneurial process of rural and urban youths. The methodology used in this study is the logistic regression model for rare events, with a database of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in Spain for 2009, which has a sample of 26,990 adults. The study shows that young adults in Spain have a higher propensity for entrepreneurial activity than the rest of the population, but discriminating between urban and rural youth, the latter are less likely to be entrepreneurs. Amongst younger-aged individuals, social-cultural factors are found to have a differential impact on entrepreneurship across the rural-urban divide.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Gender diversity in the board, women’s leadership and business performance

Purpose: This paper investigates how gender diversity in top management—i.e., boardroom and top management positions—impacts business performance among Colombian public businesses. Design/methodology/approach: Building on the Upper Echelon theory which emphasizes that gender in an important characteristic that influences top management’s decision making, we employ panel data models on a sample of 54 Colombian public businesses for the period 2008-2015 to test the proposed hypotheses relating gender diversity and subsequent business performance. Findings: The results support that gender diversity is positively associated with subsequent business performance. More concretely, we find that the relationship between gender diversity at the top of the corporate hierarchy—in our case, as CEO and in the top management team—and subsequent performance becomes more evident when performance is linked to business operations (ROA), while the positive effect of women’s representation in the boardroom and subsequent performance is significant when performance is measured via shareholder-oriented metrics (ROE). Originality/value: Few studies have addressed the role of gender diversity on performance in developing economies. This study contributes to better understand how gender diversity impacts performance in contexts where women are underrepresented in the top management, and where the appointment of women directors or managers is not driven by regulatory pressures.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

The increased international propensity of serial entrepreneurs demonstrating ambidextrous strategic agility: a precursor to international marketing agility

This paper analyzes whether business owners that simultaneously demonstrate past entrepreneurial experience and process agility have greater export propensity levels. The proposed hypotheses are tested using binary choice models relating past entrepreneurial experience and reported process agility on a unique sample of 246 Catalan business owners for the year 2010. Consistent with our theoretical arguments on the relevance of generative-based cognitive agility, results reveal that serial entrepreneurs demonstrate a greater export propensity. Additionally, we found that serial entrepreneurs who also demonstrate process agility show superior export propensity levels, compared to the group of business owners outside this ambidextrous group (first-time business owners without process agility). The findings of this study indicate that traits characterizing international marketing agility, decisional speed and accuracy, are also linked with greater export propensity levels. The added export market expansion resulting from the opportunity responsiveness of serial entrepreneurs is found to be amplified by the accuracy of internal adaptation capabilities of process agility. Therefore, the promotion of ambidextrous strategic agility coming from the complementarities between the benefits of entrepreneurial experience and adaptive process abilities is essential for increasing businesses’ internationalizationPostprint (author's final draft

Sustainable and traditional product innovation without scale and experience, but only for KIBS!

This study analyzes the ideal strategic trajectory for sustainable and traditional product innovation. Using a sample of 74 Costa Rican high-performance businesses for 2016, we employ fuzzy set analysis (qualitative comparative analysis) to evaluate how the development of sustainable and traditional product innovation strategies is conditioned by the business’ learning capabilities and entrepreneurial orientation in knowledge-intensive (KIBS) and non-knowledge-intensive businesses. The results indicate two ideal strategic configurations of product innovation. The first strategic configuration to reach maximum product innovation requires the presence of KIBS firms that have both an entrepreneurial and learning orientation, while the second configuration is specific to non-KIBS firms with greater firm size and age along with entrepreneurial and learning orientation. KIBS firms are found to leverage the knowledge-based and customer orientations that characterize their business model in order to compensate for the shortage of important organizational characteristics—which we link to liabilities or smallness and newness—required to achieve optimal sustainable and traditional product innovation.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version