Cristiano Bellavitis

Empirical evidence on whether entrepreneurship benefits or harms health is mixed, in part because prior work emphasizes short-run symptoms and medical diagnoses rather than cumulative outcomes. We shift attention to lifespan, the total years lived, as an integrative, lifecourse endpoint and theorize entrepreneurship as a time-embedded career experience whose health outcomes depend on agency (opportunity-driven vs. necessity-driven entrepreneurship), cumulative exposure (duration and frequency), and timing (current vs. past engagement). Using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (1998-2020; 137,542 person-waves from 27,501 individuals), we estimate Cox proportional hazards models, supplemented by robustness checks including monozygotic twin analysis. Entrepreneurship is positively associated with a longer lifespan relative to wage employment. Mediation analyses suggest that this association is partly accounted for by differences in mental health, whereas aggregate physical health does not appear to meaningfully explain the relationship. The positive association with lifespan is concentrated among opportunity-driven entrepreneurs and is stronger among individuals with greater cumulative entrepreneurial exposure. The findings also reveal a temporal pattern: better physical health is primarily associated with current entrepreneurial engagement, whereas better mental health is more closely linked to prior entrepreneurial experience. Further analyses indicate that the positive association between entrepreneurship and lifespan may be more pronounced among women and among entrepreneurs with higher incomes or larger firms. Collectively, these findings advance research on entrepreneurial health by reframing entrepreneurship as a life-course experience and specifying who benefits, through what mechanisms, and when.

This study examines the role of strategic pivoting in early‐stage deep tech startups participating in the NSF I‐Corps program. Analyzing data from 230 teams, we found that 95% of teams adjusted at least one component of their business model, with 66% making notable changes involving four or more components. The most frequently altered components were value propositions and customer segments, suggesting the importance of achieving product‐market fit. Our findings emphasize the dynamic and iterative nature of business model development in deep tech startups, as well as the important role of strategic adaptability in overcoming the challenges of market exploration and commercialization.

Drawing on institutional and demand-side perspectives, we investigate performance implications of (de)centralized governance modes in platform-based new ventures, and the conditions under which (de)centralization generates more value. Using a sample of 1,431 Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), a new source of entrepreneurial finance, we find that centralization of decision-making is positively associated with platforms’ market value. Further, we consider how platform characteristics affect this relationship, finding that both the presence of an experienced Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and project transparency negatively moderate the positive relationship between centralization and market value. Thus, decentralized platforms need leaders with technical experience and project transparency to generate more value. Overall, this study provides a better understanding of the boundary conditions that increase the value of (de)centralized governance.

We assess the impact of monetary policy (i.e., central bank interest rates) on the activity of venture capitalists (VC). Using data from 31 countries from 2004 to 2019, we find that VC firms’ fundraising activity increases when interest rates become negative. We explain this finding by referring to the principal-agent relationship between general and limited partners of VC firms in combination with behavioral finance arguments. Specifically, we identify three channels pertaining to a legal motivation (i.e., legislative hurdles and litigation risks), a liquidity motivation (i.e., substitution effect relative to other asset classes), and behavioral biases (i.e., mental accounting, conservatism, disposition effect, or prospect theory).

Corporate governance deals with the mechanisms used by organizations to enhance the power and accountability of key stakeholders who are responsible for generating, protecting, and distributing fir...