Victor Martin-Sanchez

This study investigates how entrepreneurs’ growth aspirations relate to the adoption of environmental actions and how national environmental regulations moderate this relationship. We argue that growth-oriented entrepreneurs are more likely to adopt environmentally oriented behaviors due to long-term investment logic and legitimacy-seeking considerations. Moreover, we propose that stringent environmental regulations strengthen this relationship by reinforcing both mechanisms. Using a multisource dataset and applying a multilevel analysis, we find support for our hypotheses. The findings highlight the importance of both entrepreneurial growth aspirations and regulatory environments in shaping entrepreneurs’ engagement in environmental actions.

This study examines the impact of entrepreneurial experience on growth aspirations and explores how a country's knowledge generation influences this relationship. Drawing on human capital theory, we first argue that diverse prior entrepreneurial experiences affect growth aspirations differently. Based on the Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship, we then propose that national R&D expenditure moderates the link between entrepreneurial experience and growth aspirations. Utilizing a multisource dataset from 83 countries spanning 2005–2020, our findings indicate that entrepreneurial experience is positively related to growth aspirations. Specifically, both serial and portfolio entrepreneurs exhibit higher growth aspirations compared to their novice counterparts. Our study also reveals that higher levels of national R&D expenditure strengthen the relationship between both types of experience and growth aspirations. Overall, this research contributes to the literature by demonstrating a positive direct effect of serial and portfolio entrepreneurial experiences on growth aspirations and revealing the enhancing moderating role of national R&D expenditure in this relationship.

In the realm of academic engagement, this study directs its focus toward a policy instrument that has received surprisingly scant attention within the literature, despite its substantial investment: European Union-funded research projects. These projects are designed to foster collaboration and establish a framework that supports and fortifies the creation and dissemination of exceptional knowledge and cutting-edge technologies. These endeavors are anticipated to fuel economic growth, spur social development, and address global challenges. Within this study, we delve into the impact of team experience and diversity on the research performance of consortia — groups of organizations — that have been successfully awarded funding within the FP7 and H2020 funding schemes. In order to dissect the influence of learning, our analysis is confined to consortia that have collaborated on multiple occasions. Drawing from data sourced from Community Research and Development Information Service, our findings unveil that beyond the monetary allocation, an array of team attributes and environmental factors play a role in augmenting team performance.

Research Summary: We argue that the positive relationship between pro‐market institutions and entrepreneurial growth aspirations is dampened for individuals with general human capital (higher education), but augmented for those with specific human capital (experience in the marketplace). However, during a crisis, the differential effect of pro‐market institutions on growth aspirations manifests only for entrepreneurs with specific human capital, with stronger effects than in good economic times. We run our empirical analysis on a dataset of individual‐ and country‐level characteristics during 2005–2020, thus exploiting variation from the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID‐19 pandemic. We confirm our predictions and show stronger results for early stage (compared to nascent) entrepreneurs, and potential complementarities between human capital types. Altogether, our work paves the way to institutional adaptive policymaking. Managerial Summary: Pro‐market institutions facilitate business activity. We analyze a continuum of institutional arrangements and show asymmetric joint effects of the business context and human capital on entrepreneurial growth aspirations. General, education‐based human capital can collide with pro‐market contexts, weakening their positive effect on growth aspirations. In contrast, the interaction between pro‐market contexts and specific, market‐based human capital acts as a catalyst of growth aspirations. The (mis)alignment between pro‐market institutions and specific human capital from start‐up or investment experience gains an increased importance during the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID‐19 pandemic. Our findings are stronger for early stage business owners beyond the nascent phase, and complementarities can appear between education and market experience. We discuss policy implications for entrepreneurship education and regional development.

This paper investigates how state fragility and trust affect export-oriented entrepreneurial activity. Drawing on the institutional logics perspective, we first argue that a non-favorable home-coun...

Extant research shows that entrepreneurs are typically overly optimistic about their ventures’ prospects and that such optimism hampers performance. We analyze how dispositional optimism affects the adjustments to entrepreneurs’ expectations after they receive negative feedback on their task performance. We then explore the relationship between optimism and the effectiveness of innovation. Exploiting unique firm-level data and a laboratory experiment involving 205 entrepreneurs, we find that dispositional optimism is negatively associated with both the likelihood and extent of belief updating in response to negative feedback. Furthermore, dispositional optimism triggers a discrepancy—between innovation inputs and outputs—that reduces a firm’s innovation effectiveness.