Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research
Volume 35 | Issue 3
CHAPTER III. THE ENTREPRENEUR AND
CHARACTERISTICS
Article 14
6-13-2015
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY IN NASCENT
ORGANIZING: WHAT DO WE INFER
ABOUT AN ENTREPRENEUR, AND DOES
IT MATTER? (SUMMARY)
Daniel A. Lerner
Deusto Business School, Spain, [email protected]
Keith M. Hmieleski
Texas Christian University, USA
Recommended Citation
Lerner, Daniel A. and Hmieleski, Keith M. (2015) "SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY IN NASCENT ORGANIZING: WHAT DO WE
INFER ABOUT AN ENTREPRENEUR, AND DOES IT MATTER? (SUMMARY)," Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research: Vol. 35:
Iss. 3, Article 14.
Available at: http://digitalknowledge.babson.edu/fer/vol35/iss3/14
This Summary is brought to you for free and open access by the Entrepreneurship at Babson at Digital Knowledge at Babson. It has been accepted for
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contact [email protected].
Lerner and Hmieleski: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY IN NASCENT ORGANIZING
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F RON T I E R S OF E N T R E P R E N E U R SH I P R E SE A RC H 2 0 1 5
• SU M M A RY •
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY IN NASCENT ORGANIZING: WHAT DO
WE INFER ABOUT AN ENTREPRENEUR, AND DOES IT MATTER?
Daniel A. Lerner, Deusto Business School, Spain
Keith M. Hmieleski, Texas Christian University, USA
Principal Topic
Business venturing requires human organizing, and therefore involves social psychology.
Following the perception of opportunity, entrepreneurial protagonists need to engage others –
to transform an opportunity idea into a nascent firm (e.g., Aldrich & Martinez, 2001; Zander
2007). Given entrepreneurial uncertainty and negligible objective information early-on, how
others perceive a potential founder and associated opportunity matter. Past research has examined
financial investors’ assessments of firm-founders and their opportunity pursuits (e.g., Clark,
2008). However, knowledge is lacking about potential followers’ consideration of entrepreneurial
protagonists and associated opportunities. This is an important gap since it relates to if there will
even be a firm-founder/firm (e.g. for later research observation and theory).
Research Question and Method
This research focuses on potential followers’ consideration of entrepreneurial protagonists
and associated opportunities. It asks: What inferences are made about an entrepreneur’s initially
unobservable qualities? Do such inferences affect interest in following? Is the same opportunity
judged differently (e.g. better) according to the entrepreneurial lead it’s associated with?
A randomized experiment was conducted in which different entrepreneurs and opportunities
were presented to 147 potential supporters/followers. Following prior research, the information
provided was limited and modeled on what could be gathered from a short pitch. After each
entrepreneur, potential followers evaluated: the business opportunity associated with the
entrepreneur, the entrepreneur, and their interest in potentially following.
Results and Conclusion
The results shed light on an understudied area of nascent venturing – social cognition about
potential founders and opportunities. The detailed results, available at BCERC 2015, help unpack
complex and otherwise unobservable judgments made about entrepreneurs, potential spillover to
judgments about entrepreneurial opportunities, and related interest in following. The significant
results (SEM p-values<.01) contribute to entrepreneurship literature by helping bridge the gap
between nascent entrepreneurial behavior and existence of nascent firms/firm-founders.
To theoretically understand the pursuit of opportunity (including nascent organizing),
insight into the social psychology of early-stage supporters is necessary. Such insight helps span
a rich literature that starts with firm-founders and organized firms, and a similarly rich literature
focused on gestational entrepreneurial behavior. By bridging these literatures, enhanced theory
and practice is possible by a more integrated tracing of the entrepreneurial process -- from
individual opportunity perception to entrepreneurial behavior/action, through the initial nexus
with potential supporters, to the occurrence (or non-occurrence) of nascent organizations.
CONTACT: Daniel Lerner; [email protected]; Deusto Business School, Bilbao, Spain.
Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 2015
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