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Variable risk preferences in new firm growth and survival

PublicationArticle (with peer review)

Variable risk preferences in new firm growth and survival

Abstract

We outline and test a decision-making theory of new venture growth and survival. Building upon research in entrepreneurship and decision making under risk, we hypothesize that entrepreneurs’ attention to survival and aspiration reference points changes based on venture age (experience-based learning), size (differences in decision complexity), and performance decision domain. Examining a panel of 14,760 new ventures in the professional services sector, our findings show how risk preferences change as a venture ages and increases in size. This approach offers a more nuanced view of decision making under risk and provides a theoretical explanation for the common patterns of new ventures’ probability of exit and growth diminishing with age and size.

Wennberg, K., Delmar, F., & McKelvie, A. (2016). Variable risk preferences in new firm growth and survival. Journal of Business Venturing, 31(4), 408–427. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2016.05.001

Details

Author: Wennberg, K., Delmar, F., & McKelvie, A.
Publication year: 2016
Published in: Journal of Business Venturing

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Karl Wennberg
+46705105366karl.wennberg@ratio.se

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Competition and Voice in Public Education: Evidence from Sweden

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While numerous studies examine the effects of school competition on student performance, little research directly addresses a key critique of competition: its potential to negatively affect parental engagement and voice. We draw on Hirschman’s theory of voice to argue that voucher-based school competition increases opportunities for exit but may crowd out voice. To assess the causal effects of competition on parental voice, we employ a robust two-way fixed effects difference-in-differences framework, comparing municipalities in Sweden that introduced competition with those that did not. Our findings indicate that school complaints decline following the introduction of competition. This decrease in voice is driven by neither a decrease in problems in school nor by changes in teaching staff quality or attrition. This suggests that the decrease in complaints is driven not by an increase in school quality but rather by a substitution from voice to exit.

Article (without peer review)

Enhancing Transparency and Replicability in Entrepreneurship Research with Preregistrations, Registered Reports, and Registered Revisions: A Call for Papers

Fellnhofer, K., Wennberg, K., Allison, T. H., Arenius, P., Lévesque, M., Gish, J. J., & Pollack, J. M.

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Abstract

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (ETP) is committed to advancing transparency, replicability, credibility, and rigor in research. To support this commitment, we encourage authors to preregister their research plans, submit empirical studies as Registered Reports, and engage with our evolving editorial processes, such as Registered Revisions. Drawing on practices across multiple disciplines, we offer guidance for integrating these publication formats into our field. We also provide multiple resources to support authors in adopting these approaches and to address the unique challenges of applying such formats to, for example, secondary data. By more widely embracing the Registered Report approach, we envision a future for entrepreneurship research that is characterized by greater credibility, replicability, transparency, and scientific impact. In this editorial, we motivate and, hopefully, guide future work by making a specific call for manuscripts for a virtual special issue of ETP focused on Registered Reports, strengthening ETP’s longstanding commitment to methodological innovation. We offer a prospective vision—what we believe would be good for future literature—and our aim is to empower scholars to proactively shape new theoretical and empirical foundations in entrepreneurship research that enhance the credibility and replicability of entrepreneurship research.