Two Presentations on Entrepreneurial Action: Disinhibition and Nascent Entrepreneurial Behavior, & Heterogeneity in Entrepreneurial Spinoff Performance

Disinhibition and Nascent Entrepreneurial Behavior:

Perceiving and initiating action on opportunity is the first step in the entrepreneurial process, and to superior performance according to behavioral strategy (Gavetti 2012). Without action, there can be no new venture or strategic pursuit. Disinhibition, a lack of inhibition at various levels, offers an integrative lens for predicting entrepreneurial behavior, with larger implications for entrepreneurship. Empirical results are presented, finding disinhibition a significant predictor of initiating entrepreneurial opportunity pursuit and suggesting multi-level consequences. 

Making Sense of Performance Heterogeneity Among Entrepreneurial Spinoffs (co-author Richard Hunt):

Extant spinoff theory suggests that entrepreneurial spinoffs are endowed with a performance advantage over de novo entrants, because of hereditary knowledge transfers from parent-firms to progeny. However, in the context of a complete population, we find that parent-progeny linkages are less consequential than existing theory and past empirical studies suggest. The results provide a new perspective on the role of individual founders, reinvigorating ongoing discussions of entrepreneurial spinoffs and knowledge.