Abstract: Previous work on corporate entrepreneurship has focused on either organizational or individual levels of analysis. Macro-level researchers have examined the organizational characteristics that facilitate corporate entrepreneurship, yet has neglected the bottom-up processes that translate managers’ individual behavior into organizational outcomes. Micro-level scholars, on the other hand, have studied the personal correlates of managers’ entrepreneurial behavior but have overlooked the top-down effects of organizational context on individual behaviors. Accordingly, in this paper we propose that a micro or macro lens alone yields incomplete understanding at either level and attempt to integrate both research streams by developing a multilevel theoretical framework. Our model depicts the individual and contextual determinants of managers’ entrepreneurial behavior and concentrates on middle managers’ networks within the organization.

Abstract: The central contribution of this study is that it is the first study to analyze: (a) whether family-owned businesses are regional or global in their internationalization strategies; and (b) how do these strategies affect firm performance, conditional on the family leadership of the firm. We build our arguments on theories from international strategy and family business literatures. Using a sample of 165 family firms from U.K., Germany, and France during 1990-2006, we find that family leadership significantly moderates the relationship between Home Regional Orientation and Performance.

Abstract: The purpose of this research is to provide a broader view of the evaluation stage of the entrepreneurial process, arguing that it consists of more than just the gathering of resources by fully committed entrepreneurs. Using the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, a nationally representative dataset of US adults working to start new businesses, it will demonstrate that entrepreneurs’ expectations of financial performance and perceptions of environmental uncertainty undergo significant changes, consistent with a real options / learning view of the process. I will also provide evidence that the degree of these changes is influenced by entrepreneurs’ information gathering activities. I finally investigate whether the main effect of information gathering activities is moderated by ex ante novelty / uncertainty and prior knowledge of the entrepreneur.

Abstract: Social network theory has been largely applied to analyze the impact of embeddedness on the identification of potential market opportunities and foreign buyers. We explore how a SME can individually develop a global brand with into a new foreign market by making effective use of its social networks. We propose that the degree of a SME’s embeddedness with social ties signaling credence attributes to a buyer is positively associated with the likelihood that a buyer chooses that SME as its supplier. We follow a "grounded theory" methodology, where the instrumental case of three small Italian single-estate olive oil producers from Liguria, Tuscany and Lazio regions provide support to our emergent theory.