Abstract Research Summary What drives platform complementors to adopt boundary resources? We address this question by drawing on optimal distinctiveness. We suggest that competitors' adoption of a platform boundary resource on the one hand increases the legitimacy of the resource, but on the other hand decreases a focal complementor's ability to differentiate by adopting it. We therefore hypothesize an inverted U-shaped relationship between prior and future adoption of a platform boundary resource. In a dataset of health and fitness apps on the Apple iOS platform and through three online exper ..read more

Abstract Research Summary Distinctiveness is an essential element of crafts. Building on optimal distinctiveness theory, we examine the relationship between craft-based ventures, distinctiveness, and crowdfunding performance. Using a sample of 10,915 craft campaigns and 429,290 non-craft campaigns, we find that craft-based campaigns have higher distinctiveness but realize lower success through distinctiveness. Additionally, craft-based campaigns with a higher risk index have lower distinctiveness, those with higher strategy breadth have higher distinctiveness, and those with lower cognitive co ..read more

Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, EarlyView ..read more

Abstract Research Summary Strategic entrepreneurship research has long focused on high growth and wealth maximization in the creation of primarily economic value. As such, it has largely overlooked craft entrepreneurs, who prioritize skill, materiality, and immersive action in creating broader forms of value. Deep engagement with materials, alongside daily aesthetic (sensory, tacit, embodied) practices are key to how craft entrepreneurs create unique value and strengthen competitive distinction. Drawing on ethnographic data from two craft-based settings, we abductively generated three dimensio ..read more

Abstract Research Summary Commercial success in craft-based industries requires projecting authentic identities but direct claims of authenticity can backfire and raise suspicions of pecuniary motivation, an antithesis to authenticity. Managing authentic identities is thus central to the success of craft-based ventures. We argue that organizations can shape their audience's perceptions of authenticity and appeal by tacitly and indirectly conveying a resonant identity meaning with visibility and credibility. Our empirical analysis, set in the US craft beer industry, reveals strong support for t ..read more

Abstract Research Summary We integrate the emerging literature on the strategic role of firm owners in firms' value creation with Penrosean growth theory to investigate how and under what conditions two experience-based competences among owners—matching competence and governance competence—influence firm growth. Employing a longitudinal sample of 2509 owner-managed German firms, we find a positive relationship between owners' experience-based competences and firm growth. Further, we find that in family firms, the positive relationship between owners' experience-based governance competence and ..read more

Abstract Research Summary Collecting fine-grained, longitudinal data to study new venture creation (NVC) is critical but empirically challenging given the partly invisible, collective, and highly discursive nature of NVC. This article offers the ethnography/accelerator approach as one powerful solution to this problem. This approach theorizes the implications raised by the invisible, collective, and highly discursive nature of NVC as challenges of accessibility, multivocality, and reflexivity. It provides a framework articulating these challenges with key ethnographic insights to advance data ..read more

Abstract Research summary How a new venture improves performance when facing both principal and agency problems is an important yet understudied question. This study examines the effectiveness of CEO duality in mitigating the principal problem and enhancing entrepreneurial success. By granting more power to CEOs, CEO duality can alleviate the principal problem; however, CEO duality may simultaneously exacerbate CEOs' agency problems. Using manually collected panel data on 1403 newly established U.S. commercial banks, we find a positive relationship between CEO duality and new venture performan ..read more

Abstract Research Summary The question of why and how strategic leaders differ in the ecosystems they envision is central to firms' digital transformation. We unpack the cognitive microfoundations of how strategic leaders form their ecosystem vision—a mental model of a firm's multilateral complementarities with its partners to realize a value proposition. Our motivated interactional lens emphasizes the role of strategic leaders' cognitive motivation for shaping four interaction types with (prospective) partners: participatory, selective, collaborative, and reclusive. We theorize how these inte ..read more

Abstract 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 ..read more