Purpose

Environmental uncertainty (EU) and firm size (FS) generate inertial forces that can push small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to emphasize either exploration or exploitation. In this article, the authors explore how structural (e.g. formal processes, control and discipline) and social (e.g. employee support and decision-making involvement) managerial instruments counteract such inertial forces and enable SME ambidexterity. Building on the organization-context literature, the authors propose a model in which EU and firms' size moderate the relationship between structural and social managerial instruments on SME ambidexterity.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors examined a moderation model using surveys of chief executive officers (CEOs) and performance archival data from 237 Chilean SMEs.

Findings

The authors find that the positive effect of structure on SME ambidexterity decreases with FS. In contrast, social instruments have a positive effect on ambidexterity for larger firms, especially for those operating in uncertain environments. In cases in which EU and firms' size reinforce the exploration or exploitation tendencies of SMEs, structural and social instruments play a complementary role in achieving ambidexterity.

Originality/value

The authors contribute by proposing a contingent mix of structural and social instruments to enable SME ambidexterity. These results inform policymakers and SME managers by suggesting strategies to promote ambidexterity based on firms' size and EU.

[https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOEM-04-2021-0572]

Process Management Programs (PMPs) rely heavily on the standardization of activities to improve organizational efficiency and reliability. Standardization, however, can lead to rigidity and inertia, which may eventually inhibit exploration and innovation. While scholars have provided cognitive and routine-based arguments to cope with this dilemma, the fact that standardization is a social process that requires collaboration between individuals has been overlooked. In this paper, we propose that standardization can improve a team’s social capital and thereby facilitate the activities that enable exploration. Specifically, we hypothesize that standardization relates positively to external communication, psychological safety, and the perception of support for innovation in operational teams. These three social capital attributes mediate the relationship between standardization and exploration. We tested this multilevel mediation model by analysing 431 members of 62 operational teams in a large multinational mining company that had recently implemented a Process Management Program (Lean Management). Our multilevel mediation results confirmed that standardisation promoted exploration by enhancing the teams’ social capital. For robustness we tested our model with a second survey of 450 workers of different companies and obtained similar results. Therefore, we propose that the productivity dilemma can be balanced by improving operational teams’ social capital.

https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2021.1903112

Entrepreneurial passion can influence individual well-being and improve firm-level outcomes, yet little is known about how to rapidly detect a change in passion from entrepreneurs' communication. We draw on advancements in both the passion literature and artificial intelligence (AI) methods, to capture entrepreneurial passion expressed for founding a venture at different points in time. Specifically, we developed an AI algorithm to recognize identity-based passion (identity centrality) from training data, comprised of eight hours of transcribed interviews with entrepreneurs (achieving 84% accuracy), and detect affective passion (intense positive feelings) with sentiment analysis. Application of these two novel measurement approaches, to longitudinal interview text with early-stage entrepreneurs (N=11, two time periods) in a six-month social venture accelerator, indicate that intense positive feelings decline while identity centrality varies. We conclude by outlining opportunities for future research.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2021.e00295 [free download: here]

Entrepreneurship can provide personal fulfillment but is uniquely poised to also provoke emotional suffering. Scholarly attention on negative moods and emotions (affect) in entrepreneurship has gained momentum, yet reviews to date have focused on the consequences of affect while our understanding of its antecedents remains fragmented. This neglect is concerning as the conditions that trigger negative emotions are consequential to entrepreneurial cognition, behavior, and well-being. In the current article, we synthesize the findings of 52 empirical sources that contribute to our knowledge of the antecedents of negative affect during entrepreneurship activity. This results in a framework of entrepreneurs’ negative affective antecedents organized by (1) the temporary state of the self, (2) the entrepreneurial occupation, (3) interactions with others, and (4) venture circumstances. Overall, this systematic effort contextualizes affect in entrepreneurship and provides a roadmap for future research that is more closely representative of the diverse lived experiences of entrepreneurs.

[free download: here]

Entrepreneurship is uniquely stressful. Entrepreneurs often cannot avoid entrepreneurial stressors (e.g., uncertainty, workload, resource constraints) and these stressors can deter natural recovery activities (e.g., detachment and sleep). Yet, entrepreneurs may be able to lessen the negative impact of stress on their well-being, health, and productivity by engaging in recovery. In this editorial, we outline how scholars can employ recovery interventions to ameliorate some of entrepreneurship’s ill effects and support entrepreneurs’ health, well-being, and productivity. We aim to move the focus of scholarly inquiry from documenting the health and well-being challenges of entrepreneurs, toward identifying and implementing solutions to support entrepreneurs.

https://doi.org/10.1177/10422587211006431 (open access)

Standing out in crowdfunded microfinance: A topic modeling approach examining campaign distinctiveness and prosocial performance

We outline the promise of topic modeling as a tool to build knowledge in social entrepreneurship surrounding the role gender plays in prosocial crowdfunding. By leveraging a sample of 340,956 prosocial microfinance campaigns drawn from Kiva, we examine how distinctiveness from the prototypical narrative in men's and women's campaigns relates to crowdfunding performance. We find that distinctiveness in men's campaigns is associated with faster funding. Conversely, when women's campaigns are distinctive from other women, funding times vary depending on their sector. Our findings suggest that in prosocial microlending, deviating from the normal narrative of one's gender is advantageous for campaigns led by men, but that among women, it can often hinder prosocial microlending efforts.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2021.e00261 [free download here]

Entrepreneurial Disappointment: Let Down and Breaking Down, a Machine-Learning Study

Despite its importance, our understanding of what entrepreneurial disappointment is, its attributions, and how it relates to depression is limited. Drawing on a corpus of 27,906 semi-anonymous online posts, we identified entrepreneurial disappointment, inductively uncovered its attributions and examined how depression differs between attributions. We found that posts with internal, stable, and global disappointment attributions (e.g., not fitting entrepreneurial norms) are, on average, higher in depression symptoms than posts with external, unstable, and specific disappointment attributions (e.g., firm performance). Our findings offer novel theoretical and methodological avenues for future research on entrepreneurs’ affective experiences and mental health.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258720964447 [free download here]

Rest, Zest, and My Innovative Best: Sleep and Mood as Drivers of Entrepreneurs’ Innovative Behavior

This study investigates the antecedents of an entrepreneur’s day-level innovative behavior. Drawing on 2,420 data points from a 10-day experience sampling study with 121 entrepreneurs, we find that sleep quality is a precursor to an entrepreneur’s subsequent innovative behavior, in accordance with the effort-recovery model. Moreover, sleep quality is positively related to high-activation positive moods (e.g., enthusiastic, inspired) and negatively related to high-activation negative moods (e.g., tension, anxiety). Our multilevel structural equation model indicates that high-activation positive moods mediate the relationship between sleep quality and innovative behavior on a given day. These results are relevant for managing entrepreneurial performance.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258718798630 (open access)