Dissertation
FROM START TO FINISH: AN EXPLORATION OF DECISION MAKING IN NEW VENTURE DEVELOPMENT, ENTREPRENEURIAL COMMITMENT, AND FIRM PERFORMANCE
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2014
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/111222
Abstract
This dissertation investigates decision making through three essays of nascent new ventures, entrepreneurial commitment, and established firms. The first essay examines the impact of psychological ownership and marketplace uncertainty on the lead founder's decision to maintain or forgo control of his or her new venture, through the distribution of ownership percentage to the founding team, as well as how this decision impacts the development of nascent new ventures. Drawing upon the entrepreneur behavior theory and using a sample of 137 lead founders of nascent new ventures, I find psychological ownership is positively related to the ownership percentage retained by the lead founder, while marketplace confidence positively moderates this relationship. Taking a longitudinal approach, I follow up with these lead founders to find that a more uneven ownership distribution among the founding team increases the odds of nascent new ventures becoming an actual business.
The second essay seeks to understand the impact that the ownership distribution decision has on those found on the receiving end. Specifically, I examine the justice that new venture cofounders perceive their ownership share to be and how this perception leads to an increase in cofounder commitment to the new venture. Using a sample of 117 cofounders, I find that perceived distributive justice is positively related new venture commitment. Furthermore, I find that deciding to join a new venture by choice has as a positive moderating effect on the focal relationship. However, if cofounders have additional employment, outside of the new venture, the relationship between justice and commitment significantly weakens.
While the first two essays focus on the inner workings of new ventures, the third essay examines the decision-making and performance of established firms following firm-level mistakes. Specifically, I test the effectiveness of engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR), following a negative firm event, as a resource to help mitigate financial damage. By drawing upon normative stakeholder theory, I analyze the CSR decisions of 168 publicly traded firms. I find that the timing, responsiveness, and frequency of engaging in CSR, all positively moderate the damage that negative events have on a firm's financial performance.
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Details
- Title
- FROM START TO FINISH: AN EXPLORATION OF DECISION MAKING IN NEW VENTURE DEVELOPMENT, ENTREPRENEURIAL COMMITMENT, AND FIRM PERFORMANCE
- Creators
- David S. Noack
- Contributors
- Jonathan D Arthurs (Advisor)Ken Butterfield (Committee Member)Arvin Sahaym (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Carson College of Business
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 133
- Identifiers
- 99900581646301842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation