Journal of Business Venturing 22 (2007) 337–339

Editorial

Lally, Darden, Fisher retreat 2005

1. Introduction

In the Spring of 2005, a group of 40 or so scholars interested in entrepreneurial

phenomena gathered in the hill country south of Columbus, OH, to discuss their latest

research. It was an eclectic group of psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and

economists, some of whom saw their primary research objective as contributing to the

theory of entrepreneurship, per se, and others of whom saw their primary research

objective as contributing to some other academic discipline–strategic management or

organizational behavior, for example–and studied entrepreneurship because it was a good

setting to evaluate issues that were important in these other disciplines.

In this beautiful and peaceful setting, the great strength of this group was its

eclectic nature. No single theoretical perspective dominated the conversations. Indeed,

authors who drew from a single theoretical approach were routinely challenged to

broaden their thinking by considering theory and research from alternative perspec-

tives. Heated debates ensued, but debates inevitably benefited the papers that were

presented. Some of those papers are published here in this issue of the Journal of

Business Venturing.

While these papers are very much a manifestation of entrepreneurship research as it

exists in the new century, they also have much in common with traditional research in this

area. Indeed, when the first issue of this journal was published–in 1985–nine articles

covered five distinct questions: (1) Who is the entrepreneur? (Sexton and Bowman, 1985),

(2) How do entrepreneurs raise capital? (Bruno and Tyebjee, 1985; MacMillan et al., 1985;

Sahlman and Stevenson, 1985)); (3) How do entrepreneurs manage rapid growth?

(Cooper, 1985; Hambrick and Crozier, 1985); (4) What impact do networks have on

entrepreneurial phenomena? (Birley, 1985); and (5) What role does corporate entrepre-

neurship have? (Kanter, 1985; Miller and Camp, 1985). The topics of this special issue

address all but the last two of these five questions.

Burmeister and Schade address the question bWho is the entrepreneur?Q However,

rather than focusing on the impact of personality traits on entrepreneurial behavior, this

paper builds on recent developments in cognitive theory to examine the extent that

entrepreneurs manifest particular cognitive biases. These authors are able to show that,

unlike prior research that showed that entrepreneurs are more biased than non-

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Editorial338

entrepreneurs, with respect to the bstatus quoQ bias, entrepreneurs are actually less biased

than non-entrepreneurs.

Junkunc’s article examines the relationship between radical technological change

and capital structure for entrepreneurial firms, and thus addresses the second

traditional question bHow do entrepreneurs raise capital?Q However, this paper goes

beyond simply examining the capital acquisition process to discuss how the specific

human capital investments required to create and exploit certain kinds of market

opportunities have implications for the ability of firms to raise capital. Drawing on

agency theory, efficient capital market theory, and theories of human capital, this

paper begins to describe some of the unique challenges for entrepreneurial firms

raising capital.

The next three papers in this special issue address the third question: bHow do

entrepreneurs manage rapid growth?Q The fist of these papers, by Reuber and Fisher,

combines resource-based theory and social cognition theory to examine the impact of

reputation on a firm’s ability to grow. The second, by Michaels, applies transactions cost

economics to understand the conditions under which an entrepreneurial firm’s potential

customers will decide to buy from an entrepreneur rather than producing a product or

service themselves. The third of these papers, by Alvarez, argues that traditional

transactions cost economics explanations of the creation of firms has to be modified in

the uncertain conditions facing entrepreneurs seeking to create and appropriate

entrepreneurial rents. Alvarez argues suggest that incomplete contract theories of firm

creation may be more appropriate in an entrepreneurial setting then traditional

transactions cost theory.

Given that the articles published in this special issue span some of the long-

standing research questions in the field of entrepreneurship,1 it seems entirely

appropriate that the last paper in this issue–by Zahara–would provide a commentary

about the growth and evolution of entrepreneurship theory over the last two decades. In his

article, Zahara argues for the importance of theory in entrepreneurship research, but

provides cautions about simply applying theory developed elsewhere in the field of

entrepreneurship.

The conference where the papers in this issue was originally presented was co-

sponsored by the Department of Management and Human Resources and the Center for

Entrepreneurship, both at the Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University.

Several colleagues helped in planning and executing this conference, and in providing the

reviews that helped developed the papers that are published here. One person, though,

stands out–Jennifer Riegle–Professor Alvarez’s tireless research assistant, a recent

graduate of OSU’s undergraduate program who is currently experiencing social

entrepreneurship by teaching junior high school in some of New York’s most

disadvantaged schools.

1 That there is not social network paper in this collection should not be taken to suggest that the impact of

networks on entrepreneurial phenomena is no longer important. It just so happens that no network papers were

submitted to the conference from which this special issue was derived.

Editorial 339

References

Birley, S., 1985. The role of networks in the entrepreneurial process. Journal of Business Venturing 1 (1),

107–117.

Bruno, A.V., Tyebjee, T.T., 1985. The entrepreneur’s search for capital. Journal of Business Venturing 1 (1),

61–74.

Cooper, A., 1985. The role of incubator organizations in the founding of growth-oriented firms. Journal of

Business Venturing 1 (1), 75–86.

Hambrick, D.C., Crozier, L.M., 1985. Stumblers and stars in the management of rapid growth. Journal of

Business Venturing 1 (1), 31–45.

Kanter, R., 1985. Supporting innovation and venture development in established companies. Journal of Business

Venturing 1 (1), 47–60.

MacMillan, I.C., Siegal, R., Narasimha, P.N.S., 1985. Criteria used by venture capitalists to evaluate new venture

proposals. Journal of Business Venturing 1 (1), 119–128.

Miller, A., Camp, B., 1985. Exploring determinants of success in corporate ventures. Journal of Business

Venturing 1 (1), 87–105.

Sahlman, W.H., Stevenson, H.H., 1985. Capital market myopia. Journal of Business Venturing 1 (1), 7–30.

Sexton, D., Bowman, N., 1985. The entrepreneur: a capable executive and more. Journal of Business Venturing

1 (1), 129–140.

Sharon A. Alvarez*

Jay B. Barney

Fisher College of Business, Max Planck Institute,

2100 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, United States

E-mail address: Alvarez_42@cob.osu.edu.

*Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 614 688 8289.