Publications
Hsieh, C. and Lee, W. 2021. "How would autonomist and autocratic teammates affect individual satisfaction on pre-founding entrepreneurship teams?" Journal of Small Business Management. Forthcoming.
Abstract:
We explore how differentially autonomous and autocratic teammates affect each other’s exposure to conflict and then satisfaction, on pre-founding entrepreneurship teams. Data from university venture creation courses show that preferences for freedom (from rules) and discretion (over one’s job) each have their unique interactive effects, when combining one’s own preference with teammates’ preference. In contrast, one’s preference for independence instead interacts with actual interdependence in directly affecting satisfaction in one’s job. The need to lead autocratically interacts with teammates’ need for the same, increasing task conflict and diminishing satisfaction. However, intra-team conflict plays no role as a mediating variable between patterns of preferences and resulting satisfaction.
Hsieh, C. 2021. "Suspense: exploring a new lens for outcome uncertainty in entrepreneurship". International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing. Forthcoming.
Abstract:
In entrepreneurship, we hear about the value of ‘embracing uncertainty and failure,’ given what can be learned ex post. Instead of relying on ex post learning, this article examines the ex ante emotional condition of suspense generated in situations involving outcome uncertainty. I investigate cognitive conditions under which entrepreneurs experience suspense, and under which they enjoy it. Empirical analysis reveals that some determinants of suspense felt by an audience (e.g. while watching a movie) are the same ones that determine suspense felt by entrepreneurs in their own lives. For example, the suspending of belief (e.g. ignoring one’s own schemas) plays a role in both contexts. However, neither hope nor fear or their interaction appear to drive the typical entrepreneur’s felt suspense. Besides developing a concept of entrepreneurial suspense, I relate the notion of suspense to six different areas of the entrepreneurship literature: goal-setting, risk-seeking, entrepreneurial temporality, imagination, overconfidence/optimism, and failure.
Hsieh, C., Parker, S., and van Praag, C.M. 2018. "Risk, Balanced Skills, and Entrepreneurship". Small Business Economics.
Abstract:
This paper proposes that risk aversion encourages individuals to invest in balanced skill profiles, making them more likely to become entrepreneurs. By not having taken this possible linkage into account, previous research has underestimated the impacts both of risk aversion and balanced skills on the likelihood individuals choose entrepreneurship. Data on Dutch university graduates provides evidence which supports this contention. It thereby raises the possibility that even risk-averse people might be suited to entrepreneurship; and it may also help explain why prior research has generated mixed evidence about the effects of risk aversion on selection into entrepreneurship.
Hsieh, C. 2017. "Are the self-employed more likely to emerge from sequential or parallel work experience in business-related functions?". Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice.
Abstract:
Recent theory suggests generalists are more likely than specialists to become self-employed. However, little research has examined whether different career paths of generalists are equally effective. I argue those experiencing business-related functions in parallel rather than sequentially are more likely to become self-employed—as a career proceeds over years—because ‘connections’ detected across domains during parallel work experience are particularly valuable in discovery of opportunities in future. Yet, positive effects of experiencing domains sequentially are more strongly amplified when individuals are analytically disposed. Focusing on the career of scientists and engineers, SESTAT data uniquely administered four times during a 6-year period broadly support the hypotheses but appear most relevant for male, incorporated, and/or non-academic entrepreneurial self-employment.
Abstract:
We explore how differentially autonomous and autocratic teammates affect each other’s exposure to conflict and then satisfaction, on pre-founding entrepreneurship teams. Data from university venture creation courses show that preferences for freedom (from rules) and discretion (over one’s job) each have their unique interactive effects, when combining one’s own preference with teammates’ preference. In contrast, one’s preference for independence instead interacts with actual interdependence in directly affecting satisfaction in one’s job. The need to lead autocratically interacts with teammates’ need for the same, increasing task conflict and diminishing satisfaction. However, intra-team conflict plays no role as a mediating variable between patterns of preferences and resulting satisfaction.
Hsieh, C. 2021. "Suspense: exploring a new lens for outcome uncertainty in entrepreneurship". International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing. Forthcoming.
Abstract:
In entrepreneurship, we hear about the value of ‘embracing uncertainty and failure,’ given what can be learned ex post. Instead of relying on ex post learning, this article examines the ex ante emotional condition of suspense generated in situations involving outcome uncertainty. I investigate cognitive conditions under which entrepreneurs experience suspense, and under which they enjoy it. Empirical analysis reveals that some determinants of suspense felt by an audience (e.g. while watching a movie) are the same ones that determine suspense felt by entrepreneurs in their own lives. For example, the suspending of belief (e.g. ignoring one’s own schemas) plays a role in both contexts. However, neither hope nor fear or their interaction appear to drive the typical entrepreneur’s felt suspense. Besides developing a concept of entrepreneurial suspense, I relate the notion of suspense to six different areas of the entrepreneurship literature: goal-setting, risk-seeking, entrepreneurial temporality, imagination, overconfidence/optimism, and failure.
Hsieh, C., Parker, S., and van Praag, C.M. 2018. "Risk, Balanced Skills, and Entrepreneurship". Small Business Economics.
Abstract:
This paper proposes that risk aversion encourages individuals to invest in balanced skill profiles, making them more likely to become entrepreneurs. By not having taken this possible linkage into account, previous research has underestimated the impacts both of risk aversion and balanced skills on the likelihood individuals choose entrepreneurship. Data on Dutch university graduates provides evidence which supports this contention. It thereby raises the possibility that even risk-averse people might be suited to entrepreneurship; and it may also help explain why prior research has generated mixed evidence about the effects of risk aversion on selection into entrepreneurship.
Hsieh, C. 2017. "Are the self-employed more likely to emerge from sequential or parallel work experience in business-related functions?". Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice.
Abstract:
Recent theory suggests generalists are more likely than specialists to become self-employed. However, little research has examined whether different career paths of generalists are equally effective. I argue those experiencing business-related functions in parallel rather than sequentially are more likely to become self-employed—as a career proceeds over years—because ‘connections’ detected across domains during parallel work experience are particularly valuable in discovery of opportunities in future. Yet, positive effects of experiencing domains sequentially are more strongly amplified when individuals are analytically disposed. Focusing on the career of scientists and engineers, SESTAT data uniquely administered four times during a 6-year period broadly support the hypotheses but appear most relevant for male, incorporated, and/or non-academic entrepreneurial self-employment.
Hsieh, C. 2016. "Only a symptom of opportunity? Investigating entrepreneurial incongruity through humor science". International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing.
Abstract:
Instead of treating opportunity as entrepreneurships molecular unit of analysis, this paper offers a new theoretical perspective by placing the burden on the entrepreneur to verify the presence of incongruity. However, how can we better make sense of the relationship between incongruity and entrepreneurial opportunity? I draw insight from research on the emotion of humor. First, the more phenomena antecedent or consequent to the incongruity are identified, the more likely the entrepreneurial problem or inventive solution emerges, respectively. Framing incongruity as part of the problem versus a solution becomes pivotal to opportunity discovery processes. Thus, besides Druckers conceptualization of incongruity as a symptom of opportunity, it may also serve as a precursor. Cognitive congruency furthermore suggests that moderately complex incongruity resolutions are most likely to maximize conjoint probability of comprehension and appreciation of an opportunity, as a step towards entrepreneurial action. Errors or incongruities emerge as entrepreneurs make overly creative resolutions to prior incongruity.
Abstract:
Instead of treating opportunity as entrepreneurships molecular unit of analysis, this paper offers a new theoretical perspective by placing the burden on the entrepreneur to verify the presence of incongruity. However, how can we better make sense of the relationship between incongruity and entrepreneurial opportunity? I draw insight from research on the emotion of humor. First, the more phenomena antecedent or consequent to the incongruity are identified, the more likely the entrepreneurial problem or inventive solution emerges, respectively. Framing incongruity as part of the problem versus a solution becomes pivotal to opportunity discovery processes. Thus, besides Druckers conceptualization of incongruity as a symptom of opportunity, it may also serve as a precursor. Cognitive congruency furthermore suggests that moderately complex incongruity resolutions are most likely to maximize conjoint probability of comprehension and appreciation of an opportunity, as a step towards entrepreneurial action. Errors or incongruities emerge as entrepreneurs make overly creative resolutions to prior incongruity.
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Hsieh, C. 2011. “Explicitly searching for useful inventions: Dynamic relatedness and the costs of connecting versus synthesizing”. Scientometrics, 86(2): 381-404.
Abstract: Inventions combine technological features. When features are barely related, burdensomely broad knowledge is required to identify the situations that they share. When features are overly related, burdensomely broad knowledge is required to identify the situations that distinguish them. Thus, according to my first hypothesis, when features are moderately related, the costs of connecting and costs of synthesizing are cumulatively minimized, and the most useful inventions emerge. I also hypothesize that continued experimentation with a specific set of features is likely to lead to the discovery of decreasingly useful inventions; the earlier-identified connections reflect the more common consumer situations. Covering data from all industries, the empirical analysis provides broad support for the first hypothesis. Regressions to test the second hypothesis are inconclusive when examining industry types individually. Yet, this study represents an exploratory investigation, and future research should test refined hypotheses with more sophisticated data, such as that found in literature-based discovery research. |
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Hsieh, C., Lazzarini, S.G., Nickerson, J.A., and Laurini, M. 2010. “Does Ownership Affect the Variability of the Production Process? Evidence from International Courier Services”. Organization Science, 21(4): 892-912.
Abstract:
A firm often must ensure that products or services it produces match customer expectations. We define variability as any deviation in a production process yielding products or services whose attributes differ from the firm's stated target specifications. Firms pursuing products marked by low variability are more subject to maladaptation costs if production processes are not adjusted to avoid nonconformities. Furthermore, such adjustments often require idiosyncratic investments (e.g., dedicated information technology systems), thereby creating contractual hazards and potential underinvestment. We hypothesize that ownership of sequential activities in the value chain helps mitigate problems associated with maladaptation as well as suboptimalities in transaction-specific investment, thereby resulting in lower variability. Using data on delivery times from the Japanese international courier and small package services industry, we assess the variability-reducing role of ownership in two complementary ways. The first approach is parametric, allowing us to assess the impact of ownership on the variance associated with delivery time; here we focus on shipments that frequently fail to arrive precisely within the time period initially expected by customers. The second approach is more consistent with the notion of reliability, or the likelihood that shipments will not arrive later than expected: we nonparametrically estimate the distribution of deviations between actual and expected delivery time, and verify how distinct organizational choices change the distribution. Ownership of multiple segments yields a particularly pronounced effect on both variance and reliability. Ownership bestows variability-reducing benefits of ownership, especially when ownership is observed in multiple stages of the value chain.
Hsieh, C., Nickerson, J.A., and Zenger, T.R. 2007. “Opportunity discovery, problem solving, and the theory of the entrepreneurial firm”. Journal of Management Studies, 44(7): 1255-1277.
Abstract:
When should an entrepreneur employ a market to help discover and exploit opportunities, and when should the entrepreneur create a firm to do so? If a firm is created, how should it be organized? In this paper we argue that opportunities equate to valuable problem-solution pairings, and that opportunity discovery relates to deliberate search or recognition over this solution space. As problem complexity increases, experiential (or ‘directional’) search via trial-and-error provides fewer benefits, and cognitive (or ‘heuristic’) search via theorizing becomes more useful. Cognitive search, however, requires knowledge sharing, when knowledge is distributed among specialists, that is plagued by a knowledge appropriation hazard and a strategic knowledge accumulation hazard. Markets, authority-based hierarchy, and consensus-based hierarchy then have differential effects on the efficiency of opportunity discovery given the complexity of the associated problem. Those entrepreneurs with exceptional capabilities of opportunity recognition can efficiently adopt authority-based governance over a wider range of complexity. We thus combine the two major modes of opportunity discovery – search and recognition – onto one framework that can explain different entrepreneurial organizational forms, resulting in an entrepreneurial theory of the firm.