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1. Do makerspaces affect entrepreneurship? If so, who, how, and when?

   https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3664  

   Bao, Jiayi (September 2024, Strategic Management Journal)

   Abstract Research SummaryMakerspaces are physical spaces that offer individuals fabrication tools and materials (e.g., 3D printers) to make artifacts. Although not designed specifically for entrepreneurs, these spaces offer affordable access to rapid prototyping infrastructure. This study examines whether makerspaces affect entrepreneurship and, if so,who,how, andwhen. Leveraging hand‐collected data on US makerspaces and large archival data on Kickstarter projects, I show that makerspaces positively affect entrepreneurial participation and subsequent commercialization outcomes. However, these effects are mostly specific to hardware (vs. nonhardware) activities that typically involve physical prototypes. I find that the effect on entry is driven more by new (vs. established) but intentional (vs. accidental) entrepreneurs and that the effect on commercialization comes from two operating and complementary channels—resource provision and social facilitation. Managerial SummaryDespite a few high‐profile anecdotal entrepreneurial successes that emerged from the increasingly popular makerspaces, whether these spaces have large‐scale effects on entrepreneurship remains unclear. Do makerspaces encourage entrepreneurial participation, if so, who? Do makerspaces benefit entrepreneurial commercialization, if so, how? Are there any conditions determining when these effects would occur? This study demonstrates meaningful broad‐based impacts of makerspaces on particular types of entrepreneurship with growth potential. The findings suggest that competitive, prominent accelerators and incubators are not the only avenues for entrepreneurs to achieve commercialization success. Useful insights are discussed for entrepreneurial program managers and policy makers designing systems and structures that support inclusive prosperity for entrepreneurs. 

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2. Increasing U.S. Competitiveness by Investing in Underrepresented, Entrepreneurial-Minded Postdocs in High-Tech Startups

   Ivanitzki, Teddy; Johnson, Rashida (October 2022, International Association of Journals and Conferences (IAJC))

   IAJC panel (Ed.)

   Abstract Studies have shown that in the United States, women, Black, and Hispanic entrepreneurs are given a disproportionately tiny fraction of venture capital funding, especially when compared to their representation in the population. This investment discrepancy is not only socially unjust, but it also deprives the U.S. of the advantages in discovery and global competitiveness that could stem from these groups’ increased participation in innovative sectors. This is particularly true within transdisciplinary startups, like smart energy or nanomedical technologies, all of which require crossdisciplinary experts. Every new entrepreneur in these fields experiences challenges in finding adequate support. These challenges exist at a time in the 21st century when U.S. innovation is facing unprecedented pressures in competition for primacy. In 1960, the U.S. research and development (R&D) expenditure for defense and private industries was approximately 69 percent of global spending on R&D. In 2016, however, the U.S. share of global R&D expenditure had decreased to just 28 percent due to China’s substantial advances. If this trend continues, China’s R&D expenditure measured by GDP will outperform those of the U.S. by 2030. To ensure that the U.S. remains a world leader in R&D, the National Science Foundation (NSF) launched the Small Business Postdoctoral Research Diversity Fellowship (SBPRDF) followed by the Innovative Postdoctoral Entrepreneurial Research Fellowship (I-PERF). Both facilitate the professional development of underrepresented research fellows by offering them invaluable experience within research and technology companies. This paper provides a pathway for enhancing diversity in the startup and entrepreneurial landscapes, improving opportunities for researchers from underserved groups, and increasing the number of highly competent entrepreneurs within the U.S. STEM community. The startup companies involved in the program, which are also supported by the NSF, comprise a variety of new, mixed STEM fields that were unknown just a few decades ago. 

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3. Dataset associated with U.S. Apparel Manufacturers Survey

   https://doi.org/10.25675/10217/234595  

   Miller, Nancy J.; Engel-Enright, Carol (January 2022, Mountain Scholar)

   Firms do not continue and prosper purely on their own individual endeavors, as each firm is influenced by the activities of others, and thus direct and indirect relationships shape the firm’s strategic management. These relationships form the tactics by which knowledge and other strategically important resources are accessed and created. Forming and maintaining ties among members of a network have been the subject for numerous research studies in the social, economic, and business literature. Our work is framed by the resource-based view of the firm perspective along with social capital theory and its shared constructs in network theory. Prior findings suggest that networking ties are strategic actions generated for firm growth and continuance. The ties may be short-term or develop into long-term relationships. The purpose of this research is to fill some of the gaps in interorganizational networking strategy by analyzing five antecedents that have been suggested in the literature as individually associated with entrepreneurs’ engagement in network ties. In this way, our work provides another research avenue for examining networking’s contribution to strategic management. We hypothesized positive connections to entrepreneurs’ engagement in network ties from antecedents involving the firm’s knowledge absorptive capacity, business goals, entrepreneurial orientation, social interactions, and support from their environment. We tested our proposed macrolevel direct and moderating connections through an online survey of 125 U.S. apparel manufacturing firms. The apparel manufacturing sector in the U.S., as in many countries, has struggled with multiple disrupting factors contributing to the sector’s decline in firm continuance. Networks, serving to build domestic and international supply chain ties, may provide one solution for adapting the firm’s resources enhancing global competitiveness. Findings from OLS regression analyses support our hypothesized connections in that each of the five antecedents significantly contributed to entrepreneurs’ engagement in network ties; however, when all five were collectively examined only absorptive capacity, social interaction, and business goals were significant (R2 = 0.58). Further examination of moderation effects found the entrepreneurs’ perceptions of a supportive environment to modify both entrepreneurial orientation and business goals. The effects of a supportive environment on business goals’ relationship with network ties were greater when perceptions of a supportive environment decreased, while the effects of a supportive environment on entrepreneurship orientation’s relationship with network ties were greater when perceptions of a supportive environment increased. Future studies may direct attention to other industry sectors or countries for replication with larger sample sizes as we recognize the limitations to generalizability and scale refinement due to our limited sample size. Examining the five constructs sheds light on how an organization’s decisions may relate to engaging in networking and provides theoretical as well as practical implications that contributes to the larger organizational system framework. This dataset contains responses from 97 U.S. apparel manufacturers collected via an online survey during the fall of 2019. The apparel manufacturing sector in the U.S., as in many countries, has struggled with multiple disrupting factors contributing to the sector’s decline in firm continuance. Networks, serving to build domestic and international supply chain ties, may provide one solution for adapting the firm’s resources enhancing global competitiveness. The purpose of the study was to examine connections to entrepreneurs’ engagement in network ties from antecedents involving the firm’s knowledge absorptive capacity, business goals, entrepreneurial orientation, social interactions, and support from their environment. 

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4. Inclusion of Underrepresented Entrepreneurial-minded Postdocs in High-tech Startups Increases U.S. Competitiveness

   https://doi.org/10.34297  

   Ivanitzki, T; Johnson, R; Levitin, R. (October 2021, American journal of biomedical science research)

   null (Ed.)

   Studies have shown that in the U.S., Black, Hispanic, and women entrepreneurs are given a tiny fraction of venture capital funding, which is vastly disproportionate to their representation in the population. This investment discrepancy is not only socially unjust, but it also deprives the U.S. of the advantages in innovation and global competitiveness that could stem from increasing the participation of these groups in innovative sectors. This is particularly true within transdisciplinary startups, including those focused on smart energy, biomedical, and nanomedical technologies, all of which require cross-disciplinary experts. Every new enterprise in these fields experiences challenges in finding adequate support. These challenges exist at a time in the 21st century when U.S. innovation is facing unprecedented pressures in competition for primacy. In 1960, U.S. R&D expenditure for defense and private industries was approximately 69 percent of global spending on R&D [1]; whereas in 2016, the U.S. share of global R&D expenditure had decreased to just 28 percent [2], due to China’s substantial advances in R&D. If this trend continues, both China’s GDP and R&D expenditure measured by GDP will outperform those of the U.S. by 2030 [3]. To ensure that the U.S. remains a world leader in R&D, the National Science Foundation (NSF) launched the Innovative Postdoctoral Entrepreneurial Research Fellowship (I-PERF) program. I-PERF facilitates the professional development of Black, Hispanic and female research fellows, who are typically underrepresented within STEM fields, by offering them invaluable experience within research and technology companies. The program’s goal is to enhance diversity in the startup and entrepreneurial landscapes, improve opportunities for researchers from underserved groups, and increase the number of highly competent entrepreneurs within the U.S. STEM community. The startup companies involved in the program, which are also supported by the NSF, comprise a variety of new, mixed STEM fields that were unknown just a few decades ago. 

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5. Engineering Students Definitions of and Perceptions of Entrepreneurial Failure

   Katona, Thomas; Zappe, Sarah; Creason, Cade R. (June 2023, American Society for Engineering Education)

   This paper focuses on how former collegiate student entrepreneurs define failure and compares their definitions with how academic literature has traditionally defined entrepreneurial failure. The article examines the context by which collegiate student entrepreneurs, and more specifically student entrepreneurs who studied an engineering discipline, start their venture, and how that influences their perceptions of what entrepreneurial failure is. Entrepreneurial failure and its importance to the field of entrepreneurship is discussed almost as frequently as entrepreneurial success. In fact, learning from failure and learning to fail quickly as a means to assist in advancing toward success are often discussed as fundamental key attributes of successful entrepreneurs. Despite this, factors that influence and contribute to entrepreneurial success and how to increase entrepreneurial success through support mechanisms are far more understood than methods that would help support entrepreneurs in learning from failure, or finding ways to fail early and often in a way that helps them as opposed to discouraging or demoralizing them. Given the rapid increase and interest within colleges of engineering in introducing and exposing students to entrepreneurial experiences, and also in developing programs that help students start entrepreneurial ventures, it is timely to better understand the experiences of these student entrepreneurs, particularly the largest percentage of them who started ventures that failed. While the importance of learning from failure is often repeated in the literature, this paper highlights distinct differences between how collegiate entrepreneurs define failure, compared with more traditionally researched non-collegiate entrepreneurs, and also outlines how the various contexts by which students become involved in an entrepreneurial endeavor influences their perception of how failure is defined. 

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