International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing (6 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• A Note on Resilience in the Face of Adversity When Small Droplets Trigger Big Changes  
  by Amélie Wuillaume, Alex Ferritto, Frank Janssen 
  Abstract: Disaster events, such as the Covid-19, have the potential to threaten lives and economies. Some people and ventures are disrupted while others react. This paper focuses on the response of such individuals and ventures to this unexpected pandemic. This research is specifically based on a detailed exploration of a large set of initiatives that have emerged in the face of the pandemic. These initiatives are either the result of the adaptation of existing ventures or have been newly created in response to the pandemic's consequences. The findings suggest that the conditions of Covid-19 prompted individuals and ventures to show resilience. This study shows that they adapt and develop initiatives that create value which differ in terms of (a) magnitude, (b) timeline, and (c) kind and describes the process that enables the quick response of these initiatives.
  Keywords: Adversity; Disaster; Resilience; Value Creation; COVID.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEV.2025.10072024
   
  
• Textual Information Disclosures and Banks' Financial Performance: Evidence from Emerging Economies  
  by Javid Iqbal, Faheem Aslam, Fasih Ahmed 
  Abstract: We investigate the link between management's willingness for transparent information disclosures and financial performance. The study employs data from 61 banks of sixteen emerging economies covering a period of 2007-2018. Using the system GMM, the results are in line with the obfuscation hypothesis, which suggests that the management of the banks complicates the textual information when it is expected bad future financial performance. Our results are robust as we use multiple complexity indexes to verify our results. In addition, we also deal with endogeneity problems that are inherent in the data. The study demonstrates that the predictive models should not be based on only financial data, but textual disclosures provide additional sources of information to be included in the model. The main contribution of the study is that it may benefit shareholders by helping reduce asymmetric information between them and the management (agency problem). This study provides guidelines to regulators and other stakeholders for understanding the textual complexity in banks annual reports as early warnings of bad performance and mitigating the severity of the problem.
  Keywords: Information Asymmetry; Text Complexity; Disclosures; Performance Predictions; Emerging Economies; System GMM.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEV.2025.10074053
   
  
• Exploring the Influence of Maladaptive Personality Traits on Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation  
  by Stephanie Bosch, Maike Gerken, Sabrina Schell, Marcel Hülsbeck 
  Abstract: Research emphasises the crucial role of the entrepreneur’s personality in terms of success, economic growth, innovation, and competitiveness. Despite the known importance of the role of the individual, entrepreneurial research still overlooks key personality traits of individuals with strong entrepreneurial tendencies. Not only is the focus still on so called bright side traits but even the in popularity growing research of so called dark side traits is still using very narrow models that do not encompass a wide enough framework and misses out on crucial maladaptive traits. The central question is, what role do maladaptive personality traits play on entrepreneurial orientation? We surveyed 420 participants, using a new-maladaptive trait model to explore their impact. Furthermore, we further used Goldbergs big-five factor markers IPIP questionnaire to control for adaptive personality traits, as well as Hollands RIASEC and Scheins career anchors to measure individual entrepreneurial orientation. Our study reveals psychoticism to be the primary predictor of entrepreneurial orientation among maladaptive traits, antagonism and disinhibition were further maladaptive factors. These insights enhance our grasp of entrepreneurial orientation and raise awareness of the importance to not only include bright side traits or measure the dark triad (Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy) but also measure maladaptive traits in entrepreneurial research. Beyond this, our paper delivers practical implications for recruitment and developing entrepreneurial talent by demonstrating that, for example, a more in-depth assessment and understanding of a candidates personality profile can reveal insights into individual strengths and motivations.
  Keywords: Personality Traits; Entrepreneurial Orientation; Dark Triad; Maladaptive Personality Traits; Psychoticism.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEV.2025.10074180
   
  
• Who are destructive Entrepreneurs, what Do they Do, and What kind of Damage do they Cause? A Thematic Analysis  
  by Farhad Feizi 
  Abstract: Three decades after Baumols (1990) seminal paper, Entrepreneurship: productive, unproductive, and destructive, we still know little about the last type. However, the growing number of value-destroying activities in the business world has prompted scholars in recent years to bring this topic to the forefront and ask why, how, and to what extent entrepreneurs act against others. As an essential tool for further theorisation, we conducted a mechanism-based thematic analysis of the existing literature, investigating micro-level reasons that motivate entrepreneurs to act intentionally against others, the behaviours they employ, and the resulting outcomes. This analysis identified egoism and a control-freak mindset as the most discussed personality dispositions driving entrepreneurs to act destructively, with tyrannical management and corrupt practices as the most frequent damaging behaviours, and a wide range of organisational and social damages as their consequences
  Keywords: critical entrepreneurship studies; destructive entrepreneurship; mechanism-based synthesis; thematic analysis.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEV.2025.10074480
   
  
• Manifestation of Strategic Entrepreneurship during the Covidisation of the Economy as the Ultimate Expression of the VUCA Environment  
  by Radko Radev, Veselina Yankova 
  Abstract: This article examines the manifestation of strategic entrepreneurship during the COVIDisation of the economy, viewed as the ultimate expression of the VUCA environment. It conceptualises strategic entrepreneurship as the intersection between strategy (advantage-seeking management) and entrepreneurship (opportunity-seeking actions). The term COVIDisation of the economy captures the challenges firms faced due to COVID-19, encompassing both short-term impacts and long-term transformations. Using a mixed-method approach that combined quantitative and qualitative research conducted during the first and third waves of COVID-19, the study identifies how companies exhibited strategic entrepreneurial behaviour to adapt to uncertainty. Four manifestations of strategic entrepreneurship are analysed organisational rejuvenation, sustained regeneration, strategic renewal, and domain redefinition each reflecting different degrees of transformation. The paper presents a model outlining these forms and their specific characteristics, concluding that strategic entrepreneurship plays a central role in enabling firms to navigate and thrive amid turbulent, post-COVID business environments.
  Keywords: strategic entrepreneurship; COVIDization of the economy; transformation; configuration.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEV.2025.10074611
   
  

Special Issue on: The dark side of entrepreneurship

• Looking Back: a Retrospective Narrative Analysis of Entrepreneurs' Failure Experiences  
  by Marcus I. Crews 
  Abstract: While failed ventures are reported as the most likely outcome of an attempt to create a new venture, there is a relative lack of research examining the failure experience from the entrepreneur's perspective. Using narrative analysis to examine entrepreneurs' first-person accounts of past failures, we find entrepreneurs attend to gains and losses within and across financial, operational, psychological, social, and environmental dimensions of performance when reflecting on a venture experience. In addition, structural analysis of entrepreneurial failure narratives reveals narrative arc differences in information disclosure (staging), story advancement (plot progression), and emergence and resolution of conflict (cognitive tension) that vary by type of failure an entrepreneur experiences. The present study contributes to the entrepreneurial failure and cognition literatures by identifying the content of entrepreneurs' personal frameworks for performance assessment and showing patterns in the psychological processing of varied forms of entrepreneurial failure. The study concludes with suggestions for future research.
  Keywords: entrepreneurial failure; public failure narratives; subjective failure criteria; mental accounting.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJEV.2025.10071807