SBRC seminar: Shotter's withness/withinness thinking in education, research and professional practice
Speaker: Dr Rita Klapper (University of Utrecht, Netherlands )
Date: Monday 3 December 2018
Time: 1-2pm
Room: KHBS3034
About the speaker:
Dr Rita G. Klapper is presently Senior Assistant Professor in Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at the University of Utrecht. She researches and teaches at the interface of entrepreneurship, sustainability and leadership and has previously held posts as Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management at Liverpool John Moores University, UK and Associate Professor at Rouen Business School, now NEOMA. Rita's research interests focus on: (a) sustainable entrepreneurship, innovative business models for sustainable enterprise and cognitive perspectives; and (b) sustainable entrepreneurship education.
SRBC seminar: The categorical imperative in a two-dimensional space: Founders' background and resource acquisition at IPO
Speaker: Professor Vangelis Souitaris (Cass Business School)
Date: 14th December 2018
Time: 1-2pm
Room: KHBS 3022, Kingston Business School
Abstract
Social categorization theory suggests that specialised providers are endowed with more resources than those spanning multiple categories. Yet, because category spanning may simultaneously happen along multiple relevant dimensions, research must ask how category spanning in such a multidimensional space shapes outcomes. Does the hybridity penalty apply for each of category dimension separately? Does category spanning in multiple dimensions simultaneously increase the penalty of hybridity? Or can specialisation in one dimension offset the penalty of category spanning in another dimension?
In this study, we focus on founders of new ventures, categorized by investor audiences along their industry and functional backgrounds (a two-dimensional space) and we relate founder categorization to resource acquisition at IPO. By analyzing a novel, hand-collected dataset of 173 entrepreneurial IPOs in the Alternative Investment Market in London (2002-2013), we find that, compared to IPO firms whose founders specialize in one industry or one function, those founded by category spanners are generally devalued by investors. However, devaluation is less severe in case founders are partly hybrid, spanning categories in one dimension (either for industry or function) but being a specialist in the other dimension. We also show that an external expert endorsement-in our case, intensive VC affiliations-can offset the penalty of hybridity, especially when hybridity occurs along multiple dimensions.
About the speaker
Vangelis Souitaris is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at Cass Business School. He founded the Entrepreneurship group at Cass and he is the current subject-group leader. Before Cass, Vangelis spent 6 years as an assistant professor at Imperial College London. He currently holds a visiting chair at the University of St. Gallen. Vangelis also visited on sabbatical LBS (2015-16), Wharton (2008-09), Bologna (2008), and Vlerick (2005). In 2011, he was recognized as one of the top 40 business school professors under 40 years old, by the online business education magazine "Poets and Quants".
Vangelis specialises in behavioural and social aspects of technology entrepreneurship. His behavioural portfolio includes studies on entrepreneurial inspiration, polychronicity, analysis versus intuition, halo effects, and escalation of commitment. His sociologically-driven work includes studies on institutional and network influences on technology enterprise. Currently he focuses on 3 specific areas: 1) Behavioural aspects of entrepreneurial decision making, 2) Entrepreneurial finance and 3) Academic entrepreneurship. Vangelis published work in prestigious field journals (Research Policy, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Journal of Product Innovation Management, R&D Management, Technovation) and also general management journals (Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Harvard Business Review, Journal of Management Studies, British Journal of Management, Long Range Planning).
SBRC seminar: Tenacity, workplace adversity, and problem-focused voice
Speaker: Professor Dirk De Clercq (Brock University, Canada & Kingston University)
Where: Room KHKH1041, Kingston Hill Campus
When: Monday, 19 February 2018
About the speaker
Dirk De Clercq is professor of Management in the Goodman School of Business at Brock University, Canada. He is also Research Professor in the Small Business Research Centre at Kingston University. He is a recipient of the Brock University Chancellor's Chair for Research Excellence, Faculty of Graduate Studies Graduate Mentorship Award, Goodman School of Business Distinguished Researcher Award, and Departmental Researcher of the Year Award. He teaches Entrepreneurship and Research Methods, and is Consulting Editor of International Small Business Journal. His research focuses on entrepreneurship, innovation, organizational behaviour and cross-country studies.
Abstract
This paper examines the relationship between employees' tenacity levels and problem-focused voice behaviour, as well as how this relationship may be augmented when employees encounter adversity in relationships with peers or in the organizational climate in general. Based on quantitative data collected through surveys administered to employees and their supervisors in a large manufacturing organization, the results inform organizations that the allocation of personal energy to reporting organisational problems might be perceived as particularly useful by employees who encounter significant hardships in their work environments.
Entrepreneurial Opportunities, Language and Time
Speaker: Professor Dimo Dimov (University of Bath)
Date: Friday, 19 January 2018