Castrogiovanni, Gary J.

This study tests a model that draws on human capital theory to explain how individual characteristics of founding entrepreneurs influence performance of their new businesses. Using data from Project GATE (Growing America Through Entrepreneurship), this research study assesses the direct effect of gender on new venture performance and the moderating role of gender on the relationship between general and specific human capital and new venture performance.

My work investigates the effects of founding conditions for organizational
founders on the eventual satisfaction founders have with the financial and social
outcomes of their organization. First, I introduce two new constructs, social salience and
economic salience, which represent the intended social or economic goals of the founder
for their organization when they found the new organization. I then utilize organizational
imprinting theory to argue that the social and economic salience, along with founders’
previous work experience, influence the structure of the new organization via the legal
form. I then argue that the legal form influences the specific capabilities that the
organization will acquire or create early in the organization’s life. Finally, I argue that the
capabilities established at founding will influence the eventual satisfaction founders currently have with their organizations’ social and financial outcomes as the capabilities
endure over time.
Based on a sample of 150 organizational founders that are still actively managing
their organizations, my results support the idea that founding conditions for individual
founders influence the capabilities that their organizations create or acquire. Further,
founders’ current level of satisfaction with the financial and social performance of their
organizations is significantly related to these capabilities. These results largely support
the process based model of imprinting effects on organizational outcomes, and suggest
that founders play a critical role in setting the original imprint of an organization that will
endure via organizational inertia, perhaps long after the imprint’s originally designed
purpose.

The research study investigates factors that influence entrepreneur’s ability to
identify new venture opportunities. Entrepreneurial alertness has been widely argued as
fundamental to the opportunity identification process, yet this relationship remains
largely unverified by empirical evidence. This study provides an explicit investigation
into the implications of entrepreneurial alertness for opportunity identification as well as
how metacognitive factors moderate the proposed relationship. First, Chapter 1 provides
an overview the purpose, research questions, the significance of the study, and the
conceptual framework. Next, a comprehensive review of the existing literature on
opportunity identification is provided which is followed by the development of
theoretical arguments, associated hypotheses, and the conceptual model. Subsequently,
and overview of the research methodology and sampling procedure is presented. Finally,
the analyses and results presented followed by a discussion, future research, and
conclusions.

This study examines the effects of epistemic motives and individual social structure (strength of social ties) on individual actions. lt has been suggested that the informal structure of relations that develops within firms affects the actions of individuals
e effects of both epistemic motives and social structure are considered. The findings of this study suggest that information about the epistemic motives of employees can provide insight into the fonnation of the individual social structures and the intrinsic desire of employees to take interdependent or independent actions. The
effects of epistemic motives and individual social structure on individual actions, the
organizing process and the formulation and implementation of strategies are discussed.

Professional service entrepreneurs (PSEs) paradoxically practice their profession in
highly institutionalized contexts which require significant socialization, while at the same
time enacting their role as an entrepreneur. Some activities consistent with
entrepreneurship may be unnecessary for—and possibly even contradictory with—
activities consistent with professional roles. In this dissertation, I addressed the questions
of how two highly central role identities (professional and entrepreneurial) related to
entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in professional service practices, and how EO influences
performance in the context of professional practices. Using a sample of 139 physicians,
I examined the relationships between the role identity centrality of two primary roles
(professional and entrepreneurial) that PSEs occupy, the EO of their firms, and firm
performance. This study utilized a mixed methods design, consisting of both a
questionnaire and semi-structured interviews administered to a sample of professionals who own professional practice firms in the southeastern region of Florida. Findings
suggest a significant and positive relationship between entrepreneurial role identity
centrality and entrepreneurial orientation and a marginally significant and negative
moderation of entrepreneurial role identity centrality upon the relationship between
professional role identity centrality and EO. A qualitative study served to elaborate on
the findings of the quantitative study, and revealed the potential of very unique
understandings of the intersection of entrepreneurship and professional practice across a
selection of physicians.