- Friday, February 13th Daniel Andrews (Georgia State) 10:30-12pm in Hewson 3000: Title – “Multiple Roads Home: Causal Complexity in Returnee Entrepreneurial Success”
Abstract:
Return migration has emerged as a key conduit for knowledge transfer and entrepreneurial development globally. However, scholarly understanding of what drives different forms of returnee entrepreneurial success remains fragmented. This study employs a configurational approach to theory and empirics to investigate the pathways to two distinct forms of entrepreneurial success among returnee entrepreneurs: venture growth and entrepreneurial satisfaction. Using multi-value Qualitative Comparative Analysis (mvQCA) and data from 212 returnee entrepreneurs in China, supplemented by in-depth interviews, we identify three equifinal pathways leading to venture growth and four pathways to entrepreneurial satisfaction. Our findings reveal that distinct causal mechanisms (knowledge transfer, network embeddedness, institutional support) different forms of entrepreneurial success; the same condition can be beneficial in some combinations while irrelevant in others. Our study contributes to entrepreneurship research and global migration by revealing the configurational complexity underlying entrepreneurial success and highlighting multiple channels through which returnees contribute to economic development in local markets.
Friday, March 6
th Kira Schabram (Penn State) – 10:30-12pm in Hewson 2006: Title: “Righteous, Overeager, or Overbearing? Sense of Calling, Peer Effort Evaluations, and Relationship Conflict”
Abstract:
The empirical record suggests that called employees work hard but not always well with others. Drawing from principles of work orientation theory, we propose that this conundrum may be explained by asymmetric peer evaluations of effort. Specifically, we hypothesize that called employees might be admired for their perceived extraordinary effort, but denigrate their peers’ effort as subpar, thereby both mitigating and fueling relationship conflict. A test-and-explore package of five studies totaling 1,922 participants (1,441 professionals across industries and 481 students) supported our study’s premise and explanatory mechanism but not the predicted direction of effects. First, we found consistent support for the positive relationship between an employee’s calling and peers’ evaluations of their effort (partner effects) but not for the negative relationship between an employee’s calling and their evaluation of peers’ effort (actor effects). Second, we were surprised that perceptions of called employees’ high effort increased rather than decreased relationship conflict. Third, we explained this by identifying three patterns of called employees’ outsized effort and showing that more relationship conflict emerges when they are overbearing than when they are overeager or righteous. We thus answer our motivating research question by unpacking how called employees can fuel relationship conflict because of not despite their extraordinary effort.
POSTPONED Friday, October 16;
David Townsend; Virginia Tech – 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.; Hewson Hall 3000 (Smith Executive Board Room); Title “Shifting Sands: AI Capability Growth & the Co-Evolution of Entrepreneurial Work”
Abstract:
A debate is emerging across scientific fields over how continued growth in AI capabilities will determine which areas of organizational work are delegated to AI systems. A growing number of scholars and organizational leaders argue that as the capabilities of frontier AI systems continue to advance rapidly, they will soon surpass even the most capable humans across important areas of organizational work, leading to widespread displacement of human labor. Others counter that contemporary AI systems exhibit a ‘jagged frontier’ of performance – excelling on some tasks while struggling on others – and that organizational frictions and bottlenecks slow their adoption. Despite their differences, both positions largely share a common premise that the future of work depends chiefly on the capabilities of AI systems.
This premise overlooks how AI use reshapes work itself. Established organizations typically seek to routinize tasks for efficiency or to buffer core tasks from external pressures. Yet recent studies indicate that AI use expands both the breadth and depth of tasks, in some settings far beyond established role structures. In this sense, AI is making organizational work increasingly resemble entrepreneurial work, which unfolds in highly uncertain, dynamic environments that require adaptive, flexible approaches to respond to the moves and countermoves of rivals in competitive marketplaces. If so, how, why, and when AI transforms the future of work depends not only on what AI systems can do, but also on how the work itself is co-evolving with AI.
We examine this possibility by developing a co-evolutionary agent-based model of how entrepreneurial work is divided between entrepreneurs and rapidly advancing AI systems. Our central thesis is that the continual renewal of the verification (objective), corroboration (intersubjective), and interpretation (subjective) demands of entrepreneurial work – driven by entrepreneurs’ own actions and those of their rivals – shapes which work is delegated to AI systems, even as those systems grow more capable. Verification involves establishing objective facts, such as whether a product performs as claimed. Corroboration involves building intersubjective agreement, such as persuading investors, partners, and customers that a venture is credible. Interpretation involves forming subjective judgments about what an opportunity means and whether it is worth pursuing. We use the model to identify when this division of work settles into stable patterns of AI delegation, and when, how, and why it continues to shift. In doing so, our study challenges the presumed ‘inevitability’ of delegating any given area of work to AI in highly uncertain, dynamic environments. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the future of organizational and entrepreneurial work.
Friday, December 4;
Tim Pollock; University of Tennessee – 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.; Hewson Hall 3000 (Smith Executive Board Room); Title TBD
