Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

The Influence of Entrepreneurs’ Physical and Cognitive Traits on Entrepreneurial Outcomes

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/np193h29z

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  • The dissertation examines the effect of two separate yet significant individual level factors—physical and cognitive traits—on entrepreneurial outcomes. The physical factor on which the dissertation focuses is the entrepreneur’s vocal cues and the cognitive traits that the dissertation investigates are the entrepreneur’s goal orientation and his/her ability to take perspectives. Using theories of information processing and expectancy violations, the dissertation examines whether and how vocal attractiveness impacts individual investors’ information retention, attraction towards the venture, and willingness to invest. The results from controlled lab experiments across two samples suggest that vocal attractiveness increases information retention and venture attraction and the effect of vocal attractiveness on entrepreneurial outcomes is mediated through processing fluency and positive affect. Also, the effects of vocal attractiveness on processing fluency and positive affect is conditional on whether the investors’ expectations regarding the entrepreneurs’ vocal attractiveness is positively or negatively violated. Thus, entrepreneurs’ vocal attractiveness facilitates information retention and leads to higher levels of venture attraction through cognitive and affective routes and investors’ expectations play an important role in their decision-making. The dissertation also examines the impact of entrepreneurs’ sex and gendered voice on entrepreneurial outcomes. Entrepreneurs often portray their masculinity or femininity through gendered voice. Using the gender role stereotyping theory, the dissertation identifies sex-typed services or products offered by the entrepreneurs as another source of information that investors can readily access and incorporate in their decision-making. Contrary to the extant literature, the dissertation finds that wholesale adoption of masculinity during pitching entrepreneurial ventures is detrimental, especially for female entrepreneurs. The results from a controlled lab experiment suggest that, investors are more likely to invest when entrepreneurs present a masculine (feminine) service in a masculine (feminine) voice, irrespective of their biological sex. Thus, investors don’t always prefer masculinity over femininity in entrepreneurial pitching, rather, investors’ decisions are impacted by the interactions of entrepreneurs’ sex, gendered voice, and sex-typed services or products offered by the entrepreneurs. Finally, the dissertation examines the effect of cognitive traits on entrepreneurial creativity. Creativity lies at the heart of entrepreneurship as entrepreneurs often start with a creative idea that they turn into a viable venture. Using the goal orientation theory, the dissertation suggests that goal orientation is an antecedent of entrepreneurial creativity and the effect of goal orientation on entrepreneurial creativity is partially mediated through entrepreneurs’ ability to take users’ perspectives. In addition, the indirect effects of perspective taking on entrepreneurial creativity is contingent on individual-level moderators such as entrepreneurial exhaustion and experience. The results from two cross-sectional surveys of entrepreneurship students and a two-wave, lagged survey of entrepreneurs suggest that perspective taking mediates the relationship between goal orientation and entrepreneurial creativity and the indirect effects of perspective taking is conditional on the personal-level moderators. Thus, the dissertation disentangles the role of cognitive processes in facilitating entrepreneurial creativity.
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  • Ongoing Research
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  • 2020-06-01 to 2021-07-02

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