The potential utility of impulsivity in the new venture startup process - 18 Nov 2020

During this seminar, Professor Wiklund presented a paper entitled "The potential utility of impulsivity in the new venture startup process - an agent-based modeling approach”. 

Summary of the research

Advances in neuroscience suggest that human behavior is much less rational and far more impulsive than assumed by traditional organizational theory. Yet, impulsivity has received little attention in extant management literature. In this paper, Johan Wiklund and colleagues explore if the speed associated with impulsivity outweighs its negatives over time. They utilize the speed versus accuracy tradeoff framework within the context of a startup environment, where both conceptual and empirical uncertainty is high.

Leveraging the agent-based modeling simulation technique, they derive a theoretical model suggesting that while impulsivity is often not adaptive, its inherent bias for rapid action may serve entrepreneurs well when creating new firms in high uncertainty, high munificence environments.

About Johan Wiklund

Johan Wiklund is the Al Berg Chair and Professor of Entrepreneurship at Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University, USA, and Professor Two at Nord University, Norway. His research interests include neurodiversity and mental well-being in entrepreneurship as well as the entry, performance, and exit of entrepreneurial firms.

He is considered a leading authority in entrepreneurship research with over 100 articles appearing in top entrepreneurship and management journals, as well as over 33,000 citations to his research. He is the Editor-in-Chief for Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, a premier entrepreneurship journal. A prolific advisor of Ph.D. students, he received the Academy of Management Entrepreneurship Division Mentor Award in 2011.

This seminar was organized jointly by House of Innovation, the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship and the Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets.