IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v66y2020i5p2050-2074.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Choosing Between Growth and Glory

Author

Listed:
  • Sharon Belenzon

    (Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708; National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138;)

  • Aaron K. Chatterji

    (Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708; National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138;)

  • Brendan Daley

    (University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21211)

Abstract

Prior work has established that the financing environment can impact firm strategy. We argue that this influence can shape the earliest strategic choices of a new venture by creating a potential trade-off between two objectives: rapid growth and reaping the benefits of a positive reputation (glory). We leverage a simple reputation-building strategic choice—naming the firm after the founder (eponymy)—that is associated with superior profitability. Next, we argue via a formal model that the availability of/dependence on external financing can explain why high-growth firms are rarely eponymous. We find empirical support for the model’s predictions using a large data set of 1 million European firms. Eponymous firms grow considerably more slowly than similarly profitable firms. Moreover, eponymy varies in accordance with the firm’s financing environment in a pattern consistent with our model. We discuss implications for the literature on new-venture strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Sharon Belenzon & Aaron K. Chatterji & Brendan Daley, 2020. "Choosing Between Growth and Glory," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(5), pages 2050-2074, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:66:y:2020:i:5:p:2050-2074
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2019.3296
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2019.3296
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.2019.3296?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ashish Arora & Anand Nandkumar, 2011. "Cash-Out or Flameout! Opportunity Cost and Entrepreneurial Strategy: Theory, and Evidence from the Information Security Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(10), pages 1844-1860, October.
    2. Jean-Etienne de Bettignies, 2008. "Financing the Entrepreneurial Venture," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(1), pages 151-166, January.
    3. Steven Tadelis, 1999. "What's in a Name? Reputation as a Tradeable Asset," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(3), pages 548-563, June.
    4. Chatterji, Aaron K. & Seamans, Robert C., 2012. "Entrepreneurial finance, credit cards, and race," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 182-195.
    5. Daniel A. Levinthal & Brian Wu, 2010. "Opportunity costs and non‐scale free capabilities: profit maximization, corporate scope, and profit margins," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(7), pages 780-801, July.
    6. Villalonga, Belen & Amit, Raphael, 2006. "How do family ownership, control and management affect firm value?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 385-417, May.
    7. Erik Hurst & Benjamin Wild Pugsley, 2011. "What Do Small Businesses Do?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 42(2 (Fall)), pages 73-142.
    8. Philippe Aghion & Jeremy C. Stein, 2008. "Growth versus Margins: Destabilizing Consequences of Giving the Stock Market What It Wants," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(3), pages 1025-1058, June.
    9. Ross Levine, 1997. "Financial Development and Economic Growth: Views and Agenda," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 688-726, June.
    10. Matt Marx & Joshua S. Gans & David H. Hsu, 2014. "Dynamic Commercialization Strategies for Disruptive Technologies: Evidence from the Speech Recognition Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(12), pages 3103-3123, December.
    11. Danny Miller & Isabelle Le Breton‐Miller & Barry Scholnick, 2008. "Stewardship vs. Stagnation: An Empirical Comparison of Small Family and Non‐Family Businesses," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 51-78, January.
    12. Kerr, William R. & Nanda, Ramana, 2009. "Democratizing entry: Banking deregulations, financing constraints, and entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 124-149, October.
    13. Steffen Andersen & Kasper Meisner Nielsen, 2012. "Ability or Finances as Constraints on Entrepreneurship? Evidence from Survival Rates in a Natural Experiment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(12), pages 3684-3710.
    14. Gompers, Paul & Kovner, Anna & Lerner, Josh & Scharfstein, David, 2010. "Performance persistence in entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 18-32, April.
    15. Alós-Ferrer, Carlos & Prat, Julien, 2012. "Job market signaling and employer learning," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 147(5), pages 1787-1817.
    16. Justin R. Pierce & Peter K. Schott, 2009. "A Concordance Between Ten-Digit U.S. Harmonized System Codes and SIC/NAICS Product Classes and Industries," NBER Working Papers 15548, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Alessandro Minichilli & Guido Corbetta & Ian C. MacMillan, 2010. "Top Management Teams in Family‐Controlled Companies: ‘Familiness’, ‘Faultlines’, and Their Impact on Financial Performance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 205-222, March.
    18. In-Koo Cho & David M. Kreps, 1987. "Signaling Games and Stable Equilibria," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 102(2), pages 179-221.
    19. Block, Joern H., 2012. "R&D investments in family and founder firms: An agency perspective," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 248-265.
    20. Noam Wasserman, 2003. "Founder-CEO Succession and the Paradox of Entrepreneurial Success," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 149-172, April.
    21. Chandra S. Mishra & Daniel L. Mcconaughy, 1999. "Founding Family Control and Capital Structure: The Risk of Loss of Control and the Aversion to Debt," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 23(4), pages 53-64, July.
    22. William Kerr & Ramana Nanda, 2009. "Financing Constraints and Entrepreneurship," NBER Working Papers 15498, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Thomas Hellmann & Manju Puri, 2002. "Venture Capital and the Professionalization of Start‐Up Firms: Empirical Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 169-197, February.
    24. David H. Hsu, 2006. "Venture Capitalists and Cooperative Start-up Commercialization Strategy," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(2), pages 204-219, February.
    25. Sandra E. Black & Philip E. Strahan, 2002. "Entrepreneurship and Bank Credit Availability," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(6), pages 2807-2833, December.
    26. Joshua S. Gans & David H. Hsu & Scott Stern, 2002. "When Does Start-Up Innovation Spur the Gale of Creative Destruction?," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 33(4), pages 571-586, Winter.
    27. repec:oup:rfinst:v:25:y::i:12:p:3684-3710 is not listed on IDEAS
    28. Banks, Jeffrey S & Sobel, Joel, 1987. "Equilibrium Selection in Signaling Games," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(3), pages 647-661, May.
    29. Brian Wu & Anne Marie Knott, 2006. "Entrepreneurial Risk and Market Entry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(9), pages 1315-1330, September.
    30. John Haltiwanger & Erik Hurst & Javier Miranda & Antoinette Schoar, 2017. "Measuring Entrepreneurial Businesses: Current Knowledge and Challenges," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number halt14-1.
    31. Sharon Belenzon & Aaron K. Chatterji & Brendan Daley, 2017. "Eponymous Entrepreneurs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1638-1655, June.
    32. Haltiwanger, John & Hurst, Erik & Miranda, Javier & Schoar, Antoinette (ed.), 2017. "Measuring Entrepreneurial Businesses," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226454078.
    33. Daley, Brendan & Green, Brett, 2014. "Market signaling with grades," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 114-145.
    34. Mailath, George J, 1987. "Incentive Compatibility in Signaling Games with a Continuum of Types," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(6), pages 1349-1365, November.
    35. Sharon Belenzon & Andrea Patacconi & Rebecca Zarutskie, 2016. "Married to the firm? A large‐scale investigation of the social context of ownership," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(13), pages 2611-2638, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Catherine Fazio & Jorge Guzman & Scott Stern, 2020. "The Impact of State-Level Research and Development Tax Credits on the Quantity and Quality of Entrepreneurship," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 34(2), pages 188-208, May.
    2. Julian Bafera & Simon Kleinert, 2023. "Signaling Theory in Entrepreneurship Research: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(6), pages 2419-2464, November.
    3. Guzman, Jorge & Kacperczyk, Aleksandra (Olenka), 2019. "Gender gap in entrepreneurship," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(7), pages 1666-1680.
    4. Reddi Kotha & Balagopal (Bala) Vissa & Yimin Lin & Anne‐Valérie Corboz, 2023. "Do ambitious entrepreneurs benefit more from training?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 549-575, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ramana Nanda & William R. Kerr, 2015. "Financing Innovation," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 445-462, December.
    2. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2015_028 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Kerr, Sari Pekkala & Kerr, William R. & Nanda, Ramana, 2022. "House prices, home equity and entrepreneurship: Evidence from U.S. census micro data," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 103-119.
    4. repec:zbw:bofrdp:urn:nbn:fi:bof-201512141480 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Aymeric Bellon & J. Anthony Cookson & Erik P. Gilje & Rawley Z. Heimer, 2020. "Personal Wealth and Self-Employment," NBER Working Papers 27452, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Rin, Marco Da & Hellmann, Thomas & Puri, Manju, 2013. "A Survey of Venture Capital Research," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 573-648, Elsevier.
    7. Ramana Nanda & William R. Kerr, 2015. "Financing Innovation," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 445-462, December.
    8. repec:bof:bofrdp:urn:nbn:fi:bof-201512141480 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Jensen, Thais Laerkholm & Leth-Petersen, Søren & Nanda, Ramana, 2022. "Financing constraints, home equity and selection into entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 318-337.
    10. Hochberg, Yael V. & Serrano, Carlos J. & Ziedonis, Rosemarie H., 2018. "Patent collateral, investor commitment, and the market for venture lending," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(1), pages 74-94.
    11. Berger, Allen N. & Molyneux, Phil & Wilson, John O.S., 2020. "Banks and the real economy: An assessment of the research," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    12. Joshua D Gottlieb & Richard R Townsend & Ting Xu, 2022. "Does Career Risk Deter Potential Entrepreneurs?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(9), pages 3973-4015.
    13. Pierre Azoulay & Benjamin F. Jones & J. Daniel Kim & Javier Miranda, 2020. "Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 2(1), pages 65-82, March.
    14. Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr & Ramana Nanda, 2015. "House Money and Entrepreneurship," Harvard Business School Working Papers 15-069, Harvard Business School.
    15. Victor Manuel Bennett & Megan Lawrence & Raffaella Sadun, 2016. "Are Founder CEOs Good Managers?," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Entrepreneurial Businesses: Current Knowledge and Challenges, pages 153-185, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. E. Mark Curtis & Ryan A. Decker, 2018. "Entrepreneurship and State Taxation," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2018-003, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    17. Ola Bengtsson & John R. M. Hand, 2013. "Employee Compensation in Entrepreneurial Companies," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 312-340, June.
    18. Anmol Bhandari & Ellen R. McGrattan, 2017. "Sweat Equity in U.S. Private Business," Staff Report 560, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    19. Aaron Chatterji & Edward Glaeser & William Kerr, 2014. "Clusters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(1), pages 129-166.
    20. Jiang, Tianjiao & Levine, Ross & Lin, Chen & Wei, Lai, 2020. "Bank deregulation and corporate risk," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    21. Carlos J. Serrano & Rosemarie Ziedonis, 2018. "How Redeployable are Patent Assets? Evidence from Failed Startups," NBER Working Papers 24526, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Benjamin L. Collier & Andrew F. Haughwout & Howard C. Kunreuther & Erwann O. Michel‐Kerjan, 2020. "Firms’ Management of Infrequent Shocks," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(6), pages 1329-1359, September.
    23. Ekmekci, Mehmet & Kos, Nenad, 2023. "Signaling covertly acquired information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    new-venture strategy; entrepreneurship; firm growth; signalling; eponymy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:66:y:2020:i:5:p:2050-2074. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.