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Entrepreneurs Seeking Gains: Profit Motives and Risk Aversion in Inventors' Commercialization Decisions

Author

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  • Thomas Astebro

    (GREGH - Groupement de Recherche et d'Etudes en Gestion à HEC - HEC Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Kenneth Simons

    (Department of Economics - RPI - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)

Abstract

Direct evidence has been lacking on entrepreneurs' response to individual-specific opportunities, and recent work suggests that entrepreneurship may be a non-profit-seeking activity and that entrepreneurs evaluate risk oddly. We model heterogeneous inventors and inventions, outside opportunities, sunk and nonsunk costs, and risk, to guide data analysis. We use assessment data from a center paid to assess the inventions' economic potential. Inventors' choices whether to commercialize their inventions and later whether to remain in production were consistent with profit-seeking motives and risk aversion.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Astebro & Kenneth Simons, 2010. "Entrepreneurs Seeking Gains: Profit Motives and Risk Aversion in Inventors' Commercialization Decisions," Post-Print hal-00586047, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00586047
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-9134.2010.00272.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Chihmao Hsieh & Simon C. Parker & C. Mirjam Praag, 2017. "Risk, balanced skills and entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 287-302, February.
    2. Ant Bozkaya & William R. Kerr, 2014. "Labor Regulations and European Venture Capital," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 776-810, December.
    3. Ilan Noy & Eric Strobl, 2023. "Creatively Destructive Hurricanes: Do Disasters Spark Innovation?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 84(1), pages 1-17, January.
    4. Douglas, Evan J. & Shepherd, Dean A. & Venugopal, Vidhula, 2021. "A multi-motivational general model of entrepreneurial intention," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(4).
    5. Gian Seloni & Sri Kusrohmaniah & Galang Lufityanto, 2023. "The perils of acting rashly: Risk-taking propensity impeding emotion-based learning in entrepreneurs [Les dangers de l’audace: La propension à prendre des risques entrave l’apprentissage basé sur l," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 89-110, March.
    6. Du, Juan & Chen, Chien-Ming & Chen, Yao & Cook, Wade D. & Zhu, Joe, 2012. "Additive super-efficiency in integer-valued data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 218(1), pages 186-192.
    7. Marco Corsino & Paola Giuri & Salvatore Torrisi, 2019. "Technology spin-offs: teamwork, autonomy, and the exploitation of business opportunities," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(5), pages 1603-1637, October.

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