Best paper award for Professeur Gruber
© 2011 EPFL
Marc Gruber has been recognized with the Jürgen Hauschildt Best Paper Award in Innovation Management for the study “Darwinians, Communitarians and Missionaries: The Role of Founder Identity in Entrepreneurship” (joint work with Emmanuelle Fauchart), Academy of Management Journal. The award is given out in honor of the late Jürgen Hauschildt and awarded yearly by the TIE Commission of the Verband der Hochschullehrer für Betriebswirtschaft (VHB).
Abstract
Drawing on social identity theory, we explore the identities, behaviors and actions of 49 firm founders in the sports-related equipment industry. Our analysis suggests the existence of three pure types of founder identities and shows how these identities systematically shape key decisions in the creation of new firms, thereby imprinting the start-ups with the founders’ distinct selfconcepts. We synthesize our findings in a typology that sheds light on the heterogeneity of meanings that founders associate with new firm creation and that improves our understanding as to why fundamental differences in firm creation processes and outcomes exist.
Article published in: The Academy of Management Journal, Volume 54, Number 5 October 2011