Matthew Josefy

Matthew Josefy, Greg Fisher, Emily Neubert (2024), Event-based entrepreneurship, Journal of Business Venturing, 39 (1), pp. 106-366.

Abstract: Many entrepreneurial opportunities are associated with events, including sports competitions, races and tournaments, concerts and music festivals, and conferences and exhibitions, yet this variant of entrepreneurship has not been specifically accounted for in the literature. We integrate insights from entrepreneurship research with research on temporary organizational forms, stakeholder theory, and platform strategy to define Event-Based Entrepreneurship (EBE) and propose factors that account for the founding and scaling of event-based ventures. In so doing, we lay the conceptual foundations and offer theoretical and practical directions for an expanded research agenda on EBE.

Rhett Brymer, John-Patrick Paraskevas, Matthew Josefy, Lisa Ellram (2024), Pipeline hiring’s effects on the human capital and performance of new recruits, Strategic Management Journal.

Abstract: Pipeline hiring, repeatedly hiring individuals from the same external source organization, is a common recruiting practice. Yet, whether this pipeline approach improves incoming human capital quality or performance has limited empirical evidence. We argue that, in cooperative source-hiring organization contexts, pipelines reduce the information asymmetries present in labor markets in a way that both attracts individuals with higher pre-entry human capital and predicts postentry performance that surpasses pre-entry expectations. In the context of particularly intense recruiting competition—American college football—we test and find support for these hypotheses. We also probe key boundary conditions, specifically discontinuity, geographic proximity, and factor market competition that highlight the limits of when the informational advantage is more or less salient.

Matthew Josefy, Joseph S. Harrison, Michael D. Howard (2023), Elite Pipelines: How Elite School Ties Are Reflected in Interfirm Employee Migration, Journal of Management, 49 (5), pp. 1570-1600.

Abstract: Recent research has pointed to pipelines, or sequenced hiring of individuals from the same source organizations over time, as a common practice employed by firms to reduce labor market imperfections and create human capital resource advantages. We extend this literature by considering how pipelines may emerge not just out of strategic intent but also out of informal social processes reflecting network transitivity and homophily. Using bipartite social network analysis techniques in a sample of 110 public U.S. electronics component manufacturers, we argue and find evidence for transitive effects between firms’ employee-based ties to elite educational institutions and the formation of interfirm employee pipelines. We demonstrate that pipelines are more likely to form between firms that both hire educational elites, especially when those firms share ties to the same elite schools and when those shared elite schools are executives’ alma mater(s). We also find that these effects tend to be more pronounced when the focal firm has higher growth potential, encouraging mobility by attracting potential elite candidates and facilitating the two-way matching process in labor markets. Our theory and findings contribute to a better understanding of informal processes underlying pipeline formation and specifically demonstrate how hiring tendencies may lead to closed recruiting networks characterized by elite replication.

Joseph S. Harrison, Matthew Josefy, Matias Kalm, Ryan Krause (2023), Using supervised machine learning to scale human-coded data: A method and dataset in the board leadership context, Strategic Management Journal, 44 (7), pp. 1780-1802.

Abstract: Human coding of unstructured text can enable scholars to measure complex latent constructs for use in empirical analysis, but also requires substantial time and resources that limit the number and sample sizes of studies using this approach. We demonstrate how supervised machine learning (ML) can overcome these constraints by allowing scholars to scale human‐coded data. Using board leadership as an illustrative context, we apply this method to create a large‐scale dataset (N = 22,388) from smaller scale human codings of CEO duality and board chair orientations from company proxy statements. We further demonstrate the potential value of this approach by using the resulting dataset to examine the relationships among board leadership, firm performance, and CEO dismissal.

Vivek Astvansh, George Ball, Matthew Josefy (2022), The Recall Decision Exposed: Automobile Recall Timing and Process Dataset, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 24 (3), pp. 1457-1473.

Abstract: Problem definition: There is a concerted effort across multiple academic disciplines to understand the recall decision-making process. Specifically, what steps does a manufacturer take following a product defect discovery and resulting in the product recall decision? This effort has often been limited to case studies within a particular manufacturer, largely due to the absence of consistent and comparable data across firms. Methodology/results: This data paper provides a foundation for future research on recall decisions by processing and coding textual disclosures on 2,120 recalls initiated in the United States by 27 automobile manufacturers from 2009 to 2018. For each recall, the data set provides the time the firm took to make the recall decision by comparing the defect awareness date to the recall decision date, whether the recall was associated with a supplier, the number of events in the recall decision-making process, and the date and description of each event. Managerial implications: Not only can these data enhance product recall research by providing key recall decision-making variables unavailable in related research, but an additional indication of the value of our data set also comes from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the automobile regulator in the United States. We held discussions with a senior leader at the NHTSA’s Recall Management Division related to this data set. This discussion revealed that the NHTSA does not have these data in an analyzable form and that they might be interested in using our data set for their reports, such as the NHTSA’s biennial reports to the U.S. Congress. This signal suggests that regulators, as well as researchers, practitioners, and other safety advocates, may find our data set useful.

Mark Bolinger, Matthew Josefy, Regan Stevenson, Michael Hitt (2022), Experiments in Strategy Research: A Critical Review and Future Research Opportunities, Journal of Management, 48 (1), pp. 77-113.

Abstract: We review extant experimental work in strategic management and argue that experiments constitute an underused methodology that has significant potential. We examine and categorize 179 experiments from 119 published articles over a 20-year period, delineating the contributions of these experiments to the strategic management literature. In doing so, we identify topic areas in which experiments have been effectively deployed, as well as several literature streams that have a limited amount of prior experimental research. We discuss specific challenges of using experiments in strategy research, especially given its strong focus on the firm-level of analysis. We also emphasize approaches for how experiments can be instrumental in extending management theories and accelerating behavioral microfoundations of strategy research. In light of past contributions and gaps, we discuss specific opportunities and means of designing innovative experiments, propose novel potential research questions, and provide a best practices methodological guide which scholars can use when considering experimental designs. Overall, our work documents experimental research and provides a methodological practicum, thereby offering a platform for future experiment-based research in strategic management. Supplemental best practice guide for conducting strategy experiments can be found here - https://sites.google.com/view/researchguides

Varkey Titus Jr, Jenna R. Pieper, Matthew Josefy, Theresa M. Welbourne (2022), How Does Your Garden Grow? The Interface of Employee and Sales Growth Post IPO, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 16 (4), pp. 671-698.

Abstract: Firms often succumb to a growth imperative, yet little is known about how congruence between various forms of growth affects firm value. We argue that the (in)congruence between net hiring rates (e.g., growth in the number of employees) and sales growth has significant implications for firm value, assessed via Tobin’s Q. We further contend that R&D expenditures and industry dynamism—factors that influence a firm’s ability to realize value creation—moderate the relationship between growth pattern and firm value. We use a sample of 1,181 firms that conducted their initial public offerings from 1996-2006 to test our conceptual model. Findings indicate that employee-dominant growth is most strongly associated with firm value, and that high levels of R&D expenditures and industry dynamism intensify these relationships.

Alex Murray, Scott Kuban, Matthew Josefy, Jon Anderson (2021), Contracting in the Smart Era: The Implications of Blockchain and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations for Contracting and Corporate Governance, Academy of Management Perspectives, 35 (4), pp. 622-641.

Abstract: This paper explores blockchain technology’s potential to alter contracting both in the market and within organizations. We identify and discuss how blockchain reduces certain types of transaction costs while introducing additional costs that have not been present in traditional contracts. Blockchain technology also presents a new method to mitigate or avoid certain types of agency costs that stem from contracting with agents inside the firm. Through this theoretical discussion, our paper proposes several avenues for future research on how blockchain may alter contracting and corporate governance.

Regan Stevenson, Matthew Josefy, Jeffrey McMullen, Dean Shepherd (2020), Organizational and management theorizing using experiment-based entrepreneurship research: Covered terrain and the next frontiers, . Academy of Management Annals, 14 (2), pp. 759-796.

Abstract: The entrepreneurship setting—an extreme organizational context—provides fertile ground for organizationally relevant theory testing and development. In this paper, we propose that randomized entrepreneurship experiments have considerable potential to advance theory in entrepreneurship as well as other areas of organization science using a full-cycle approach. We ground this proposition in a multipronged review of randomized experiments in entrepreneurship (REE). Based on this review of prior work and emerging trends, respectively, we provide illustrative examples of innovative theory-driven experiments and motivate future research to consider randomized experiments in the entrepreneurial context both for testing boundary conditions and enhancing organizational theorizing broadly.

Sophie Bacq, Will Geoghegan, Matthew Josefy, Regan Stevenson, Trenton A. Williams (2020), The COVID-19 Virtual Idea Blitz: Marshaling Social Entrepreneurship to Rapidly Respond to Urgent Grand Challenges, Business Horizons, 63 (8), pp. 705-723.

Abstract: In response to societal grand challenges, professors have unique opportunities to effect change, repurposing their expertise to deploy relevant, timely, practical, and research-backed knowledge for the betterment of communities. Drawing on scholarship on postcrisis organizing, entrepreneurial hustle, and social entrepreneurship, we provide a firsthand, real-time case description of a three-day “virtual idea blitz” organized in response to the COVID-19 crisis. The event was organized and executed in less than a week and ultimately involved 200 individuals, including entrepreneurs, coders, medical doctors, venture capitalists, industry professionals, students, and professors from around the world. By the end of the weekend, 21 ideas with corresponding pitches were developed in five thematic areas: health needs, education, small businesses, community, and purchasing. We describe how the community was rapidly rallied, and we discuss the key learning outcomes of this spontaneous entrepreneurial endeavor. We provide evidence from participants and mentors that showcases the value of the time-compressed virtual idea blitz in accelerating social entrepreneurial action. We offer practical guidance to academic, community, and professional institutions that would like to replicate or build upon our approach to stimulate the formation of community and to coordinate efforts to thwart the ongoing threat of COVID-19, as well as other societal challenges that might emerge in the future.