exposed venture capital competitor ties and entrepreneurial innovation this study investigates the impact of early relationships on innovation at entrepreneurial firms prior research has largely focused on the benefits of network ties documenting the many advantages that accrue to firms embedded in a rich network of interorganizational relationships in contrast we build on research emphasizing potential drawbacks to examine how competitive exposure enabled by powerful intermediaries can inhibit innovation we develop the concept of competitive information leakage which occurs when firms are indirectly tied to their competitors via shared intermediary organizations to test our theory we examine every relationship between entrepreneurial firms and their venture capital investors in the minimally invasive surgical device segment of the medical device industry over a 22 year period we find that indirect ties to competitors impede innovation and that this effect is moderated by several factors related to the intermediary s opportunities and motivation to leak important information

is there a role for biofuels in promoting energy self sufficiency and security a cge analysis of biofuel policy in thailand given the rising price of crude oil some developing countries including thailand are looking towards developing their domestic renewable energy resources in particular biofuels however there are concerns about the possible adverse effects such a policy strategy would have on key variables such as sectoral output land allocation and the effects of prices particularly food prices this study develops a computable general equilibrium cge model of the thailand economy that features enhancements of the energy sector and uses it to analyze the government s recent renewable energy development plan this plan aims to increase domestic energy use from renewable sources to replace fossil fuel imports the study simulated specific policies contained in the plan among other things we found that promoting biofuel use causes a rapid increase in the price of biofuel and biofuel feedstock in the short run whereas these prices only increase slightly in the long run due to more elastic supplies the prices of food and other products marginally increase implying that food security is not undermined by the policy on the basis of the findings the study recommends a review of some of the targets because they were found to be rather high and a phasing in of others

a status based model of market competition this article explores the significance of status processes for generating and reproducing hierarchy among producers in a market it develops a conception of a market as a status order in which each

the spread of the multidivisional form among large firms 1919 1979 the multidivisional form is the favored form of organization for the large firms that dominate the american economy this study takes up the causes of the dissemination of that form among large firms from 1919 to 1979 five theories are initially proposed as possible explanations for the changes observed and these theories are operationalized and tested the model that seems most consistent with the data emphasizes the ability of key actors to alter structure under three circumstances when the firm has a product related or unrelated strategy which is consistent with chandler s 1962 theorizing when the corporate presidents have a background in sales or finance and when other firms in the industry alter their structures the implications of these results for theories of organizational change are discussed with special reference to the importance of conceiving how actors operate with varying rationalities in this process

from plan to plant effects of certification on operational start up in the emergent independent power sector in this paper we study the transition from planned venture to operational start up in the emergent independent power sector planned ventures face tremendous obstacles in assembling the resources necessary to begin operations we hypothesize and show that formal certification from authorized actors increases the likelihood of making this transition moreover we find that the effects of certification are contingent on the legitimacy of the sector as a whole certifications have a stronger effect on start ups when sector legitimacy is low than when it is high this research helps us understand a rarely studied organizational transition from entrepreneurial intention to actual operations within nascent sectors it directs attention to the legitimating effects of formal certification highlights the importance of a multilevel approach to legitimacy and contributes to the growing rapprochement between entrepreneurial studies and institutional theory

hazards of the market the continuity and dissolution of interorganizational market relationships the authors propose a theory of the market as an intertemporal process that integrates multiple theoretical perspectives using event history methods thery analyze the dissolution of interorganizational market ties between advertising agencies and their clients as a function of three forces competition power and institutional forces the informal rules of exchange institutionalized in the emergence phase of the advertising services market include exclusivity sole source and loyalty infrequent switching they find that most exchange relationships between advertising agencies and their clients are indeed exclusive and most last for several years but competition power and institutional forces support or undermine these rules most institutional forces reduce the risk of dissolution of agency client ties powerful advertising agencies mobilize resources to increase tie stability but powerful clients mobilize resources to increase or decrease stability competition is the weakest market force but it has a consistent and substantial effect on tie dissolution competition always increases the risk of dissolution they conclude that the market is institutionalized as imperfectly repeated patterns of exchange because competition and changing norms about the duration of market ties destabilize market relationships

a role based ecology of technological change this article considers what factors determine whether an innovation becomes a foundation for future technological developments rather than a dea end the authors introduce the concept of the technological niche which includes a focal innovation the innovations on which the focal innovations builds the innovations that build upon the focal innovation and the technological ties among the innovations within the niche using patents and patent citations to measure characteristics of innovation niches within the semiconductor industry the authors show that the size of the niche and the status of the actors within the niche have a positive effect on the likelihood that subsequent innovations will build upon the focal innovation competitive intensity within the niche has a negative effect on this likelihood

young and no money never mind the material impact of social resources on new venture growth although growth is a desirable outcome for new ventures due to the many advantages of large size most new firms fail to grow largely because of their limited resources and adaptability this paper addresses the question of how new ventures grow despite their limited financial resources i explore the effect of two specific nonfinancial social resources legitimacy and status on new venture growth i propose that new firms can acquire legitimacy by mimicking the structures and ceremonial activities of established firms in their industry and can acquire status by affiliating with high status entities using a unique panel data set on a cohort of advertising agencies founded in new york and chicago between 1977 and 1985 i show that legitimacy and status have favorable impacts on new firms growth in revenues and number of employees the paper makes important contributions to social embeddedness and institutional research by examining the strategic implications of firm level social resources and to the literature on entrepreneurship in general and new venture growth in particular

sustainable competitive advantage combining institutional and resource based views this article suggests that the context and process of resource selection have an important influence on firm heterogeneity and sustainable competitive advantage it is argued that a firm s sustainable advantage depends on its ability to manage the institutional context of its resource decisions a firm s institutional context includes its internal culture as well as broader influences from the state society and interfirm relations that define socially acceptable economic behavior a process model of firm heterogeneity is proposed that combines the insights of a resource based view with the institutional perspective from organization theory normative rationality institutional isolating mechanisms and institutional sources of firm homogeneity are proposed as determinants of rent potential that complement and extend resource based explanations of firm variation and sustainable competitive advantage the article suggests that both resource capital and institutional capital are indispensable to sustainable competitive advantage 1997 john wiley sons ltd

thailand s low carbon scenario 2050 the aim cge analyses of co2 mitigation measures climate change and co2 mitigation have become increasingly important environmental issues recently thailand has proposed policies on ghg mitigation such as thailand s nationally appropriate mitigation action nama which aims at ghg mitigation in the energy sector this study used the computable general equilibrium cge model called aim cge model to analyse ghg mitigation measures under emission trading and carbon capture and storage ccs technology in thailand results show that the international free emission trading policy can drive more ghg reduction by decreasing energy supply and demand and increasing prices of emissions the ccs technologies would balance emission reduction but they would reduce energy efficiency improvement and renewable energy utilization in the energy security aspect the policy options in this study would improve energy security energy import dependency and co benefits of ghg mitigation in forms of improving local air quality results are also helpful to ghg mitigation policy in developing countries

managerial cognition and the mimetic adoption of market positions what you see is what you do managers planning to abandon a market position need to find a promising alternative and face a choice of inventing a new market position or entering an existing one the great uncertainty on the consequences of different actions leads them to rely on other organizations for information on how to compete making adoption of existing market positions likely their wish to avoid direct rivalry and maximize growth leads them to seek out information on new market positions with few incumbents as a result recently innovated market positions are mimetically adopted by organizations that can easily observe previous adoptions and see them as relevant to their market situations increasing the market differentiation this theory is tested and supported by analysis of the spread of new radio formats in the united states 1998 john wiley sons ltd

market networks and corporate behavior data on market relations between a large population of corporations and investment banks are used to study the organization market interforce the pattern of direct market ties between a firm and its banks forms of interfaces range from a long term exclusive tie the relationship interface to many short lived episodic ties the transaction interface with hybrid forms between the two poles contrary to widespread belief the article finds that strong relationships still exist transactions interfaces are rare most firms use hybrid interfaces a firm s interface is conceptualized as the intentional result of its efforts to reduce dependence and exploit power advantages observed interfaces are shown to be related systematically to various power dependence concepts including resource intensity number of transactions and dollar amounts raised criticality the availability of resource alternatives power asymmetry between a firm and its main bank organization size standardization of exchange and

no news is bad news sensegiving activities media attention and venture capital funding of new technology organizations a significant body of research has examined how new organizations gain legitimacy and how gaining it affects their subsequent access to resources less attention has been given to the problem of how new organizations attract collective attention although related to legitimation the problem of attracting attention is distinct as attention and evaluation are distinct cognitive processes in this study we examine the allocation of collective attention to new organizations in a system of relationships within which new organizations seek to attract attention through their sensegiving activities the information properties of their sensegiving activities affect the level of attention they receive from different types of media and media attention in turn increases their perceived value potential in the eyes of venture capital investors vcs we examine these relationships in a sample of 398 information technology start ups that have obtained different levels of venture capital funding our results show that new organizations that engage in more intense and diverse sensegiving activities attract higher levels of industry media attention and that these effects are enhanced by the human capital of their founders and leaders diverse sensegiving activities are also associated with higher levels of attention from the general media but only the attention of specialized industry media is positively associated with the level of vc funding obtained these findings extend current research on information intermediation and institutional legitimation by demonstrating that media attention early in the life of new organizations affects how they are valued by a well informed expert audience such as vcs they also contribute to entrepreneurship research on the effects of new organizations strategies on their ability to secure resources and to research on vc funding decisions

macroeconomic modeling for assessing sustainability of bioethanol production in thailand abstract the development of bioethanol can bring about socio economic and environmental impacts to support the sustainability analysis of bioethanol development and the decision making on bioethanol promotion in thailand this study aims at assessing the socio economic and environmental effects of bioethanol production using recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium cge modeling the assessment is carried out based on the bioethanol production targets in thailand s alternative energy development plan aedp 2015 capturing cassava ethanol and molasses ethanol simulation scenarios are set up to incorporate the role of bioethanol support policies such as tax reduction production efficiency improvement and widening the price gap between gasoline and gasohol into the analysis the results show that increasing bioethanol production together with improving the efficiency of feedstock cultivation is the most efficient way to enhance economic growth however the higher production and consumption would also lead to more irrigation water demand and air emissions the presentation of bioethanol support policies role in promoting bioethanol along with widespread socio economic and environmental effects focus are novel not only are the results useful for the decision making towards sustainable bioethanol development the methods presented in this study should also be a guideline for other socio economic and environmental impact assessment schemes

electricity intensities of the oecd and south africa a comparison abstract this paper investigates the relationship between south africa s total electricity intensity and that of the oecd members a very important trade block these results will assist in ascertaining possible scope for improvement if such exists this is necessary as electricity is an essential input for production and hence it affects the competitiveness of the country calculating the electricity intensities defined as the ratio of electricity consumption to total output we found that south africa s electricity intensity has more than doubled between 1990 and 2007 all the oecd members excluding iceland weighted growth in electricity intensity was lower than that of south africa by a considerable margin the sectoral analysis showed that the majority of the south african sectors are more electricity intensive to improve its industrial competitiveness and as an additional benefit contribute towards achieving its stated commitments towards reduction of greenhouse gas emissions south africa will have to improve its total and sectoral electricity efficiency levels that not only were higher but also increasing at an alarming rate

macroeconomic impacts of bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land a case study of argentina this paper assesses the macroeconomic impacts in terms of gdp trade balance and employment of large scale bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land an input output model is developed with which the direct indirect and induced macroeconomic impacts of bioenergy production and agricultural intensification which is needed to make agricultural land become available for bioenergy production are assessed following a scenario approach the methodology is applied to a case study of argentina the results of this study reveal that large scale pellet production in 2015 would directly increase gdp by 4 imports by 10 and employment by 6 over the reference situation in 2001 when accounting for indirect and induced impacts gdp increases by 18 imports by 20 and employment by 26 compared to 2001 agricultural intensification reduces but does not negate these positive impacts of bioenergy production accounting for agricultural intensification the increase in gdp as a result of bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land would amount to 16 20 in imports and 16 in employment compared to 2001

analysis of the energy intensity evolution in the brazilian industrial sector 1995 to 2005 this study developed a method to evaluate the evolution of energy intensity in the brazilian industrial sector from 1995 to 2004 in order to do so it was necessary to obtain six different measures indicators of the sector energy intensity considering the concept of energy intensity as the ratio between energy consumption and the level of economic activity two measures were used for the energy consumption a thermal physical and an economic one for the level of economic activity three measures were used value of production value of delivered goods and added value in the brazilian industrial sector most of these indicators have behaved in a similar way in a disaggregated way energy intensity indicators show a unified direction of its evolution however a more elaborate study on the consumption profile of the brazilian industrial sector and its economical activities indicates the presence of important deviations concerning the annual rate of change in energy intensity besides there is no evident relation between these deviations and the composition of the different indicators of energy intensity

the competitive dynamics of status and niche width us investment banking 1920 1949 by integrating the status based model of market competition and the resource partitioning model this paper develops the resource status space imagery of markets and two propositions first the paper argues that the benefit that an organization derives from an increment in status is not independent of the organization s niche width second the paper considers the implications of status based stratification for the resource partitioning model s specification of the effects of increasing market concentration using the resource status space imagery this paper posits that if expanding generalists are reluctant to lower their status or are unable to increase their status they will expand within their current status level the expanding generalists will thus encroach on the niches of similar status generalists and specialists rather than expand into the niches of generalists across the whole status spectrum we discuss implications for the sociology of markets copyright 2000 by oxford university press

disentangling the multiple effects of affiliate reputation on resource attraction in new firms past research has established that new firms can enhance their attractiveness to prospective resource providers by affiliating with more reputable firms but research on this process has yet to fully account for two critical realities underscored by recent research 1 firms need to acquire resources from different groups of resource providers and 2 reputation is multidimensional drawing on the organizational reputation literature and on information processing theory we propose that two groups of resource providers will respond differently to new firms affiliations in accordance with differences in the groups abilities to recognize and interpret reputation related signals we also propose that within a single group of resource providers distinct characteristics of the affiliate will exert different influences we test these propositions using longitudinal data from belgian firms that affiliated with venture capital vc investors consistent with our predictions we find that characteristics of a

the dynamics of organizational status this paper examines the growth and decline of organizational status it is argued that an organization s status is determined by two factors past performance outcomes and the status of the organization s affiliates the better the past performance outcomes and the higher the status of the affiliates the greater the organization s growth in status this basic proposition is tested in an examination of status changes among investment banks in the non investment grade market between 1981 and 1987 implications and extensions are discussed in the conclusion copyright 1996 by oxford university press

embeddedness in the making of financial capital how social relations and networks benefit firms seeking financing i investigate how social embeddedness affects an organization s acquisition and cost of financial capital in middle market banking a lucrative but understudied financial sector using existing theory and original fieldwork i develop a framework to explain how embeddedness can influence which firms get capital and at what cost i then statistically examine my claims using national data on small business lending at the level of dyadic ties i find that firms that embed their commercial transactions with their lender in social attachments receive lower interest rates on loans at the network level firms are more likely to get loans and to receive lower interest rates on loans if their network of bank ties has a mix of embedded ties and arm s length ties these network effects arise because embedded ties motivate network partners to share private resources while arm s length ties facilitate access to public information on market prices and loan opportunities so that the benefits of different types of ties are optimized within one network i conclude with a discussion of how the value produced by a network is at a premium when it creates a bridge that links the public information of markets with the private resources of relationships

sustainability performance for brazilian electricity power industry an assessment integrating social economic and environmental issues the increased pressure on companies to address sustainability issues has resulted in the development of several voluntary corporate sustainability integration approaches the array of existing approaches is large and overwhelming resulting in companies not understanding what corporate sustainability really means for their businesses considering environmental economic and social issues this paper aims at assessing the performance of the brazilian electricity power industry in terms of its sustainability performance an analysis of global reporting initiative gri indicators for the energy sector lead to an assessment of its sustainability performance by applying data envelopment analysis dea specified with a directional distance function ddf five scenarios were created i flexible weights ii triple bottom line iii social issues iv economic issues and v environmental issues with considering i flexibility weights almost all companies are efficient we also found a significant difference when we compared i with the other four scenarios ii iii iv and v taking into account the triple bottom line scenario ii the results indicate that companies were less efficient when compared with the flexible weights scenario i taking into account the last three scenarios iii iv and v only four companies were considered as providing top benchmarks in sustainability performance

modelling energy intensity pollution per capita and productivity in italy a structural var approach abstract in this paper we present a green growth model with energy and pollution a structural var approach is used to test its empirical implications for the italian economy data span over the 1961 2010 period our model develops the original contribution by adom and kwakwa 2014 2 aimed at identifying the long run forces driving the dynamics of a set of variables specifically we identify the long and short run structural shocks of the variables of interest by means of restrictions from theory our results show that 1 the estimated conditional correlations of energy intensity and pollution per capita are positive for both supply and demand shocks and 2 the impulse responses show a persistent increase of both energy intensity and pollution per capita to supply shocks the main insight is that the var residuals are combinations of structural supply and demand shocks

do liquidity constraints matter in explaining firm size and growth some evidence from the italian manufacturing industry the paper investigates whether liquidity constraints affect firm size and growth dynamics using a large longitudinal sample of italian manufacturing firms we run standard panel data gibrat regressions suitably expanded to take into account liquidity constraints proxied by cash flow scaled by firm sales moreover we characterize the statistical properties of fi rms size growth age and scaled cashflow distributions pooled data show that i liquidity constraints engender a negative statistically significant effect on growth once one controls for size ii smaller firms grow more and experience more volatile growth patterns after controlling for liquidity constraints iii the stronger liquidity constraints the more size negatively affects firm growth we find that pooled size distributions depart from log normality and growth rates are well approximated by fat tailed tent shaped laplace densities we also study the evolution of growth size distributions over time our exercises suggest that the strong negative impact of liquidity constraints on firm growth which was present in the pooled sample becomes ambiguous when one disaggregates across years finally firms who were young and strongly liquidity constrained at the beginning of the sample period grew persistently more than those who were old and weakly liquidity constrained

models of growth in organizational ecology a simulation assessment organizational ecologists investigate the dynamics of organizational populations ecological analysis has focused explicitly on organizational founding and mortality processes in these populations with notable success but has lagged behind in its understanding of organizational growth which plays an important role in ecological processes using computer simulation analysis this paper examines four models for organizational growth gibrat s law a proportional growth model an extension of gibrat s law that includes density and age effects on growth a schumpeterian growth model based on rd and a demographic growth model based on poisson processes for the arrival and departure of individuals the simulation findings are compared with empirical observations and the implications of the findings for modeling organizational growth are discussed in particular i argue that it is unlikely that one growth model fits all and suggest that separate growth models need to be developed for different industrial and organizational contexts copyright 2004 oxford university press

economy wide impacts of biofuels in argentina abstract argentina is one of the world s largest biodiesel producers and the largest exporter using soybeans as feedstock using a computable general equilibrium model that explicitly represents the biofuel industry this study carries out several simulations on two sets of issues i international markets for biofuel and feedstock such as an increase in prices of soybean soybean oil and biodiesel and ii domestic policies related to biofuels such as an introduction of biofuel mandates both sets of issues can have important consequences to the argentinean economy the simulations indicate that increases in international prices of biofuels and feedstocks would increase argentina s gross domestic product and social welfare increases in international prices of ethanol and corn also can benefit argentina but to a lesser extent the domestic mandates for biofuels however would cause small losses in economic output and social welfare because they divert part of biodiesel and feedstock from exports to lower return domestic consumption an increase in the export tax on either feedstock or biodiesel also would lead to a reduction in gross domestic product and social welfare although government revenue would rise

a theory of the early growth of the firm economic enterprise consists in the matching of resources and opportunities to create value growth processes of the new enterprise are here explored in a systems model inspired by penrose a sequence of phases in the early life of the firm reflects growth processes and problems solutions giving rise to new problems firms must access mobilize and deploy resources before they can generate resources for growth subsequent phases in which growth reinforcement and growth reversal forces content are not universal but are set in motion in an important minority of firms the major job creators beyond the early phases critical problems facing the firm are more diverse the growth of the firm is related to the building of the competence needed to respond to changing industrial opportunities copyright 1998 by oxford university press

when do entrepreneurs accurately evaluate venture capital firms track records a bounded rationality perspective there has been substantial research on the value of young firms engaging high quality partners this literature as well as the broader firm reputation literature has tended to assume that individ

how do social defenses work a resource dependence lens on technology ventures venture capital investors and corporate relationships interorganizational relationships offer many potential benefits but they also expose firms to dangers such as misappropriation which pull partners apart this tension between collaboration and competition is central to tie formation especially for young technology firms that have both a high need for resources and high appropriability of their own resources prior work has examined legal and timing defenses that enable interorganizational ties by such low power firms we focus here on social defenses in a longitudinal study of equity tie formation between young firms and established corporate sharks spanning five technology based industries and 25 years we unpack the effects of social defenses and find intriguingly that centrally positioned third parties are a particularly powerful social defense and that third party social defenses are especially significant when more traditional defenses are unavailable we thus offer the insight that third party chaperones central venture capital investors play a key role in helping young firms to mitigate and navigate vulnerabilities while mobilizing resources

biofuels and economic development a computable general equilibrium analysis for tanzania abstract biofuels could offer new economic opportunities for low income countries we use a recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium model of tanzania to evaluate different biofuels production options and estimate their impacts on growth and poverty our results indicate that maximizing the poverty reducing effects of biofuels production in countries like tanzania will require engaging and improving the productivity of smallholder farmers evidence shows that cassava based ethanol production is more profitable than other feedstock options cassava also generates more pro poor growth than sugarcane based systems however if smallholder yields can be improved rather than expanding cultivated land then both sugarcane and cassava out grower schemes generate similar pro poor outcomes we conclude that in so far as the public investments needed to establish a biofuels industry are consistent with other development needs then producing biofuels will enhance economic development in countries like tanzania

using founder status age of firm and company growth rate as the basis for distinguishing entrepreneurs from managers of smaller businesses abstract this article examined the empirical implications of definitions that distinguish entrepreneurs from managers of smaller businesses based on their founder nonfounder status and their firms ages and growth rates the best distinctions were created using 1 founders 2 younger companies and 3 the combination of founders and younger companies growth indicators did not discriminate well the two founder based distinctions shared a profile of entrepreneurs as running smaller companies with higher return on assets roa than nonentrepreneurial managers having shorter tenure in their positions having previous work experience in the same industry and having higher risk taking propensity the distinction based on age of firm also showed strong ability to discriminate among respondents the field of entrepreneurship has few longer standing controversies than the one surrounding the question of what distinguishes entrepreneurs from nonentrepreneurial managers in trying to separate entrepreneurs from managers of smaller businesses in particular questions exist concerning the key defining differences definitions of entrepreneurship have utilized founder versus nonfounder status company age and company growth rates as distinguishing elements entrepreneurs have been defined by one or more of the following elements being a company founder running a young company and running or desiring to run a high growth company this article tests these elements to see if they provide a clearly differentiated profile of entrepreneurs it uses the founder nonfounder distinction for example to see if this distinction functions well in identifying a number of company financial and personal attributes that associate with founders rather than nonfounders the approach advocated here borrows from configurational theory as it has emerged in the fields of strategic management and organizational theory meyer tsui and hinings 1993 to look for a constellation of variables that group together in depicting entrepreneurs if founder status company age and growth rate are useful definitions of entrepreneurship they should point to a configuration of factors that together comprise a profile of an entrepreneur in predicting what configuration of factors will emerge this article adopts a strategic adaptation perspective low and macmillan 1988 to argue that differences between entrepreneurs and nonentrepreneurs spring from divergent thought processes and personal attributes of individuals who face the question of whether and how to enter business for themselves using the founder nonfounder distinction we view individuals who decide to start a new business rather than buy or manage an existing one as more likely to have previously founded a business have experience in the same industry be higher in risk taking show more type a behavior and be more growth oriented findings from a sample of ceos in the smaller business association of new england indicated that neither of the two tests based on high growth as a definition of entrepreneurial firms proved adept at creating a distinct entrepreneurial profile distinctions based on founder status younger firm status and founder of a younger firm status on the other hand proved effective in creating such profiles dimensions shared by the two founder based definitions of entrepreneurship included company attributes of smaller size and higher roa and ceo attributes of shorter tenure on the job previous experience in the same industry and higher risk taking propensity additional attributes showed in the younger company founder group including company attributes of lower liquidity and higher sales growth and personal attributes of having previously founded a business ranking roa as a high priority and external locus of control the distinction based on younger firm status performed well in discriminating among respondents in this study in addition to sharing several variables with the founder based distinctions it alone identified younger firms ceos as having lower education and type a tendencies and higher expectations of children succeeding them in the business as one implication of these findings knowledge of the profiles may help people who deal with these groups to have a better sense of how to interact with and respond to them the young company founder profile for example presents a picture of a relatively small company experiencing high rates of sales growth squeezing all it can from its assets in the face of high comparative liabilities because the company is young its founder has relatively short tenure but may well have had previous experience in the industry and have previously founded a company personally the founder is a risk taker who is external in locus of control and places high priority on roa if this configuration holds firm in future research those who deal frequently with entrepreneurs such as bankers venture capitalists consultants accountants and lawyers will be able to use a few identifying factors such as founder status and age of firm to draw reasonable inferences about a host of other characteristics of their clients the attempt to profile the entrepreneur in recent years thought to be futile may yet prove viable