Cross-Cultural Rebels: How and When Skillsets for Seizing Innovative Opportunities Emerge

Abstract

Innovative breakthroughs are often linked with rebel entrepreneurs who think at the boundaries of convention and disrupt the rules of the game. Despite this enduring archetype, a core question remains unanswered: why are some individuals more likely to start game-changing ventures than others? In taking a cognitive perspective, this paper argues that in the context of initiating new ventures, the ability to mentally contemplate and challenge the boundaries of the status quo may be advantageous in getting unorthodox ventures off the ground. Integrating recent research from cross-cultural psychology, I argue that experiencing other cultures can be influential in developing action-oriented capabilities central to nascent entrepreneurship—the capacity for developing innovative opportunities. Specifically, cross-cultural experience is associated with two key seizing capabilities in particular; rule-breaking and risk-taking. Drawing from attribution theory, I posit that moral relativism plays a key mediating role, such that those who view formal rules and moral codes as culturally fluid and fundamentally subjective become more comfortable in thinking and acting at the edge of business norms. This paper advances theoretical understanding on the notion of entrepreneurs as “rebels with a cause” by delineating how and when capabilities important for seizing new venture opportunities emerge.