Innovation and Entrepreneurship Track: Entrepreneurial Scaling

Abstract

We propose to examine: how do young ventures manage the growth of their organizations and markets as they scale; what approaches account for successful scaling; and how do these approaches vary across contexts? While much research has focused on the founding (e.g., Stuart and Ding, 2006; Shane, 2000; Levine and Rubenstein, 2017) and the later stages (e.g., Nelson, 2003; Hoehn-Weiss and Karim, 2014) of the entrepreneurial life cycle, little work has assessed the in- between “scaling” stage when ventures make critical decisions about the growth of their markets and teams. We propose to bring together four papers presented by a panel of Natalie Carlson (Wharton Business School), Gary Dushnitsky (London Business School), Rembrand Koning (Harvard Business School), and Nataliya Langburd Wright (Harvard Business School), discussed by Ranjay Gulati (Harvard Business School) and Melissa Schilling (New York University). We will reveal the novel mechanisms which shape the scaling process of young ventures and how they vary across institutional and sectoral environments. Stay the Course or Start Over? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment Presenter: Natalie Carlson; The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania Presenter: Anselm Hager; Humboldt U. of Berlin Explaining Scaling Disparities Across Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: the Role of Strategy Presenter: Nataliya Wright; Harvard Business School The Uneven Benefits of Silicon Valley: Scaling Technology and Inequality Presenter: Rembrand Michael Koning; Harvard Business School Presenter: Maria Roche; Harvard Business School Entrepreneurial Access in the Era of Low Code Tools Presenter: Gary Dushnitsky; London Business School