IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bushor/v60y2017i4p455-462.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

You don’t have to be an entrepreneur to be entrepreneurial: The unique role of imaginativeness in new venture ideation

Author

Listed:
  • McMullen, Jeffery S.
  • Kier, Alexander S.

Abstract

Bestsellers like The Lean Startup and Business Model Generation have suggested that ideation—the generation and selection of ideas—is important to new venture creation; yet, little empirical research on the topic has been conducted. Using a creative problem-solving approach, we developed and tested a new scale that found imaginativeness predicts new venture ideation over and above the effects of the usual suspects of attitude, knowledge, and evaluation. Imaginativeness is an ideational skill that combines task-relevant knowledge in three distinct domains—creative, social, and practical—with the latent ability of imagination. In this article, we explain why a new scale was needed, why imaginativeness appears to be especially useful to individuals who lack entrepreneurial experience, and how imaginativeness enables just about anyone to generate and select new venture ideas with the proficiency of a habitual entrepreneur.

Suggested Citation

  • McMullen, Jeffery S. & Kier, Alexander S., 2017. "You don’t have to be an entrepreneur to be entrepreneurial: The unique role of imaginativeness in new venture ideation," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 60(4), pages 455-462.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:60:y:2017:i:4:p:455-462
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2017.03.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681317300265
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bushor.2017.03.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mcmullen, Jeffery S., 2015. "Entrepreneurial judgment as empathic accuracy: a sequential decision-making approach to entrepreneurial action," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 651-681, September.
    2. Davidsson, Per & Honig, Benson, 2003. "The role of social and human capital among nascent entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 301-331, May.
    3. Scott Shane, 2000. "Prior Knowledge and the Discovery of Entrepreneurial Opportunities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 448-469, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Packard, Mark D. & Burnham, Thomas A., 2021. "Do we understand each other? Toward a simulated empathy theory for entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(1).
    2. Jeffery S. McMullen & Katrina M. Brownell & Joel Adams, 2021. "What Makes an Entrepreneurship Study Entrepreneurial? Toward A Unified Theory of Entrepreneurial Agency," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 45(5), pages 1197-1238, September.
    3. Kuratko, Donald F. & Devin Burnell, & Stevenson, Regan & Neubert, Emily & Fisher, Greg, 2023. "Enacting entrepreneurial hustle," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 237-249.
    4. Kier, Alexander S. & McMullen, Jeffery S., 2020. "Entrepreneurial imaginativeness and new venture ideation in newly forming teams," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(6).
    5. Warnick, Benjamin J. & Kier, Alexander S. & LaFrance, Emily M. & Cuttler, Carrie, 2021. "Head in the clouds? Cannabis users' creativity in new venture ideation depends on their entrepreneurial passion and experience," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(2).
    6. McMullen, Jeffery S., 2018. "Organizational hybrids as biological hybrids: Insights for research on the relationship between social enterprise and the entrepreneurial ecosystem," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 575-590.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amir Emami & Dimo Dimov, 2017. "Degree of innovation and the entrepreneurs’ intention to create value: a comparative study of experienced and novice entrepreneurs," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 7(2), pages 161-182, August.
    2. Gras, David & Conger, Michael & Jenkins, Anna & Gras, Michael, 2020. "Wicked problems, reductive tendency, and the formation of (non-)opportunity beliefs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(3).
    3. Emiel L. Eijdenberg & Kathrin Borner, 2017. "The Performance Of Subsistence Entrepreneurs In Tanzania’S Informal Economy," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(01), pages 1-22, March.
    4. De Clercq, Dirk & Danis, Wade M. & Dakhli, Mourad, 2010. "The moderating effect of institutional context on the relationship between associational activity and new business activity in emerging economies," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 85-101, February.
    5. Heiko Bergmann, 2017. "The formation of opportunity beliefs among university entrepreneurs: an empirical study of research- and non-research-driven venture ideas," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 116-140, February.
    6. Sergeeva, Anastasia & Bhardwaj, Akhil & Dimov, Dimo, 2021. "In the heat of the game: Analogical abduction in a pragmatist account of entrepreneurial reasoning," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(6).
    7. Enrico Santarelli & Hien Tran, 2013. "The interplay of human and social capital in shaping entrepreneurial performance: the case of Vietnam," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 435-458, February.
    8. Thomas Ã…stebro & Kevyn Yong, 2016. "Invention Quality and Entrepreneurial Earnings: The Role of Prior Employment Variety," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(2), pages 381-400, March.
    9. Erik Lundmark & Anna Krzeminska & Dean A. Shepherd, 2019. "Images of Entrepreneurship: Exploring Root Metaphors and Expanding Upon Them," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(1), pages 138-170, January.
    10. D’Angelo, Alfredo & Presutti, Manuela, 2019. "SMEs international growth: The moderating role of experience on entrepreneurial and learning orientations," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 613-624.
    11. Rui Baptista & Murat Karaöz & João Correia Leitão, 2020. "Diversification by young, small firms: the role of pre-entry resources and entry mistakes," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 103-122, June.
    12. Jintong Tang, 2010. "How entrepreneurs discover opportunities in China: An institutional view," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 461-479, September.
    13. AFAWUBO, Komivi & NOGLO, Yawo Agbényégan, 2022. "ICT and entrepreneurship: A comparative analysis of developing, emerging and developed countries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    14. Michael Stuetzer & Martin Obschonka & Eva Schmitt-Rodermund, 2013. "Balanced skills among nascent entrepreneurs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 93-114, June.
    15. Jose Manuel Comeche & Jose Vicente Pascual, 2014. "Facilitating Elements for the Transmission of the Entrepreneurial Spirit in the Classroom," Business and Management Research, Business and Management Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 3(2), pages 18-27, June.
    16. Russ McBride & Mark D. Packard & Brent B. Clark, 2024. "Rogue Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 48(1), pages 392-417, January.
    17. Unger, Jens M. & Rauch, Andreas & Frese, Michael & Rosenbusch, Nina, 2011. "Human capital and entrepreneurial success: A meta-analytical review," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 341-358, May.
    18. Shepherd, Dean A. & Sattari, Rose & Patzelt, Holger, 2022. "A social model of opportunity development: Building and engaging communities of inquiry," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(1).
    19. Vandor, Peter & Franke, Nikolaus, 2016. "See Paris and… found a business? The impact of cross-cultural experience on opportunity recognition capabilities," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 388-407.
    20. Ramoglou, Stratos & Tsang, Eric W.K., 2017. "Accepting the unknowables of entrepreneurship and overcoming philosophical obstacles to scientific progress," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 8(C), pages 71-77.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:60:y:2017:i:4:p:455-462. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.