ABSTRACT
A great deal of entrepreneurship research involves trying to access the minds of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists (VCs), angels and the general market. The goals are varied. Some scholars are interested in whether and how entrepreneurs recognize and decide to pursue opportunities (Baron and Ensley 2006; Grégoire et al. 2010). Others are interested in their perceptions of risk (Carpenter et al. 2003), the strategies they pursue (Mishina et al. 2004; Wasserman 2006; Zachary et al. 2011b) or how they view the resources available to them (Baker and Nelson 2005). Still other scholars seek to understand how VCs decide which firms to fund (Kirsch et al. 2009; Zacharakis and Shepherd 2005) or how they manage uncertainty (Pollock et al. 2009; Wasserman 2003). Some focus on how markets make sense of and value firms when they do not possess much information (Nelson 2003; Pollock and Rindova 2003; Pollock et al. 2008), how entrepreneurial firms attempt to influence investors’ perceptions (Lounsbury and Glynn 2001; Martens et al. 2007) or build intangible assets such as reputation and celebrity (Rindova et al. 2006, 2007).
