How do mission-driven ventures emerge? An investigation of startup activities and the achievement of regular sales among early-stage everyday entrepreneurs
Journal
Small Business Economics
ISSN
0921-898X
ISSN-Digital
1573-0913
Type
journal-article
Date Issued
2026-01-26
Author(s)
Abstract
Mission-driven entrepreneurs can only create an impact if they are able to advance their venture beyond the gestation phase to an operating firm with regular sales. We focus on what entrepreneurs do in the process of setting up business and draw on social identity theory to acknowledge differences between venturing efforts. Specifically, we investigate in what way the strength of founders' missionary identity affects the relationship between two types of activities in the startup process (discovery-related, exploitation-related) and firm emergence. We test our hypotheses on a longitudinal sample of 135 nascent entrepreneurs, encompassing all kinds of startup attempts. Our results suggest that discovery-related startup activities aimed at identifying, evaluating, and developing a business idea are critical for mission-driven entrepreneurs while exploitation-related activities are also important and may require greater effort. We find indications that founders with a strong missionary identity are likely to exhibit commitment escalating behavior.
Funding(s)
SNSF Grant number: 182200
Language
English (United States)
Keywords
Missionary founders
Sustainable entrepreneurship
Social identity theory
Nascent entrepreneurship
Venture creation process
Startup activities
Everyday entrepreneurship
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject(s)
Division(s)
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Name
Bergmann_Rychener-2026-SBE_Mission-driven ventures.pdf
Size
1.24 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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