Unwrapping opportunity confidence: how do different types of feasibility beliefs affect venture emergence?

New venture formation: A capability configurational approach

“…Extant studies have illustrated that both human and social capital drive entrepreneurial activities underpinning new venture formation (e.g., resource acquisition and competency development, Davidsson & Honig, 2003;De Carolis et al, 2009;Grichnik et al, 2014;Rotefoss & Kolvereid, 2005;Samuelsson & Davidsson, 2009;Townsend & Busenitz, 2015). Indeed, founders generate the venture's required ordinary and dynamic capabilities either through their existing knowledge and experience or by accessing those capabilities in their network of relationships, a process that then leads to new venture formation (McKelvie & Davidsson, 2009;Vilanova & Vitanova, 2019). For instance, a founder's knowledge and skills (evaluated by their education and previous experiences) have a signaling effect on attracting the financial resources required to form a venture (Ko & McKelvie, 2018).…”

“…New venture formation involves the identification of a new venture idea, entrepreneurial activities, evaluation of the new venture idea, as well as the formal establishment of the new venture (Davidsson, 2015;Miozzo & DiVito, 2018). New venture formation, as a recursive and multifaceted concept, is a complex phenomenon, where its operationalization has relied on a wide range of activities (e.g., Dimov, 2010;Vilanova & Vitanova, 2019). However, early activities of a new venture may themselves drive the venture formation rather than represent the outcome.…”

“…However, early activities of a new venture may themselves drive the venture formation rather than represent the outcome. For instance, whereas organizing activities are investigated as a driver of venture formation in some studies (e.g., Lichtenstein, Carter, Dooley, & Gartner, 2007), others have used these activities to indicate new venture formation itself (e.g., Vilanova & Vitanova, 2019).…”

“…Our findings in configuration I are consistent with research showing that the founder's human capital (e.g., Cassar, 2014;Grichnik et al, 2014) as well as the venture's resources (Haynie et al, 2009;Wood & Williams, 2014) and competencies (Dimov, 2010) First, our results suggest that the absence or presence of social capital and managerial cognition does not determine the formation of capability-driven ventures. Social capital and managerial cognition will only contribute to new venture formation through generating ordinary and dynamic capabilities (Samuelsson & Davidsson, 2009;Vilanova & Vitanova, 2019), which could be generated by human capital on its own (Rotefoss & Kolvereid, 2005). In addition to its contribution towards creating ordinary and dynamic capabilities, human capital also drives new venture formation through its impact on the self-focused evaluation of the new venture idea (i.e., a quality lacking for social capital and managerial cognition) (Ardichvili et al, 2003;Cassar, 2014).…”

“…Furthermore, research has revealed that these determinants are often interrelated, in which one's observed conjunction with new venture formation may well be generated due to the presence of the other. For instance, Vilanova and Vitanova (2019) showed that the observed effect of founders' confidence on new venture formation is explained through founders' entrepreneurial activities.…”