Aaron Mckenny

Indiana University Bloomington | IUB · Department of Management and Entrepreneurship

Applying individual-level constructs to higher levels of analysis can be a fruitful practice in organizational research. Although this practice is beneficial in developing and testing theory, there are measurement and validation concerns that, if improperly addressed, may threaten the validity and utility of the research. This article illustrates h...

Despite the call for increased theoretical diversity in franchising research, the incorporation of organizational theory into this literature has been minimal. In response, we examine how aspects of organizational identity are represented in franchisee recruitment Web sites. We develop the concept of franchise branding to understand how franchisors...

We investigate how entrepreneurs communicate with crowdfunding backers during the onset of a societal crisis via a content analysis of campaigns active during the COVID-19 pandemic and a vignette experiment. While effective communication with stakeholders is critical for acquiring resources during societal crises, little is known about what communi...

Research Summary Although reward-based crowdfunding is lauded for its promise to democratize funding for innovation, claiming innovation in campaign texts has an ambiguous link to crowdfunding performance. We draw from Expectancy Violations Theory (EVT) and, in a field study of 2,185 Kickstarter campaigns, find that innovation claims yield better f...

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly ubiquitous, but firms differ in their emphasis on conforming to industry CSR norms versus using CSR strategically to differentiate from competitors. Research explains that managers attempt to balance conformity and differentiation regarding CSR but does not explain what shifts this balance. We d...

How does media impact institutional entrepreneurs and their ability to create change? We draw from research on social movements and media frames to examine the paradox that media-informed discursive opportunities pose for institutional entrepreneurs engaged in efforts to transform or create social institutions. Through content analysis of 8473 news...

The development and validation of the CATA trainee reactions measure used in our article. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000503.supp The primary article can be found at: https://www.dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000503

Despite the common belief that “training is only as effective as the trainer providing it” (Osborn, 2018, para. 1), training theory tends to underemphasize the trainer and instead focuses on training content and design as sources of training effectiveness. In this article, we examine whether the role of the trainer should be more central to trainin...

Crowdfunded microfinance research has routinely examined how campaign characteristics drive funding to crowdfunding campaigns but has neglected to examine the critical role of the microfinance institution (MFI). We leverage signaling theory to contend that entrepreneurs’ MFI affiliation is a salient third-party signal that shapes the performance of...

Research in entrepreneurship is increasingly exploring how archetypes, taxonomies, typologies, and configurations can help scholars understand complex entrepreneurial phenomena. We illustrate the potential for set-theoretic methods to inform this literature by offering best practices regarding how qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) can be used...

Drawing from clinical and organizational narcissism research, we develop a novel measure of narcissistic rhetoric, investigating its prevalence in a sample of 1863 crowdfunding campaigns. An experiment using 1800 observations further validates our measure and confirms our hypothesized inverted-U relationship between narcissistic rhetoric and crowdf...

Research Summary Strategic entrepreneurship research has sought to understand how firms’ entrepreneurial behaviors and decision making influence firm performance. This research generally has treated entrepreneurial orientation (EO) as consisting of dimensions that independently influence firm performance. This approach conflicts with conceptual and...

We extend the entrepreneurship literature to include positive psychological capital-an individual or organization's level of psychological resources consisting of hope, optimism, resilience , and confidence-as a salient signal in crowdfunding. We draw from the costless signaling literature to argue that positive psychological capital language usage...

Computer-aided text analysis (CATA) offers great promise for scholars who aspire to capture the beliefs, cognitions, and emotions of individuals as reflected in their narratives and written texts. We review advancements in the use of CATA in organizational studies and highlight the increased momentum towards incorporating rigor when using CATA. We...

Research Summary Organizational ambidexterity reflects an organization's capacity to balance the pursuit of exploration and exploitation. Although the role of time has been central to ambidexterity theory, studies incorporate time in myriad ways, leading to an unclear understanding of how different aspects of time influence the relationship between...

The explosion of crowdfunding within entrepreneurial circles is attracting increased academic interest in the nature of crowdfunding, its antecedents, and its consequences. In an effort to help researchers concentrate their inquiry on the most promising questions and theories involving crowdfunding, we surveyed key thought leaders within the entrep...

Crowdfunding is a rapidly growing phenomenon wherein entrepreneurs seek funding for their entrepreneurial activities from a potentially large audience of interested individuals. Crowdfunding has exploded in popularity over the last decade and now accounts for tens of billions of dollars annually. But despite the importance and growth of crowdfundin...

Identifying causal relationships is central to research in entrepreneurship and small business. The rigorous application of quantitative research design and methods can build confidence in the causality of uncovered relationships. However, recent studies highlight methodological weaknesses that threaten confidence in the causality of these relation...

Social contagion research suggests that individual decision making is shaped by collective, social processes. We extend the entrepreneurial optimism literature by arguing that collective optimism—the shared, positive expectations about future outcomes—is salient to key entrepreneurial outcomes. We test our position by examining how fluctuations in...

Computer-aided text analysis (CATA) is a form of content analysis that enables the measurement of constructs by processing text into quantitative data based on the frequency of words. CATA has been proposed as a useful measurement approach with the potential to lead to important theoretical advancements. Ironically, while CATA has been offered to o...

This study investigates the roles of the regulative, normative, and cognitive institutional pillars as perceived obstacles and facilitators of internationalization within an integrated region. Integrated regions involve efforts to create institutional similarities among member nations and encourage intra-regional trade. These efforts make integrate...

Charismatic rhetoric represents an important tool for leaders to articulate their respective visions. However, much of the research to date on this construct has yet to consider how the eight separate dimensions of charismatic rhetoric may be used in conjunction with one another to form distinctive profiles of charismatic leadership influence. Thus...

The Silences of the Archives, the Reknown of the Story. The Martin Guerre affair has been told many times since Jean de Coras and Guillaume Lesueur published their stories in 1561. It is in many ways a perfect intrigue with uncanny resemblance, persuasive deception and a surprizing end when the two Martin stood face to face, memory to memory, befor...

PurposeThis chapter provides an article-by-article annotated bibliography of the extant social entrepreneurship literature from the top management and entrepreneurship journals. Special emphasis is given to the methods used in empirical studies, providing a one-stop reference to scholars interested in conducting social entrepreneurship research. Me...

Organizational ambidexterity refers to a firm’s ability to pursue both exploitation and exploration orientations. Despite research that suggests ambidexterity is a critical phenomenon in family firms, few studies directly examine the role of ambidexterity over time in family business. This study examines how family firm ambidexterity changes over t...

How entrepreneurs disclose the blemishes of a new venture to investors may be an indicator of relative riskiness and thus may predict how much funding a venture receives. Drawing from venture funding research, the authors propose that hardship rhetoric will have a curvilinear relationship with investment received by a venture. This hypothesis is su...

Graphic novels have been increasingly incorporated into business communication forums. Despite potential benefits, little research has examined the merits of the graphic novel approach. In response, we engage in a two-study approach. Study 1 explores the potential of graphic novels to affect learning outcomes and finds that the graphic novel was re...

Applying individual-level constructs to higher levels of analysis can be a fruitful practice in organizational research. Although this practice is beneficial in developing and testing theory, there are measurement and validation concerns that, if improperly addressed, may threaten the validity and utility of the research. This article illustrates h...

Understanding how private family firms gauge performance is of great interest to family business scholars. Unfortunately, finding comparable data to understand differences in the performance of such firms is challenging. This study draws from the organizational identity literature to show how private family firms communicate different goals in publ...

A company is more likely to enjoy excellent organizational performance if its employees understand the importance of strategic management and are actively engaged in helping the company pursue its strategies. Many employees view strategy as disconnected from their jobs, however, and getting them to embrace strategy can be challenging. Using a serie...

Market orientation refers to the collection, dissemination, and utilization of market information that promotes a sustainable competitive advantage. Despite the contribution of the market orientation construct to both the strategic management and marketing literatures, little attention has been devoted to exploring how market orientation relates to...