Daniel A. Lerner

Verified

Daniel verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

Learn more

Verified

Daniel verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

Learn more

• PhD
• Associate Professor at IE University

Entrepreneurial action is central to entrepreneurship theory, and is broadly seen to arise as a consequence of intendedly rational logics (whether causal or effectual), reflecting reasoned judgment. But, is this always the case? While entrepreneurial action may often be the result of a judgmental decision (between alternative courses of action/inac...

Develops integrated perspective on the dualism of ADHD in entreprenurship, both across the extended entrepreneurial process and within particular stages/activites.

A growing conversation has emerged linking ostensibly dark or pathological individual-level characteristics to entrepreneurship. Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is among the most central and emblematic. Recent studies have made great strides—articulating the theoretical relevance of ADHD-type behavior in entrepreneurship and suggest...

This article elaborates on a lively and rapidly evolving conversation central to entrepreneurship: the underpinnings of entrepreneurial action. In particular, we respond to a critique published in this journal by Brown, Packard, and Bylund (BPB), in which they argue that all EA is based on intendedly-rational judgment. The empirical reality of rati...

We examine the physical health consequences to entrepreneurs of firm growth and decline. Using register-based panel data (2000–2021), we find that entrepreneurs and hired CEOs are, on average, healthier and live longer than individuals from a socio-economically similar random sample from the general population. However, our findings also reveal tha...

Highlights • Atypical dopamine physiology appears to be a biomarker of neurodiversity in entrepreneurs. • Dopaminergic personality traits include Openness, Extraversion and the Industriousness aspect of Conscientiousness. • Dopaminergic psychiatric conditions include bipolar spectrum syndromes, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), subst...

The characterization of entrepreneurs as scientists (EaS) has become increasingly popular among management scholars because it fits neatly with existing theories of entrepreneurial action grounded in the assumption that entrepreneurs form and test beliefs in an intendedly rational fashion, under conditions of uncertainty, while continually seeking...

Our study extends and enhances entrepreneurial action theory (EAT) by considering the strategic advantage or disadvantage of impulsive action. To date, EAT has largely sidestepped the role of dispositional impulsivity, limiting its veridicality and inclusivity. Popularized notions of celebrity entrepreneurs and an increasingly large body of empiric...

Our study extends and enhances entrepreneurial action theory (EAT) by considering the strategic advantage or disadvantage of impulsive action. To date, EAT has largely sidestepped the role of dispositional impulsivity, limiting its veridicality and inclusivity. Popularized notions of celebrity entrepreneurs and an increasingly large body of empiric...

Purpose This paper aims to introduce eristic decision-making in entrepreneurship. A decision is eristically made when it utilizes eristics, which are action-triggering short-cuts that draw on hedonic urges (e.g. sensation-seeking). Unlike heuristics, eristic decision-making is not intendedly rational as eristics lead to decision-making without calc...

Rationality is an elusive and increasingly debated concept in entrepreneurship research. We offer a novel conceptualization of rationality based on reasoning motivations. We posit that logical, probabilistic, and heuristic reasoning logics are motivationally rational because the decision-maker attempts to accurately perceive the external world and...

Plain English Summary Historical approaches are key to accurately and comprehensively capturing the rich and varied dynamics of nascent-stage business venturing. Nascent-stage business venturing is messy and notoriously difficult to completely and accurately observe. Researchers are rarely, if ever, present when ideas are formed and initial actions...

While management and entrepreneurship scholars have displayed comfort in and receptivity towards anthropomorphizing organizations, technologies, and even algorithms, our field has not yet grappled with a mountain of empirical evidence gathered over decades of research in the natural sciences that non-humans may behave entrepreneurially. For reflect...

Entrepreneurship scholarship finds itself in something of a quandary concerning rationality. While an increasingly large body of empirical work has found evidence of less-deliberative and even impulsive drivers of business venturing, the dominant theories of entrepreneurial action remain anchored to the assumption that intended rationality is a def...

There is growing evidence that human biology and behavior are influenced by infectious microorganisms. One such microorganism is the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii ( TG). Using longitudinal data covering the female population of Denmark, we extend research on the relationship between TG infection and entrepreneurial activity and outcomes. Results indi...

High-achieving employees, the "stars" of an organization, are widely credited with producing indispensable, irreplaceable, value-enhancing contributions. From the recruitment of celebrity CEOs to the fierce competition for star scientists, and from lucrative contracts for sports icons to out-sized bonuses for top salespeople, human capital strategi...

The purpose of this article is to address key aspects of Wood, Bakker, and Fisher’s (AMR, in press) time-calibrated theory of entrepreneurial action, through which they take important steps towards identifying temporal calibrations that characterize the business venturing lifecycle. The issue that concerns us with the Woods et al. theorization is t...

The article presents a response to the commentary “Entrepreneurship and Contextual Definitions of Mental Disorders: Why Psychiatry Abandoned the Latter and Entrepreneurship Scholars May Want to Follow Suit” on the AMP symposium “Entrepreneurship and Mental Health.” We discuss and largely challenge the commentary’s criticism against the emerging res...

Much is broken in the systems designed to deliver human healthcare. Without a fundamental reassessment, involving new sources of capable leadership, there is reason to doubt society's capacity to guarantee the availability of basic healthcare for future generations. Confronted by the "iron triangle" of cost, quality, and access, healthcare is awash...

There is growing evidence that human biology and behavior is influenced by infectious microorganisms. One such microorganism is the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii (TG). Using longitudinal data covering the female population of Denmark, we extend research on the relationship between TG infection and entrepreneurial activity and outcomes. Results indica...

Research Summary In recent years, scholarship on intra‐industry entrepreneurial spinouts has coalesced around a heredity‐focused perspective, propounding the notion that spinouts from high‐quality parent‐firms outperform those emanating from low‐quality parent‐firms. This view has found strong support in high‐tech sectors, but it is unclear whether...

[forthcoming in Journal of Business Venturing Insights https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1Y3k~8MxvtNisU] This article elaborates on a lively and rapidly evolving conversation central to entrepreneurship: the underpinnings of entrepreneurial action. In particular, we respond to a critique published in this journal by Brown, Packard, and Bylund (BPB),...

More often than not, corporate acquisitions are expensive and difficult, especially those transacted for the purpose of advancing the aims of corporate entrepreneurship (CE). Motivated by frequent, high-cost failures, firms are experimenting with novel organizational structures and fresh approaches to acquisition-driven CE. In this study, we examin...

Disciplines such as business and economics often rely on the assumption of rationality when explaining complex human behaviours. However, growing evidence suggests that behaviour may concurrently be influenced by infectious microorganisms. The protozoan Toxoplasma gondii infects an estimated 2 billion people worldwide and has been linked to behavio...

Our study in first to undertake a comprehensive investigation that relaxes the central assumption that entrepreneurial activity is the exclusive domain of human beings. Doing so illuminates new frontiers regarding the biological origins of innovation and entrepreneurship. Using a database consisting of 134,000 coded behaviors from 2,572 hours of ac...

Extant literature, while often suggesting a positive link between green innovation and firm performance, is inconclusive. Moreover, the possibly moderating role of management has not been sufficiently considered. Using a unique dataset sampling 188 manufacturing firms in China, we examine how managerial concern (for green issues) moderates the rela...

What’s better: a higher volume of more impulsive and error prone decisions and actions, or a lower volume that is more accurate? This tradeoff has received extensive scholarly attention, but not in entrepreneurship, although the tradeoff is salient in this context. We build an agent-based simulation model, validated with PSED data, to examine the c...

This study examined relationships of the dark triad personality characteristics (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) with entrepreneurial intentions and motives. Results from samples of business undergraduates (N = 508) and MBA students (N = 234) found narcissism to be positively related to entrepreneurial intentions. In addition,...

Although creativity and sustainability have received considerable attention in the literature, there is limited research considering both – particularly in relation to co-existing organizational factors which facilitate the transformation of creativity into sustainable products. This paper explores this gap through an analysis of six case studies o...

Through the discovery and exploitation of a natural experiment comprised of a complete industry population, this paper presents empirical evidence challenging widely held beliefs related to intra-industry entrepreneurial spinoffs. Extant spinoff theory holds that knowledge and capabilities are transferred from parent-firms to spinoffs in hereditary...

Why are the vast majority of initial public offerings (IPOs) underpriced? We show that firms can have strategic reasons to underprice more than necessary. Most importantly because the first trading day share price increase that is the result of underpricing enhances the public recognition of a firm and can be used to attract critical stakeholders s...