Markus Fitza

Frankfurt School of Finance & Management · Department of Management

We develop a dynamic view of national entrepreneurial culture by examining the linguistic evolution of media‐produced cultural artifacts—entrepreneurship‐related newspaper articles. Applying machine learning to 690,088 articles from 103 newspapers across the United States between 1996 and 2016, we identify a growing positivity bias toward entrepren...

Research Summary The literature on startup accelerators uncovers multiple factors associated with accelerators’ advantages. Yet, we have a limited understanding of the relative magnitude of these factors. We ask: Are accelerators akin to breweries, where quality is mainly a function of the institution of origin (i.e., brewery for beer, accelerator...

Research Summary Corporate parents are important to subsidiary performance, but prior strategy research presents mixed results about the extent to which parents drive subsidiary performance differences. Drawing on the corporate strategy literature, we argue that corporate parents’ influence depends on the size of the corporate portfolio that determ...

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...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify antecedent factors in addition to merit that contribute to the designation of first author on a publication. A second purpose is to provide knowledge of the significance and implications of being designated first author on a research article in the management discipline. A third purpose is to propose...

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...

In this study, we examine the relationship between the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem (REE) and the performance of U.S. venture capital (VC)-backed startups. We conceptualize the REE as a complex system, and pair a variance decomposition methodology with a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to study the configurations (combinati...

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...

There has been growing interesting in understanding the emergence and dynamics of regional entrepreneurial ecosystems. Much of the current work has focused on tangible, physical elements such as the role of incubators, accelerators, mentors, and universities. Comparatively less attention has been paid to the intangible aspects of entrepreneurial ec...

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...

How much of the variance in firm performance can be attributed to CEOs? This question has been the focus of a long debate in management research. In a recent study I showed that a large portion of the performance differences that are often attributed to CEOs might in fact be due to chance. In a recent paper Quigley and Graffin argue that my conclus...

Research summary : Previous studies have emphasized firm and industry effects on variation in firm performance, but the relationship between forms of ownership and firm performance has been the focus of limited research. This article examines the extent to which ownership form ( i.e., public or private ownership) and ownership structure (including...

Despite increased interest in examining the factors that influence crowdfunding success, the effects of community context have been relatively unexamined. We address this void by examining the role of cultural context in crowdfunding success. Our unique data set of crowdfunding projects to “save the local theater” are homogenous in their goal, allo...

Research summary : We use a variance decomposition methodology to assess the degree to which board chairs may influence their companies' performance. To isolate the board chair effect, we focus on firms in which the CEO and board chair positions are separated. Using a U.S. sample of 6,290 firm‐year observations representing 1,828 board chairs in 30...

We examine earnings guidance precision as a mechanism of organization impression management (OIM) and, specifically, suggest that strategic leaders use very precise earnings forecasts as an OIM tactic to convey a greater sense of authority and control over organizational performance after material organizational setbacks. Contributing to the OIM li...

Research on initial public offerings (IPOs) suggests that underwriters as well as venture capitalists (VCs) affect IPO underpricing. However, the magnitude of the effect of VCs on underpricing remains unclear. Are VCs as important as underwriters? We conduct a variance decomposition analysis to compare these two influences. Our results indicate tha...

Variance decomposition analysis is often used to examine the degree to which CEOs influence their companies' performance (the so-called CEO effect). Such studies play an important role in a body of literature that investigates the effect of leadership on organizations. In this paper, I argue that these previous studies have an important underlying...

We have a limited understanding of the decision factors that influence the suppliers of funds for social entrepreneurship, particularly when monetary return is not the primary objective. We seek to address this void through empirical testing of a mission-based model of social entrepreneurship that identifies five factors that contribute to mission...

What explains the heterogeneity of foreign subsidiary performance? Previous studies have emphasized the importance of industry, corporate parent, and home-country effects on the variation of foreign subsidiary performance. Building on recent international business and economic geography research, this study examines the extent to which subnational...

Research on initial public offerings suggests that information asymmetry between pre- IPO owners and potential IPO investors can be mitigated through certifiers such as underwriters and venture capitalists. We argue that the certification potential of venture capitalists (VCs) is greater than that of underwriters, and test this hypothesis using var...

Adding to the corporate effect literature, we study the effect of owners on firm performance in a new context, that of venture capital firms (VCs) and the start-up firms in which they invest. After discussing the effect that VC ownership can have on start-ups, we estimate that start-up-specific, owner (VC), and year effects account for significant...

Corporate strategy scholars have long been interested in how the scope of a firm’s activities, its diversification, affects its performance. While their work provides many important insights, they are not able to untangle effects associated with leveraging tangible assets from those of knowledge assets. We contend that understanding how firms can l...

In this study we determine the effect of venture capital (VC) affiliations on the value of new ventures. Previous studies in strategic management investigated the effects of corporate ownership on the performance of business units, the so-called “corporate effect.” Most such studies indicate that business unit effects, as well as, industry effects,...

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...

Do venture capitalists (VCs) influence whether their portfolio companies succeed or fail? How do they exert this influence? Researchers have examined how VC involvement affects IPO underpricing, perceptions of success, access to networks, management and governance expertise, and professionalization of marketing and distribution efforts (e.g., Kapla...

Obtaining and developing resources is central to the success and survival of young firms. One avenue for procuring resources in young firms is through interorganizational relationships with established firms (e.g., Katila et al., 2008; Stuart et al., 1999). For example, firms may seek funding from corporate venture capital (CVC) firms to procure fi...

This study quantifies and compares the relative importance of underwriters and VCs for underpricing in initial public offerings (IPOs). A critical aspect of IPO underpricing is the information asymmetry between current owners and potential investors. Existing theory argues that such information asymmetry can be reduced by signaling the value of a v...