How do mission-driven ventures emerge? an investigation of startup activities and the achievement of regular sales among early-stage everyday entrepreneurs
研究使命驱动型创业者如何通过发现和利用活动推动企业从孕育期进入常规销售阶段，发现发现活动对这类创业者至关重要，而利用活动也需更多努力。
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.