Dr. Justin L Davis

Entrepreneurship research has traditionally been separated into (1) necessity entrepreneurship (NE) and (2) opportunity entrepreneurship (OE). While there has been a great amount of research dedicated to unpacking the nature of opportunities and OE, little attention has been given to the forces that push individuals into NE. Most of the entrepreneurial research regarding NE assumes that economic desires to provide physiological necessities are the only push factors. However, this conceptualization is too restrictive and rules out being recognized as necessity entrepreneurs for most people in developed economies. Through an in-depth qualitative literature review, we identify three types of push factors at work-namely, economic, social, and psychological necessity. We then develop a conceptual model and propositions that incorporate the country context, unmet needs, types of NE, and impact on well-being. We conclude by discussing how NE can satisfy various human needs and the relationship between entrepreneurship and marketplace vulnerability.

In general, financial markets of limited attention or visibility are expected to exhibit more inefficient asset prices. Such markets thus require eventual, increased trading to resolve these inefficiencies. In this study, we consider this financial framework within the sports gambling market for National Football League (NFL) games. We consider whether NFL games garnering less public attention are more likely to see larger movements in their betting lines. We consider games with smaller television audiences, with kickoff times shared with other contests, and between teams with smaller fanbases, to be indicative of less visibility. To test our model, we collected betting line data for all regular and postseason NFL football games from 2007-2021. Based on a sample of 3,756 games, our findings indicate more frequent and larger line movements in games with indications of less widespread attention, and many of these results are statistically significant. Our conjecture is that such differences in line movement levels may derive from the limited resources of oddsmakers being disproportionately focused on games with the most visibility.

This study provides a unique perspective on the forces at play in decision-making at the top level of organisations. This study extends research in the area of organisational decision-making by examining managerial goal conflict when confronted with status anxiety. We also examine the multi-level effects of status anxiety by examining the attitudes and reactions of investors in such situations. Using market options volatility of Arthur Anderson clients throughout its quick collapse, we analyse the severing of partnerships and the investor anxiety and company performance that accompanied these decisions. Our findings suggest senior executive compensation is a driver for decision-making in situations of high-status anxiety. In addition, investors are not influenced by these status concerns either before or after the decision to discontinue an exchange partner relationship. This finding highlights the importance of continued research in the area of customer and investor behaviour as it relates to corporate social responsibility.

This chapter extends research examining economies in which SMEs operate. We propose the presence of the mongrel economy (i.e., comprised of legal but illegitimate businesses). We discuss implications of this economy and its similarities and differences from the formal and informal economies proposed by Webb et al. (2009). In this conceptual chapter, we investigate how SMEs are connected to the mongrel economy and how constituent associations can be used as low-cost legitimacy tools (Austin et al., 2006; Murphy et al., 2007). Other forms of economies are discussed to provide clarity on how various economies operate, thus contrasting economies to illustrate their differences. Future directions of research related to the informal and mongrel economies are provided. Additionally, specific opportunities for SMEs in the mongrel economy are presented.

Our study examines whether student business writing in pre-requisite courses and student use of university-provided writing support services are associated with student writing performance in the business capstone course in strategic management. Our results indicate that the number of writing center consultations over time and student performance in a pre-requisite business communication course were both positively associated with writing performance in the business capstone course. In addition, student performance in both the operations management and business communication courses were found to be strongly correlated with student performance in the capstone course. These findings support engaging students in repeated practice of business writing.

A landmark decision (Murphy v NCAA) by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in 2018 ruled that the federal government could not prohibit individual states from allowing sports wagering. Our study explicitly assesses the stock market's response to this case's progression through legal review phases, culminating with a landmark SCOTUS decision. Surprisingly, we find that the stock market failed to efficiently interpret key events precipitating SCOTUS' eventual decision. Even though serious indications suggested that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was likely to be overruled, markets did not acknowledge such a possibility early. Instead, prices only responded when SCOTUS' ruling was finalized.

We examine the relationship between environmental, social, and governance commitment levels (ESG) and firm dividend-payer status. Given that larger and more profitable firms are positively associated with both payer status and ESG, it could be that ESG and dividends are complements. However, given that both dividends and ESG relate to firm spending decisions, it may be that the choice is " either/or " , and that ESG and dividends are substitutes. We document a positive relationship between ESG and dividend-payer status in U.S. firms over the period 1991–2016. In particular, we find that the proportion of dividend-payers is roughly 13% higher for firms with positive ESG compared to those with negative ESG. Including ESG in the models used to predict payer status provides, on average, a nearly 26% improvement in relative forecast accuracy. Our results are robust in regards to estimation techniques and the inclusion of variables known to be determinants of payer status. The results indicate that, on average, firms are not forced to sacrifice dividends in favor of ESG spending.

We examine the influence of bettor behavior in sports gambling markets and the resulting creation of exploitable betting opportunities for patient bettors. Specifically, we build on past research on behavioral bias as a predictor of bettor behavior and explore how this behavior can result in market inefficiencies. Using data from National Football League games taking place between 2007-2019, we find that bettor decision-making is erroneously influenced by recent performance of teams. This bias creates profitable betting opportunities for those less subject to recency bias, and are surprisingly greater for the more prudent, patient bettor. Our findings conf irm the need for additional research examining the influence of psychology and behavioral biases on individual decision making and how these factors can influence market efficiency.

This paper offers a fresh perspective on executive compensation by offering a new paradigm for choosing executive compensation structure based on environmental factors and firm size. This new perspective uses agency theory as a theoretical foundation. The availability of information, primarily information related to the agent, has typically been of utmost concern in the compensation selection process. However, a predominant focus on cognitive or behavioral information of the agent neglects the relative importance and impact of environmental forces in this process. This study evaluates the composition of the compensation contract using fluctuating environmental dimensions as the primary determinant. Specifically, we examine environmental munificence, dynamism, and complexity and the influence of varying levels of each of these variables and their interaction on the optimal choice of compensation contract utilized for both large firms and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This externally focused view of compensation contract creation underscores the significance of environmental factors in determining contract selection while also acknowledging the necessity of principals utilizing information related to both the agent and the environment. Furthermore, we argue that top executive compensation structures for large organizations and non-adaptive SMEs should differ from those of adaptive SMEs.

This paper analyzes several foundational concepts and questions regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR). Its primary contribution is a statistical examination of relationships between CSR and Newsweek's 2012 Green Rankings using forensic-based financial and accounting measures. We also replicate a previous study and introduce new variables for looking at CSR from an economic perspective. The paper is interdisciplinary in that it synthesizes preceding studies' conceptions of CSR through finance, consumer behavior, branding, and ethics — a mix which has received minimal attention — in an attempt to better characterize and measure CSR.