NIKOSNewsHow do entrepreneurs generate high quality new venture ideas?

How do entrepreneurs generate high quality new venture ideas? New NIKOS publication in leading entrepreneurship journal

The Journal of Business Venturing - the leading journal in entrepreneurship research - has recently accepted a study for publication by the Universities of Twente and Groningen that compared different future-oriented cognitive processes (practically known as imagination) that entrepreneurs use to think about new venture ideas and the effect this has on the quality of these new venture ideas. We used two experiments to understand the differences between these processes better. The research showed that both prospective thinking, which is imagining how the future could be, and perspective taking, which is imagining how others (for example, potential customers) may think, increase the quality of new venture ideas. Having high levels of prior knowledge of technology strengthened these effects. This means that if entrepreneurs imagine several scenarios of how the future may be, and imagine possible reactions of multiple groups of potential customers, it is likely that they think of new venture ideas that can be considered of higher quality.


 The results of this research have several implications for practice. First, entrepreneurs would be well-advised to use prospective thinking and perspective taking more actively and explicitly, as it could help them to come up with new venture ideas of higher quality. By training the use of these two cognitive processes, less experienced entrepreneurs could develop a more experienced entrepreneurial mindset. 

 Second, having a team member with a high level of prior knowledge of technology could also be beneficial for new venture idea generation. Due to established knowledge of technology, such team members are likely to generate new venture ideas of higher quality through prospective thinking or perspective taking.

 Third, our findings have implications for entrepreneurship education, and entrepreneurship support organizations such as incubators and accelerators. Entrepreneurship training programs aiming to raise entrepreneurial awareness, or to enhance the quality of new venture ideas, could provide training in prospective thinking and perspective taking. 

Data for this study was collected by the principal researcher and first author of the paper Arjan Frederiks within the framework of his doctoral research at the University of Twente on the use of imagination by entrepreneurs. For his doctoral research he received the 2017 Heizer Doctoral Dissertation Awardby the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management - the largest and most influential scholarly management association in the world.  He conducted this research together with Basil Englis (Berry College and University of Twente), Michel Ehrenhard (University of Twente), and Aard Groen (University of Groningen and University of Twente).


 Biographical sketches

Dr. Arjan J. Frederiks is Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship in the University of Groningen Centre for Entrepreneurship in the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. His research focuses on entrepreneurial cognition and technology entrepreneurship. His research is awarded the Heizer Doctoral Dissertation Award in New Enterprise Development by Mr. Edgar F. Heizer, Jr. and the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Dr. Frederiks received his doctoral degree with distinction (cum laude) as the dissertation committee regarded his dissertation on the use of imagination by entrepreneurs to be in the top five percent of the field.

Dr. Basil G. Englis, Ph.D. is the Richard Edgerton Professor of Marketing and Chair of the Management, Marketing and Creative Technologies Department in the Campbell School of Business at Berry College.  He is also a Research Fellow at NIKOS – The Dutch Institute for the Study of Knowledge-Intensive Entrepreneurship, at the University of Twente, The Netherlands.  His research focuses on consumer psychology, product and brand symbolism, sustainable consumption, mass media and consumer socialization, consumer lifestyles and values, and the role of consumer research in new product development.  Dr. Englis’ more recent work examines the role of the “voice-of-the-consumer” in entrepreneurial ventures.  His research and scholarly work has appeared in more than 85 publications, including numerous articles and book chapters.  His research has been supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the American Academy of Advertising, and the American Marketing Association.  He is Managing Partner of Mind/Share, Inc., a firm that specializes in custom online consumer research and consulting services in the areas of new product development, lifestyle marketing, brand management, and litigation support and expert witness services.  In that capacity, he has consulted with numerous organizations including American Airlines, Black & Decker, Caterpillar, Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, Booking.com, E.I. DuPont de Nemours, Foley & Lardner LLP, Gibson Dunn, PPG Industries, eBay, Hasbro, Herman Miller, Kilpatrick Townsend, Proctor & Gamble, Under Armour, Vanity Fair Corporation, Weightwatchers, and Visa.

 Dr. Michel L. Ehrenhard is an associate professor of Organization Studies & Entrepreneurial Leadership at NIKOS – the Netherlands Institute for Knowledge-intensive Entrepreneurship at the University of Twente. His research is at the intersection of strategic entrepreneurship, organization theory, and organizational behavior; and focuses on why and how managers and entrepreneurs create, sustain and resist disruptive social, organisational, and technological change. Michel holds a PhD in Business Administration, for which he received the 2010 Best Dissertation Award of the Public and Nonprofit division of the Academy of Management. 

Prof. Dr. Aard J. Groenholds a double position on entrepreneurship at the University of Groningen and University of Twente. Groen is Dean entrepreneurship in Groningen, head of department UGCE (University of Groningen Centre of Entrepreneurship), and CEO of VentureLab International, al living lab / accelerator. His research focuses on knowledge intensive entrepreneurship in startups and existing ventures, from a multidisciplinary systems perspective looking into how entrepreneurs handle uncertainty and complexity.  His papers have been published in the Journal of Management, International Journal of Small Business, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Technovation and elsewhere.