Drawing on threshold theory, we examine the effects of attributes of alternative opportunities on persistence decisions of family business entrepreneurs. The results of our conjoint experiment show that: (a) family business entrepreneurs are generally more persistent than other entrepreneurs and (b) family business entrepreneurs focus more on non-financial benefits than other entrepreneurs. Our study contributes to persistence literature within the family business context and provides a good basis for how family business literature can benefit from multi-level theoretical and empirical modelling.

This paper extends the scholarly understanding of entrepreneurial persistence decisions by identifying individual-level constructs that moderate which decision criteria have the most influence on entrepreneurs' persistence decisions. Prior research demonstrates that contextual factors, such as feedback through adversity and the attractiveness of opportunities in an entrepreneur's environment, determine whether or not an entrepreneur will persist with their current venture. We contribute to this literature by theoretically proposing and empirically testing how individual differences in entrepreneurial experience, metacognitive experience, and metacognitive knowledge moderate which aspects of environmental information entrepreneurs pay the most attention to when deciding whether or not to persist. We test our proposed model using a conjoint experiment that allows for monitoring actual persistence decisions of 124 entrepreneurs. Results suggest that metacognitive knowledge influences persistence decisions primarily through altering the impact that probability of expected outcomes associated with potential alternatives has on entrepreneurs' persistence decisions. Int Entrep Manag J Furthermore, the results provide evidence that more experienced entrepreneurs weigh financial returns and switching costs more heavily when making persistence decisions.

Very few topics III entrepreneurship have received as much attention as the entrepreneurial process. It consists of the discovery, evaluation and exploitation of opportunities to create future goods and services. Evaluation is at the center of this process because it follows discovery and is the main precursor of the decision to exploit an opportunity. However, we know very little of the factors informing evaluation decisions. Furthermore, research on the topic is limited in that it mostly examines either opportunity-based or individual-based factors in simple models of evaluation. Of course, evaluation decisions are more sophisticated and include a plethora of other factors. This dissertation uses social cognitive theory as a basis to develop an integrative model of opportunity evaluation. Building on social cognitive theory's assertions that the environment, the individual and his/her focal behavior will interact to explain individual actions, I propose a multilevel, integrative research model. The model seeks to examine the complex contingent relationships between social capital relatedness, entrepreneurial experience, regulatory focus, entrepreneurial passion and resource attributes in the context of opportunity evaluation decisions. The theoretical model posits that resource iii attributes, social capital relatedness, regulatory focus and entrepreneurial passion will have a direct effect whereas entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial experience will have a moderating effect on evaluation decisions. I empirically test this model using a conjoint experiment and hierarchical linear modeling on data from a sample of entrepreneurs.The findings support social cognitive theory's assertions that the environment, the individual and his/her focal behavior will interact to explain individual actions. Results indicate that experience and age will have an impact on how entrepreneurs perceive resources, which could be an explanation for the high failure rate of new businesses.Further, entrepreneurs will find opportunities that relate to entrepreneurs' social capital more attractive. Additionally, there is evidence that entrepreneurs who are motivated by the need for security will rate opportunities as less attractive. Finally, data indicates that being highly passionate in all passion identity dimensions, and not just one, could be a spark for entrepreneurial action. Thus, this dissertation offers new insights for the opportunity evaluation literature and strengthens our understanding of the importance of studying the j oint effects of environmental, individual and behavioral factors playing a role on opportunity evaluation. iv

Building on expectancy theory, we study why entrepreneurs form positive beliefs about, and subsequent commitments to, entrepreneurial actions despite the negative mean outcome observed in the history of entrepreneurial efforts. We test our model using structural equation modelling on a sample of 1,185 entrepreneurs derived from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics II (PSED II) database. We find that the perceived gap between the value of an opportunity and opportunity cost positively influences both entrepreneurial expectancy and entrepreneurial intensity. Further, we find that the strength of these relationships is contingent upon uncertainty preference. Together, these findings contribute to literature on expectancy theory, increase our understanding of the role of uncertainty in entrepreneurial cognition and suggest that entrepreneurs’ cognition may be more rational than surface level appearances suggest