Guest editorial: Exploring the entrepreneurial jungle: unicorns, gazelles, zebras and other venture species

• Published in: Journal of small business and enterprise development Vol. 30; no. 6; pp. 1065 - 1087
• Main Authors: Cristofaro, Matteo, Kask, Johan, Muldoon, Jeffrey
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bradford Emerald Publishing Limited 24.10.2023; Emerald Group Publishing Limited
• Subjects: Chief executive officers; Employees; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Influence; Innovations; Profitability; Valuation; Venture capital; United States > US
• ISSN: 1462-6004; 1758-7840
• DOI: 10.1108/JSBED-10-2023-509

Entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers desire to know where to find these “fantastic” ventures and how to influence their formation – or restrict their operations when they are not good benchmarks (e.g. Sims and O'Regan, 2006; Coad and Srhoj, 2020; Kuratko et al., 2020; Coad and Karlsson, 2022). [...]research on the essence of these entrepreneurial “species” and the underpinnings of their evolution is warranted (Mollick, 2020). According to the current literature, the extraordinary impact of these entrepreneurial species is due to (1) breakouts from traditional life cycle phases and (2) progressive approaches to valuation that do not apply to more traditional businesses (De Massis et al., 2016; DeSantola and Gulati, 2017; Bock and Hackober, 2020; Cowden et al., 2020; Kuratko et al., 2020; Abatecola et al., 2021). Since its first operations in 2011, Uber – dominating CB Insights' roster of unicorns for an extended period – has yet to attain annual profitability. [...]many observers over the years boldly proclaimed that we would never make any money” (Financial Times, 2023). [...]it has been proposed that unicorns' network effect triggers cognitive biases of founders' and investors' decisions, leading them to provide initial assets (i.e. beliefs/goodwill, trust, financial resources and psychological commitment) to the nascent unicorn. [...]the network effect and biases resulted in significant antecedents for unicorn's honeymoon (Abatecola et al., 2021; Cristofaro et al., 2023).