Martin Tuchman School of Management Professors Present Research on Startup Practices

Ellen Thomas, associate professor of marketing, and Cesar Bandera, associate professor of entrepreneurship, both at Martin Tuchman School of Management, presented their findings on new venture pivoting at the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). In their work, titled “To Pivot or Not to Pivot: On the Relationship between Pivots and Revenue among Startups,” Thomas and Bandera argue that while pivots can de-risk business models, too many pivots postpone venture maturity and introduce new sources of risk. They also empirically find that technology-based startups benefit from initial pivots more that nontechnological startups, but the detrimental effects of overpivoting are more severe. This presentation was part of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice track, one of the fastest growing tracks at HICSS and co-chaired by Bandera.