Browsing by Author "Xu, H"
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Item Open Access Boundary Formation in Emergent Organizations(Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 2007) Xu, H; Ruef, MAn extensive literature in organizational theory discusses how established organizations shape and maintain their boundaries but offers little guidance as to how organizational boundaries emerge in the first place. This paper examines boundary formation in business startups using a nationally representative dataset of U.S. nascent entrepreneurs. We propose several distinct roles for individuals entering into entrepreneurial activity, distinguishing between "insiders" (owner-managers) who commit both time and financial resources to these startups and "outsiders" (including passive investors and advisors) who offer more limited resource commitments. Two important criteria demarcating organizational insiders and outsiders in emergent organizations are functionality and perceived trustworthiness. Our results suggest that boundary formation is more often based on a potential member's trustworthiness, as perceived by peers, than functionality, emphasizing considerations such as transaction cost minimization and uniqueness of resource contributions. We propose several mechanisms that may account for this result among nascent entrepreneurs, including a lack of economic sophistication, calculative trust, and the importance of social solidarity for founder recruitment. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Item Open Access Emergence of current branches in a series array of negative differential resistance circuit elements(Journal of Applied Physics, 2010) Xu, H; Teitsworth, SWWe study a series array of nonlinear electrical circuit elements that possess negative differential resistance and find that heterogeneity in the element properties leads to the presence of multiple branches in current-voltage curves and a nonuniform distribution of voltages across the elements. An inhomogeneity parameter rmax is introduced to characterize the extent to which the individual element voltages deviate from one another, and it is found to be strongly dependent on the rate of change of applied voltage. Analytical expressions are derived for the dependence of rmax on voltage ramping rate in the limit of fast ramping and are confirmed by direct numerical simulation. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.Item Open Access On the possibility of a shunt-stabilized superlattice terahertz emitter(Applied Physics Letters, 2010-01-25) Xu, H; Teitsworth, SWHigh field electronic transport through a strongly coupled superlattice (SL) with a shunting side layer is numerically studied using a drift-diffusion model that includes both vertical and lateral dynamics. The bias voltage corresponds to an average electric field in the negative differential conductivity region of the intrinsic current-field curve of the SL, a condition that generally implies space charge instability. Key structural parameters associated with both the shunt layer and SL are identified for which the shunt layer stabilizes a uniform electric field profile. These results support the possibility to realize a SL-based terahertz oscillator with a carefully designed structure. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.Item Open Access The Myth of the Risk-Tolerant Entrepreneur(Strategic Organization, 2004) Xu, H; Ruef, MEntrepreneurs have long been assumed to be more risk-tolerant than the general population. In this article, we analyze the financial risk propensity of business founders using a unique, representative dataset of nascent entrepreneurs in the United States. We deploy two models of entrepreneurial behavior: a strategic model of risk tolerance, based on investment choices; and a non-strategic model of risk tolerance, based on information bias about business success. For both models, our empirical results consistently show that nascent entrepreneurs are more risk-averse than non-entrepreneurs. To reconcile the financial risk aversion of entrepreneurs with the high risk of financial loss among startups, we suggest that many of the motivations that individuals have for founding business ventures are non-pecuniary in nature. © 2004, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.