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Maw-Der
Foo Associate
Professor Management
& Entrepreneurship |
1. Contact information
The best way to
contact me is through email:
foomd@alum.mit.edu (lifetime-forwarding
email address)
Mailing
address:
419 UCB
Phone number:
+1 (303) 735-5423
2.
Research interests
I research how affect predicts
work-relevant outcomes and use organizational behavior and multi-level concepts
to understand entrepreneurial processes.
3.
Teaching
Organization &
Management/Organizational behavior
Designing, conducting, and
evaluating training in organizations
New venture creation
Management of technology
Organizational behavior and
entrepreneurship (Ph.D. seminar)
4.
Editorial Review Board Member
Academy of Management Journal,
(from July 2010)
Entrepreneurship: Theory &
Practice (2007-present)
Journal of Business Venturing
(from 2006-present)
Journal of Management Studies
(from 2009-present)
5.
Publications
(Summaries
of the papers together with links to the full papers below)
Song, Z.L., Foo, M.D., Uy,
M.A., & Sun, S.H. (in press). Stress crossover between the unemployed and
their employed spouses. Journal of
Applied Psychology.
Foo, M.D. (in press).
Member experience, use of external assistance and evaluation of business ideas.
Journal of Small Business Management.
Lee, L., Wong, P.K., Foo,
M.D., & Leung, A. (in press). Entrepreneurial intentions: The influence of
organizational and individual factors. Journal
of Business Venturing.
Foo, M.D. (in
press). Emotions and entrepreneurial opportunity evaluation. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice.
Foo, M.D. (in press). Teams developing business ideas: How member
characteristics and conflict affect member-rated team effectiveness. Small Business Economics.
Elfenbein, H.A., Foo, M.D., Mandal, M., Biswal, R., Eisenkraft, N., Lim,
A., & Sharma, S. (2010). Individual differences in the accuracy of
expressing and perceiving nonverbal cues: New data on an old question. Journal of Research in Personality, 44,
199-206.
Uy, M.A., Foo, M.D., & Aguinis, H. (2010). Using Experience Sampling
Methodology to advance entrepreneurship theory and research. Organizational Research Methods,
13(1), 31-54.
Foo, M.D., Uy, M., &
Baron, R.A. (2009). How do feelings influence effort? An empirical
study of entrepreneurs’ affect and venture effort. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(4),
1086-1094.
Wu, P.C., Foo, M.D., &
Turban, D. (2008). The role of personality in relationship closeness, developer
assistance, and career success. Journal
of Vocational Behavior, 73(3), 440-448.
Song, Z., Foo, M.D., &
Uy, M. (2008). Mood spillover and crossover among dual-earner couples: A cell
phone event sampling study. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(2), 443-452.
Wong, P., Lee, L., & Foo, M.D. (2008).
Occupational choice: The influence of product vs. process innovation. Small Business Economics, 30(3), 267-281.
Elfenbein, H., Foo, M.D., Tan, H., & Aik, V.
(2007). The benefit of understanding others' emotions for effectiveness in
negotiation. Journal of
Nonverbal Behavior, 31(4), 205-223.
Wong, C.S., Foo, M.D., Wang, C., W., & Wong, P.M.
(2007). The feasibility of training and development of EI: An exploratory study
in
Elfenbein, H., Foo, M.D., Tan, H., & Boldry, J.
(2006). Dyadic effects in nonverbal communication: A variance partitioning
analysis. Cognition &
Emotion, 20(1), 149-159.
Foo, M.D., Sin, H., & Yiong, L. (2006). Effects of
team inputs and intrateam processes on new venture team effectiveness. Strategic Management Journal,
27(4), 389-399.
Leung, A., Wong, P., & Zhang, J., & Foo, M.D.
(2006). A multi-dimension of 'fit' and the use of networks in human resource
acquisition for entrepreneurial firms. Journal
of Business Venturing, 21(5), 664-686.
Chia, H., Fang, R., & Foo, M.D. (2006). Work place
as communities. Who seeks, gives, and accepts help on justice issues. Journal of Community Psychology,
34(3), 363-377.
Foo, M.D., Wong, P., & Ong, A. (2005). Do others
think you have a viable business idea? Team diversity and judges' evaluation of
ideas in a business plan competition. Journal
of Business Venturing, 20(3), 385-402.
Tan, H., Foo, M.D., & Kwek, M. (2004). The role of
customer personality traits on the display of positive emotions.
Foo, M.D., Elfenbein, H., Tan, H, & Aik, V.
(2004). Emotional intelligence and negotiation: The tension between creating and
claiming value. International
Journal of Conflict Management, 15(4), 411-429.
Tan H., Foo, M.D., Chong C., & Ng, R. (2003).
Situational and dispositional predictors of displays of positive emotions. Journal of Organizational Behavior,
24, 961-978.
Keh, H. T., Foo, M.D., & Lim, B. (2002).
Shane, S., & Foo, M.D. (1999). Institutional
explanations for new franchisor mortality. Management Science, 45(2), 142-159.
6. Summaries of papers and links to the full papers
Copyright Notice: You may download each of the
following articles for one-time personal use only. Please obtain publisher permission for
any further distribution, publication, or commercial use.
Foo, M.D. (in press). Member experience, use of external assistance and
evaluation of business ideas. Journal of Small Business Management.
How do members’
experience and external interactions shape evaluation of the team’s business
idea? With a sample of 74 teams that participated in a business idea
competition, we showed that experience as defined by size, mean work
experience, and assistance from individuals with business founding experience
related positively to the teams’ business idea evaluations. The benefits of
external founders are more pronounced for smaller than for larger teams. Having
a founder in the team did not relate to idea evaluation but interaction effects
showed smaller sized teams had worse evaluations if they did not have a founder
in the team.
Lee, L., Wong, P.K., Foo, M.D., & Leung, A. (in press). Entrepreneurial
intentions: The influence of organizational and individual factors. Journal of
Business Venturing.
An individual’s
intent to pursue an entrepreneurial career can result from the work environment
and from personal factors. Drawing on the entrepreneurial intentions and the
person-environment (P-E) fit literatures, and applying a multilevel
perspective, we examine why individuals intend to leave their jobs to start
business ventures. Findings, using a sample of 4192 IT professionals in
Foo, M.D. (in press). Emotions and
entrepreneurial opportunity evaluation. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice.
Emotions may
affect opportunity evaluation yet emotions’ influence in entrepreneurship
research has been neglected. Our findings indicate that appraisal dimensions of
emotions influence risk perceptions and preferences. In Study 1 (N=187) the
participants’ scores on risk perception for a venture scenario were
significantly lower for anger and happiness induced participants (emotions
associated with outcome certainty and control) than for fear and hope induced
participants (emotions associated with outcome uncertainty and a lack of
outcome control). In Study 2 (N=66), the entrepreneurs’ preference for the
higher value but uncertain outcome related positively to their scores on trait
anger and trait happiness.
Foo, M.D. (in
press). Teams developing business ideas: How member characteristics and
conflict affect member-rated team effectiveness. Small Business Economics.
Team
researchers have found that the diversity to effectiveness ratings are mediated
by team conflict. Using a sample of 73 teams developing their business ideas,
we find direct effects of diversity and conflict on member-rated team
effectiveness. We explain how the circumstances under which these teams operate
can lead to these findings. For these teams, task conflict was found to relate
negatively to member-rated team effectiveness.
This finding contrasts with research on organizational teams, where task
conflict usually relates positively to team effectiveness ratings. We also find that both diversity and average
member experience influence member-rated effectiveness. The findings imply that
diversity, conflict, and ratings of team effectiveness may differ for teams
developing business ideas as compared to organizational teams. Thus, findings
from organizational team research should be applied with caution to teams
developing business ideas and possibly to new venture teams in general.
Previous research on the link between
individual differences in emotional expression and emotion recognition over six
decades revealed widely varying results. A recent meta-analysis (Elfenbein & Eisenkraft,
2010) showed a
positive correlation for displays elicited as intentional communication, but
zero for naturalistic displays. However, the long-standing mystery had
dissipated interest, preventing work from using updated authoritative methods
for studying individual differences. With Kenny’s (1994) Social Relations Model, we tested round robin groups in which each
participant posed their emotions and later judged the expressions of each other
member. The design included emotion inductions to increase expressers’
authentic experience. The resulting effect size, q = .51, r = .43, is larger
than previously typical. Implications are discussed for theories on individual
emotional skills.
We propose the
use of experience sampling methodology (ESM) as an innovative methodological
approach to address critical questions in entrepreneurship research. ESM
requires participants to provide reports of their thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors at multiple times across situations as they happen in the natural
environment. Thus, ESM allows researchers to capture dynamic person by
situation interactions as well as between- and within-person processes, improve
the ecological validity of results, and minimize retrospective biases. We
provide a step-by-step description of how to design and implement ESM studies
beginning with research design and ending with data analysis, and including
issues of implementation such as time and resources needed, participant
recruitment and orientation, signaling procedures, and the use of computerized
devices and wireless technologies. We also describe a cell phone ESM protocol
that enables researchers to monitor and interact with participants in real
time, reduces costs, expedites data entry, and increases convenience. Finally,
we discuss implications of ESM based research for entrepreneurs, business
incubators, and entrepreneurship educators.
How
do feelings influence the effort of entrepreneurs? To obtain data on this
issue, we implemented experience sampling methodology (ESM) in which 46
entrepreneurs used their cell phones to provide reports on their affect, future
temporal focus, and venture effort twice daily for 24 days. Drawing on the
affect-as-information theory, we find that entrepreneurs’ negative affect
directly predicts their effort towards tasks that are required immediately.
Results were consistent for both within-day and next-day time lags. Extending
the theory, we also found that positive affect predicts venture effort beyond
what is immediately required, and that this relationship is mediated by future
temporal focus. The mediating effects were significant only for next-day
outcomes. We discuss the implications of our findings on the nature of the
affect-effort relationship for different time lags.
We investigate
the role of relationship closeness, which is adapted from social network
theory, in developmental relationships using a sample of 278 full-time working
individuals. We theorize that personality, operationalized with the Five Factor
Model, is associated with relationship closeness which is positively related to
developer assistance received, which in turn is linked to objective and
subjective measures of career success. In general, results supported our
hypothesized model, although personality had direct effects on career success
beyond the indirect effects through relationship closeness and developer
assistance. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
This study
examined affective experiences of dual-earner couples. More specifically, it
explored how momentary moods can spill over between work and family and cross
over from one spouse to another. Fifty couples used their cell phones to
provide reports of their momentary moods over eight consecutive days. Results
showed significant spillover and crossover effects for both positive and
negative moods. Work orientation moderated negative mood spillover from work to
home, and the presence of children in the family decreased negative mood
crossover between spouses. Crossover was observed when spouses were physically
together and when the time interval between the spouses' reports was short.
This study contributes to the work and family research by examining the nature
of mood transfers among dual-earner couples including the direction, valence,
and moderators of these transfers across work and family domains. The study
also contributes to the event sampling methodology by introducing a new method
of using cell phones to collect momentary data.
Prior studies
have found that knowledge gained from work experience is a way to gather
insights for business opportunity recognition. However, little is known about
the specific types of knowledge that lead to business founding. Utilizing
concepts from knowledge spillovers and from the opportunity recognition
literatures, this paper argues that an organization’s technological innovation
activities can help its employees develop specialized knowledge that provides
them with the entrepreneurial opportunities to found new businesses. Besides
highlighting the positive relationship between technological innovation
activities in organizations and the propensity of individuals leaving the
organizations to start new businesses, this paper also provides a more
fine-grained explanation of the types of technological innovation activities
that can lead to business founding. We argue that knowledge acquired through
product innovations is more easily adopted by individuals for commercial uses,
while knowledge acquired through process innovations must be integrated with
other parts of the organization to be valuable. This study proposes that
product innovation activities in an organization, more so than process
innovation activities, are related to new business founding. Implications for opportunity
exploitation and ways to exploit knowledge spillovers are discussed.
Using meta-analysis, we find a
consistent positive correlation between emotion recognition accuracy (ERA) and
goal-oriented performance. However, this existing research relies primarily on
subjective perceptions of performance. The current study tested the impact of
ERA on objective performance in a mixed-motive buyer-seller negotiation
exercise. Greater recognition of posed facial expressions predicted better
objective outcomes for participants from
Emotional
intelligence (EI) has been an emerging topic for psychological, educational,
and management researchers and consultants in recent years. However, existing
literature has concentrated on demonstrating the effects of EI on either the
mental health or on job outcomes such as job attitudes and performance. There
is relatively little discussion concerning how EI, as a set of interrelated
abilities about handling emotions, is developed. Understanding how EI is
developed may be the significant first step for organizations to develop
effective EI training programs. As an exploratory effort, we borrowed the basic
argument from theories in human development to argue that life experiences
affect EI development. Based on samples of university students from
Using Kenny's
(1994) Social Relations Model, a block-round robin design provided the first
reported evidence for dyadic effects in nonverbal communication. That is, some
dyads were systematically more or less accurate than the individual level skill
of perceivers and expressors would predict. This dyadic effect appears to be
similar in magnitude to individual differences in emotional perception, a topic
garnering extensive research attention over several decades. Results generally
replicated for judgments across genders and across two cultural groups. These
preliminary findings have implications for research on emotional intelligence
and other models of affective skill, raising the possibility that accuracy in
nonverbal communication combines individual differences with factors beyond the
individual level.
A new venture
team is a particular type of top management team neglected by the literature.
This study investigated the effects of team inputs and processes on team
members’ perceptions of team viability and satisfaction in nascent ventures.
These outcomes are important as they may be antecedents of team perseverance.
The study of 51 new venture teams showed that the presence of a distinct leader
was positively related to team satisfaction, while member diversity in educational
backgrounds was positively related to perceived team viability. Intrateam
processes of social integration and open communication were positively related
to both perceived team viability and member satisfaction.
This study
proposes a multi-dimension, multi-contingent ‘fit’ perspective for examining
different practices adapted by entrepreneurial firms in acquiring human
resources. We posit that while environmental constraints are important
considerations for adapting recruitment practices through networks, strategic
needs and interpersonal dynamics are the key drivers behind the evolution of
such practices. As they transit from the startup to the growth phase,
entrepreneurial firms utilize different network pools in search of diversity,
yet cling to strong ties to find talents with common values and goals. Our
findings carry important implications for future research in human resource
management by integrating the macro- and micro-perspective, and at the same
time, enhance the understanding of network effects and their strategic bearings
in the entrepreneurial process, specifically in the acquisition of human
resources.
This article
examines individuals in a community as defined by their membership in an
organization. In such a setting, individuals often make use of their social
contacts to make sense of events in the organization. Yet, the organizational
justice literature is generally silent on how these contacts shape information
seeking, volunteering, and acceptance. Using a social network perspective, we
found that expressive ties were positively related to information seeking,
volunteering, and acceptance for both procedural and interactional justice
issues. Instrumental ties were related to all dependent variables for
procedural justice issues but only related to information seeking for
interactional justice issues. The role of ties and networks in information flow
is discussed.
The study
examines how team diversity affects external evaluation of the teams’ business
ideas. Using an information perspective, we argue that task-related diversity
of member characteristics enhance team effectiveness. Nontask diversity hurt
team effectiveness by steering teams away from their tasks. Some support was
found. Task-related diversity of education level was positively related with
evaluation while nontask diversities of age and employment status negatively
related with evaluation. The positive relationship of task diversity on
evaluations was higher for larger teams. The findings were robust across
different functional forms for the demographic factors. Implications of team
affects on venture outcomes are discussed.
We extended
past research on the display of positive emotions within customer service
settings by focusing on customer traits. Adopting an emotional contagion
perspective, we found that customer traits relate to the display of positive emotions
by the service provider. This display of positive emotions was also found to
relate to customer satisfaction. Implications for emotion management and
service personnel training are discussed.
As a departure
from past research on emotional intelligence (EI), which generally examines the
influence of an individual’s level of EI on that individual’s consequences, we
examined relationships between the emotional intelligence (EI) of both members
of dyads involved in a negotiation in order to explain objective and subjective
outcomes. As expected, individuals high in EI reported a more positive
experience. However, surprisingly, such individuals also achieved significantly
lower objective scores than their counterparts. By contrast, having a partner
high in EI predicted greater objective gain, and a more positive negotiating
experience. Thus, high EI individuals appeared to benefit in affective terms,
but appeared to create objective value that they were less able to claim. We
discuss the tension between creating and claiming value, and implications for
motion in organizations.
The study examined
the effects of situational (store busyness and customer demand) and
dispositional (extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism) factors on the
display of positive emotions. We found that for situational factors, customer
demand was positively related to displayed positive emotions. For personality
factors, extraversion was positively related to displayed positive emotions and
neuroticism was negatively related to displayed positive emotions. Usefulness
analysis showed that both situational and personality factors contributed
significantly to explain the level of positive displayed emotion.
Even though the
entrepreneurship literature places much emphasis on opportunity recognition,
little is known about how entrepreneurs actually evaluate opportunities. This
study uses a cognitive approach to examine opportunity evaluation, as the
perception of opportunity is essentially a cognitive phenomenon. We present a
model that consists of four independent variables (overconfidence, belief in
the law of small numbers, planning fallacy, and illusion of control), a
mediating variable (risk perception), two control variables (demographics and
risk propensity), and the dependent variable (opportunity evaluation). We find
that illusion of control and belief in the law of small numbers are related to
how entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities. Our results also indicate that risk
perception mediates opportunity evaluation.
Why do some new firms succeed
and others fail? Economists argue that new firms fail because entrepreneurs
inefficiently manage production and organizational design (Williamson 1985). Sociologists
(e.g., Granovetter 1985) have typically viewed this explanation as
undersocialized, and argue that institutional legitimacy must also be
considered to explain the survival of new firms. This paper examines the
survival of 1292 new franchisors established in the