maw_der_foo.jpg

Maw-Der Foo

 

Associate Professor

Management & Entrepreneurship

LEEDS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, BOULDER

 

 

 

1. Contact information

 

The best way to contact me is through email:

foomd@alum.mit.edu (lifetime-forwarding email address)

 

Mailing address:

Leeds School of Business,

University of Colorado at Boulder

419 UCB

Boulder, CO 80309

USA

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.  

Maw-Der Foo’s CV

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 Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Intelligence, 35(1), 141-150. 

 

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. Academy of Management Journal, 47(2), 287-296.

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). Opportunity evaluation under risky conditions: The cognitive processes of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 27(2), 125-148.

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 Singapore, suggest that work environments with an unfavorable innovation climate and/or lack of technical excellence incentives influence entrepreneurial intentions, through low job satisfaction. Moderating effects suggest that an individual’s innovation orientation strengthens the work-environment to job-satisfaction relationship; self-efficacy strengthens the job satisfaction to entrepreneurial intentions relationship.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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. iconpdf

 

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.

 

 

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. iconpdf 

 

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.

 

 

 

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. iconpdf

 

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.

 

 

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. iconpdf

 

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.

 

 

Wong, P., Lee, L., &  Foo, M.D. (2008). Occupational choice: The influence of product vs. process innovation. Small Business Economics, 30(3), 267-281.iconpdf
 

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.

 

 

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), pp. 205-223. iconpdf

 

 

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 Singapore playing the role of seller, both in terms of creating value and claiming a greater share for themselves. The present study is also distinct from past research on the effects of individual differences on negotiation outcomes in that it uses a performance-based test rather than self-reported measure. These results add to evidence for the predictive validity of emotion recognition measures on practical outcomes.

 

 

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 Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Intelligence, 35(1), pp. 141-150.  iconpdf

 

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 Singapore and Hong Kong, whether one of the parents was a full-time parent was a significant predictor of the students' EI. This finding was cross-validated with a sample of graduate students in Taiwan. Furthermore, age as a proxy for life experiences for this graduate student sample was found to be a significant predictor of EI. Implications for EI research and training are discussed.

 

 

Elfenbein, H., Foo, M.D., Tan, H., & Boldry, J. (2006). Dyadic effects in nonverbal communication: A variance partitioning analysis. Cognition & Emotion, 20(1), pp. 149-159. iconpdf

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.

 

 

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), pp. 389-399. iconpdf

 

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.


 

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), pp. 664-686. iconpdf 

 

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.



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), pp. 363-377. iconpdf

 

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.



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), pp. 385-402. iconpdf

 

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.



Tan, H., Foo, M.D., & Kwek, M. (2004). The role of customer personality traits on the display of positive emotions. Academy of Management Journal, 47(2), pp. 287-296. iconpdf

 

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.

 

 

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), pp. 411-429. iconpdf

 

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.

 

 

Tan H., Foo, M.D., Chong C., & Ng, R. (2003). Situational and dispositional predictors of displays of positive emotions. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 24, pp. 961-978.  iconpdf
 

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.

 

 

Keh, H. T., Foo, M.D., & Lim, B. (2002). Opportunity evaluation under risky conditions: The cognitive processes of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 27(2), pp. 125-148. iconpdf

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.

 

Shane, S., & Foo, M.D. (1999). Institutional explanations for new franchisor mortality. Management Science, 45(2), pp. 142-159. iconpdf

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 United States from 1979–1996. The results show that institutional legitimacy adds to economic explanations for the survival of new franchisors and suggests the importance of a properly socialized explanation.