The scientific entrepreneur: an entrepreneurial strategy linking founder resilience to enhanced venture sustainability performance

Purpose Sustainability performance is increasingly becoming a core commercial requirement for new ventures rather than a peripheral societal responsibility initiative. However, we still lack a more systematic understanding of the role that entrepreneurial micro-foundations and strategies play in achieving superior venture sustainability outcomes. Drawing on the Resource-based View of the Firm and Stewardship Theory, we examine how founder resilience and an Entrepreneurs-as-Scientists (EaS) approach interact in shaping new venture sustainability performance. Design/methodology/approach We test our research hypotheses on a sample from the 2023 wave of the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey, which includes over 13,000 active founders across 39 countries. Findings The findings demonstrate that founder resilience is positively associated with new venture sustainability performance. We find that the effect of resilience as a psychological resource improving sustainability performance is mediated through the adoption of an EaS approach. Moreover, we provide evidence that founder resilience moderates this relationship, helping founders leverage the EaS approach to strengthen sustainability performance. Originality/value Our study advances understanding of the micro foundations of sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship by identifying the EaS approach as a decision-making mechanism channelling founder resilience into superior new venture sustainability performance. The novelty of this study is its investigation of the dual role of founder resilience in achieving superior new venture sustainability performance: as an enabler of an EaS approach and a moderator of its relationship with sustainability performance.