ProfessorJeffery McMullen

Taking a multidisciplinary approach to research, Jeff often uses examples from literature and the cinema to illustrate theoretical insights he draws by synthesizing and reconciling concepts from economics, psychology, sociology, philosophy, neuroscience, biology, and physics. His research examines the nature, causes, and consequences of entrepreneurship, a process by which individuals create new value for customers, beneficiaries, stakeholders, and themselves, but not always simultaneously. Hence, Jeff views entrepreneurship and ethics as inextricably intertwined and has long been interested in the causes of unproductive and destructive forms of entrepreneurship as well as productive, innovative, and sustainable forms, seeking to understand the institutional, interpersonal, and personal factors that can foster the latter and discourage the former.

Known for his path-breaking research on entrepreneurial decision-making and action under uncertainty, Jeff has recently sought to understand how entrepreneurs create value under especially hostile conditions. For example, he has used scenes from The Martian to illustrate how innovation is possible under extreme resource constraints, scenes from The Shawshank Redemption to illustrate whether, how, and under what conditions highly institutionalized actors with little autonomy can emancipate themselves through entrepreneurship, scenes from Schindler’s List to illustrate how the ethic of “fake ‘til you make it” can ensnare as well as empower entrepreneurs, and excerpts from Into Thin Air to illustrate how the entrepreneurial mindset trapped entrepreneurs and their clients in an escalation of commitment scenario that led to their deaths in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster.

Jeff uses these abductive thought experiments to inspire and inform more traditional deductive and inductive projects. Employing both qualitative and quantitative methods, Jeff has examined the role of imagination, ingenuity, empathy, and resourcefulness in the entrepreneurial process to better understand how entrepreneurship has been used effectively to overcome the constant threat of deportation among Syrian refugees in Lebanon, the threat of hostile takeover in the Texas Whisky industry, and the overwhelming uncertainty generated by the poly-crisis in Europe, as well as the threats (and opportunities) associated with the emergence of artificial intelligence. These are just a few of the issues and settings he has recently examined through the lens of entrepreneurial action.

In 2018, Jeff won the Academy of Management’s foundational paper award for his publication, "Entrepreneurial action and the role of uncertainty in the theory of the entrepreneur," which was published in the Academy of Management Review in 2006 with Dean Shepherd. The award honors "a paper that has powerfully and positively changed the conversation in the field of entrepreneurship for at least a decade." The paper, which was from Jeff’s dissertation, was also recognized as a "Classic Paper" by Google Scholar in 2017 and honored by the Academy of Management Review at the 2009 Entrepreneurship Research Exemplars Conference. At the same conference, Jeff's 2009 publication in the Journal of Management Studies with Mike Haynie and Dean Shepherd, "'An opportunity for me?' The role of resources in opportunity evaluation decisions" was selected by the Journal of Management Studies as an exemplar.

More recently, Jeff won the Academy of Management's award in 2023 for best conceptual paper, for his research with Jason Fitzsimmons, Khyati Shetty, and Stratos Ramoglou, "A temporal typology of entrepreneurial opportunities: Implications for the optimal timing of entrepreneurial action". A version of the paper was subsequently published in the Journal of Business Venturing in 2024. This was the second time Jeff won the Academy of Management's award for best conceptual paper. In 2002, his research with Tom Dean, "Market failure and entrepreneurial opportunity", won and was subsequently published in the Journal of Business Venturing in 2007 as "Toward a theory of sustainable entrepreneurship: Reducing environmental degradation through entrepreneurial action." The 2007 paper has since been recognized as foundational to establishing the subfield of sustainable entrepreneurship, which emphasises the relationship between entrepreneurship and the natural environment.