Describing, assessing and preventing dishonest behaviours in the relationship between investors and entrepreneurs in early stage startups.
The Misconduct in Entrepreneurship Scale resulting from in-depth interviews with samples of entrepreneurs and investors, and validated with hundreds of entrepreneurs, will allow the in-depth analysis of the factors potentiating misconduct, from personality factors or attitudes, to organizational formal and informal norms.
This analysis will result in a Risk Assessment Tool and a Risk Prevention Toolkit, which should help incubators and accelerators prevent and ameliorate dishonest behaviours among entrepreneurs.
The scientific studies and by-products should have a positive impact in entrepreneurship, by enabling the relevant stakeholders to intervene in organizational settings towards diminishing the probability of seeing entrepreneurs engage in unethical behaviour.