My current research interests include technology entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial ecosystems, public-private partnership, and sustainability. Broadly, my research extends the literature by exploring how contextual conditions at different levels of analysis (firm, intermediary, policy) lead to start-up and scale-up of high-tech firms. In my research, I study different aspects of outcomes of nascent technology ventures (i.e., growth, survival, innovation, and social impact). I utilize quantitative modeling, causal inference, and computational simulation.

I also explore how academic spin-off ventures (i.e., firms started to commercialize technologies created within universities) start-up and scale-up through their interactions with different elements of the wider ecosystem. In particular, in different projects, I study how intellectual property rights' (IPR) regimes, organizational goal hybridity, business incubation, regulatory environment, venture board diversity, and ownership structure affect long-term performance and stability of entrepreneurial firms.

Journal Publications

• Abootorabi, H., Shankar, R. K., Rasmussen, E., & Wiklund, J. (2023). Do Hybrid Goals Pay off? Social and Economic Goals in Academic Spin‐Offs. Journal of Management Studies (JMS), https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12967.

  • • Pursuing hybrid goals (i.e., pursuing both social and economic goals) is good for business. Firms pursuing such hybrid goals also benefit from involving multiple stakeholders that represent different social and economic investment goals.

• Abootorabi, H., Wiklund, J., Johnson, A., Miller, C., (2021). A holistic approach to the evolution of an entrepreneurial ecosystem: An exploratory study of academic spin-offs. Journal of Business Venturing (JBV), 36(5), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2021.106143.

  • • Borrowing concepts and nomenclature from ecology and evolutionary biology, this study analyzes the evolution of an academic spin-off entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE). We concurrently explore firm entry, exit, growth, and survival, and analyze how ecosystem services and resource endowment associate with these activities. By characterizing the dynamics of an EE, this paper takes a major step towards theorizing the ecosystem perspective.

• Sedeh, A., Abootorabi , H., Zhang, J., (2020). National social capital, perceived entrepreneurial ability, and entrepreneurial intentions. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research (IJEBR), 27(2), 334-355.

  • • Shaping entrepreneurial intentions is moderated by the social context. In particular, national social capital (an element of the social environment) complements perceived ability to start a business by helping identify favorable conditions and increasing the tendency of people to act on those conditions.

Conference Proceedings

• Abootorabi, H., Genedy, M. A. (2024). The Balancing Act: Ownership Structure and Market Dynamism in Entrepreneurial Family Firms. DOI: 10.5465/AMPROC.2024.21258abstract. In Proceedings of the 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management.

• Park, U. D., Abootorabi, H., McKelvie, A. (2023). Once an Innovator, Always an Innovator? Founder-CEO Effects on Innovation Over Business Lifecycle. DOI: 10.5465/AMPROC.2023.18525abstract. In Proceedings of the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management.

• Abootorabi, H., Yu, W., (2021). Intellectual Property Rights & New Venture Performance: Empirical Evidence from a Natural Experiment. DOI: 10.5465/AMBPP.2021.16190abstract. In Proceedings of the 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management.

• Shankar, R., Abootorabi, H., Rasmussen, E., (2020). Academic Spin-Off Resource Mobilization and Performance: The Role of Social, Economic & Hybrid Goals. Doi: 10.5465/AMBPP.2020.207. In Proceedings of the 80th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (Best Paper).

• Abootorabi, H., Wiklund, J., Yu, W., (2020). Intellectual Property Rights’ and New Venture Performance: Evidence from a Natural Experiment. Babson College Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Vol. 40.

• Zhang, J., Amini Sedeh, A., Abootorabi, H., (2018). National Social Capital, Self-Efficacy and New Venture Creation. Doi: 10.5465/AMBPP.2018.15514abstract. In Proceedings of the 78th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management.