About

Jeffrey Pollack is the Lynn T. Clark II Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Department of Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at NC State's Poole College of Management. He holds an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University, a master's in organizational communication from NC State University, and a doctorate in management from Virginia Commonwealth University. His entrepreneurial experiences range from working in small family-owned firms to buying and selling businesses and investing in ventures, which inform his research and teaching perspectives. His research has been published in prominent journals including the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, and Journal of Management. His teaching spans undergraduate and graduate courses on entrepreneurship, business opportunity analysis and planning, new venture creation, social entrepreneurship, organizational design, and organizational behavior. His work focuses on entrepreneurship, mindsets, business pitches, crowdfunding, resilience, and goal setting.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Medicine
• Social psychology
• Sociology
• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Economics
• Applied psychology
• Mechanical engineering
• Psychiatry
• Management
• Geography
• Public relations
• Clinical psychology
• Business
• Psychotherapist

Selected publications

• Developing and validating a dictionary of gendered language in entrepreneurship

  Journal of Business Venturing Insights · 2026-04-21

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Enhancing Transparency and Replicability in Entrepreneurship Research with Preregistrations, Registered Reports, and Registered Revisions: A Call for Papers

  Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice · 2026-01-23 · 3 citations

  articleSenior author

  Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice ( ETP ) is committed to advancing transparency, replicability, credibility, and rigor in research. To support this commitment, we encourage authors to preregister their research plans, submit empirical studies as Registered Reports, and engage with our evolving editorial processes, such as Registered Revisions. Drawing on practices across multiple disciplines, we offer guidance for integrating these publication formats into our field. We also provide multiple resources to support authors in adopting these approaches and to address the unique challenges of applying such formats to, for example, secondary data. By more widely embracing the Registered Report approach, we envision a future for entrepreneurship research that is characterized by greater credibility, replicability, transparency, and scientific impact. In this editorial, we motivate and, hopefully, guide future work by making a specific call for manuscripts for a virtual special issue of ETP focused on Registered Reports, strengthening ETP ’s longstanding commitment to methodological innovation. We offer a prospective vision—what we believe would be good for future literature—and our aim is to empower scholars to proactively shape new theoretical and empirical foundations in entrepreneurship research that enhance the credibility and replicability of entrepreneurship research.

  PublisherDOI

• I'll prove you wrong! The underdog effect as an antecedent to entrepreneurial action and venture persistence

  Journal of Business Venturing · 2026-02-05 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• A stronger growth mindset of frugality predicts entrepreneurs’ responses to setbacks in resourcefulness behavior

  Journal of Business Venturing Insights · 2026-02-09

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Advancing entrepreneurial alertness research: theoretical, empirical, and Asia Pacific perspectives

  Asia Pacific Journal of Management · 2025-02-25 · 4 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Human Capital Theory and Venture Capital Firms: Exploring “Home Runs” and “Strike Outs”—A Replication and Extension of Dimov and Shepherd (2005)

  Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice · 2025-06-27 · 5 citations

  articleSenior author

  The present work is a registered report 1 focused on a replication and extension of the findings in Dimov and Shepherd (2005). Our work tests the hypotheses from the original article in an expanded industry context and with an updated sample. The wider sample includes low- and medium-tech industries, and an expanded time frame as opposed to the original sample based on the high-tech wireless industry in a 5-year span. We used the same estimation technique (OLS regression) from the original article but also expand on it by using multivariate regression and seemingly unrelated regression to model multiple outcomes simultaneously as well as negative binomial analyses to accommodate the count nature of outcome variables—initial public offerings as home runs and bankruptcies as strike outs. We also model more fine-grained outcomes of venture capital (VC) investments (underpricing, 180-day return, market value). Our findings support the inference that general human capital has a significant effect on investment success measures. Furthermore, the findings align with predictions about the relation between general and specific human capital in reducing measures of investment failure. Our replication and extension efforts are crucial in advancing the literature with regard to four key points. First, we find that the types of human capital vary in their influence on VC-related outcomes. Second, by examining alternative measures of VC-related outcomes, we illustrate that the effect of human capital on VC outcomes varies depending on the measure of outcome. Third, our results suggest that the relation between human capital and VC-related outcomes varies by industry type and time to exit. Fourth, our reexamine of the findings from Dimov and Shepherd (2005) seems to illustrate support for hypotheses that were unsupported in the original study.

  PublisherDOI

• Loneliness Mindsets: A New Measurement Approach and Implications for Predicting Wellbeing

  Behavioral Sciences · 2025-09-02 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The prevalence of loneliness is rising, with both individual and societal costs, including a substantial mental health toll. Perhaps not surprisingly, given this upsurge, research focused on loneliness is proliferating. Of particular interest are the characteristics of lonely individuals and where to intercede to reduce loneliness. Interventions often focus on enhancing social skills, providing social support, offering opportunities for social interaction, and addressing maladaptive cognitions. In the current study, we seek to add to the literature on the importance of beliefs by focusing on individual differences in the meaning assigned to the nature of loneliness. Specifically, we investigate mindsets, first developing and validating a new Mindsets of Loneliness Assessment Tool (M-LAT) across two studies (N = 243; N = 382) using primarily university students. Analyses revealed four factors, which we call Lonely Attribute Mindset (LM_Attribute), Lonely People Mindset (LM_Person), Loneliness as Enhancing Mindset (LM_Enhancing), and Loneliness as Debilitating Mindset (LM_Debilitating). Lonely People and Debilitating Mindsets tended to correlate the strongest with social and psychological wellbeing. We discuss the need for future work investigating if mindset interventions targeting both of these types of mindsets can be leveraged to improve wellbeing, especially in the face of loneliness.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Developing and Validating a Word List for Examining Gendered Language in Entrepreneurship

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The Biophilia Effect: Expanding Green Horizons in a Global Workplace

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  articleOpen access

  This symposium explores the growing evidence that nature contact -- ranging from biophilic office design to immersive outdoor experiences -- may exert profound effects on employee well-being, work engagement, and organizational outcomes. As rapid urbanization continues to limit daily exposure to natural elements, research increasingly points to nature as a powerful yet underexamined resource for sustainable management practice. In this session, five presentations illuminate multiple facets of the “Biophilia Effect.” First, we see how even simple interventions, such as workplace greenery, boost employee energy and dedication. Next, we learn how entrepreneurs and boundaryless workers may strategically leverage nature for real-time recovery. We then turn to an ethnographic study that reveals how specific environmental contexts (e.g., remote islands, mountainous terrain) mold employees’ work-life boundaries. A fourth paper uncovers moral complexities in (animal) caregiving professions, where necessary evils can cause psychological and ethical tension. Finally, we broaden our view by examining user acceptance of wooden housing, underscoring how green innovations can shape both corporate strategies and societal well-being. Collectively, these papers provide timely, high-impact insights for scholars across OB, ONE, and SIM, illustrating how nature-based approaches can enrich individuals’ work experiences, advance sustainable organizational practices, and foster responsible management in a globalized world. Biophilic Design at Work: Investigating How Greenery Supports Employee Engagement Author: Meredith Jordan Pool; Clemson University Author: Robert R Sinclair; Clemson University Detachment vs. Absorption in Nature: A Person-Centered Approach to Employee Recovery Breaks Author: J. Jeffrey Gish; University of Central Florida Author: Ute Stephan; King's College London Author: Jon C. Carr; North Carolina State University Author: Réka Anna Lassu; Pepperdine University Author: Sarah Burrows; Queen's University Author: Jeffrey M. Pollack; North Carolina State University The Topography of Work-Life Boundaries: How Environmental Context Shapes Work-Life Navigation Author: Elena Maria Wong; University of Pennsylvania The Mixed Consequences of Necessary Evils in the Veterinary Profession Author: Carisa Lam; Author: Vanessa Liu; User Acceptance of Wooden Housing: Green Future in the Construction Industry? Author: Malgorzata Iwanczuk-Prost; Wageningen University and Research Author: Emiel F.M. Wubben;

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Gender Equality Paradoxes Among Entrepreneurs: Interactive Effects of Equality and Culture

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  Gender-equality paradoxes – surprising findings of stronger discrepancies in outcomes between men and women in gender egalitarian contexts – remain contested across a variety of domains. To provide broad and novel insights into this debate, we explore gender paradoxes for entrepreneurs across a variety of industries and consider the role of cultural Individualism. We analyze the relationship of gender with entrepreneurs’ self-efficacy, goals, and success among 59,993 entrepreneurs across 85 countries. We find evidence for paradoxes in terms of self-efficacy and success, but not goals, more clearly in Individualistic countries, and in relation to political and health equality – but not economic equality. Our results help to resolve discrepant findings by highlighting the cultural nature of gender-equality paradoxes and their closer relationship with self-concept rather than explicit intentions.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jon C. Carr

  North Carolina State University

  20 shared

• Matthew W. Rutherford

  Oklahoma State University Oklahoma City

  17 shared

• Timothy L. Michaelis

  Northern Illinois University

  16 shared

• Jeni L. Burnette

  North Carolina State University

  13 shared

• Bradley L. Kirkman

  North Carolina State University

  9 shared

• Ernest H. O’Boyle

  9 shared

• Crystal L. Hoyt

  9 shared

• Violet T. Ho

  University of Richmond

  8 shared

Labs

• Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MIE) DepartmentPI

Education

• B.S.

  Northwestern University

Awards & honors

• Poole College Summer Funding (2022)
• Poole College Research Leadership Award (2021)
• NC State University Foundation Grant (2021)
• Poole College of Management Research Leadership Award (2021)
• Research Leadership Award: Management, Innovation, and Entre…