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jbv-writing-style

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Use when polishing the prose of a Journal of Business Venturing (JBV) manuscript — front-loading the entrepreneurial phenomenon, writing for a multidisciplinary audience, honoring JBV's openness to narrative/interpretive voice, and applying Elsevier reference conventions and a ≤250-word abstract. Late-stage polish; do not use as a substitute for a real entrepreneurship-theory contribution (jbv-contribution-framing).

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills/blob/HEAD/Journal-of-Business-Venturing-Skills/skills/jbv-writing-style/SKILL.md

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Writing Style (jbv-writing-style)

When to trigger

  • The prose buries the entrepreneurial phenomenon under jargon or method detail
  • The paper reads as written for one discipline only
  • You are tightening the abstract, intro, and discussion before submission
  • A reviewer says the argument is "hard to follow" or "the entrepreneurship is lost"

Phenomenon-forward writing

JBV is phenomenon-driven, so the writing must put the entrepreneurial phenomenon first:

  • Open on the phenomenon: the first paragraph should make a reader feel the entrepreneurial puzzle (a venture-creation tension, a founder/investor decision under uncertainty), not open on a literature gap or a method.
  • Front-load the argument: state the question, the mechanism, and the contribution to entrepreneurship early; do not make the reader wait until the discussion.
  • Keep entrepreneurship central in every section — methods and results prose should keep tying back to what is learned about the phenomenon, so the paper never reads as a generic study that happened to use startups.

Write for a multidisciplinary reader

Because JBV spans economics, psychology, and sociology, your reader may not share your home discipline:

  • Define discipline-specific constructs on first use; avoid unexplained jargon from one lens.
  • When you integrate lenses, signpost the move explicitly so an economist and a psychologist both follow.

Voice: deductive and narrative are both legitimate

JBV welcomes "theories, narratives, and interpretations." Match voice to mode:

  • Hypothesis-testing: crisp, active, claim-first sentences; hypotheses stated plainly.
  • Narrative/interpretive: a coherent, vivid account is appropriate and valued — but it must still be disciplined theorizing, not storytelling for its own sake.

House style

  • Abstract: concise and factual, not exceeding 250 words; convey phenomenon, approach, and contribution.
  • References: flexible at first submission if complete and consistent; current Guide for Authors says the journal style after acceptance uses numbered references in square brackets.
  • Active voice, present tense for established findings, past tense for what you did.

Checklist

  • Opening makes the entrepreneurial phenomenon vivid (not a gap or a method)
  • Question, mechanism, and contribution front-loaded
  • Entrepreneurship stays central across methods/results prose
  • Cross-discipline constructs defined; integration signposted
  • Voice matches mode (deductive crispness vs. disciplined narrative)
  • Abstract ≤ 250 words, phenomenon-first
  • References complete and consistent; numbered style planned for accepted version

Anti-patterns

  • Method-first opening that hides the entrepreneurial stakes.
  • Single-discipline jargon that excludes JBV's broader audience.
  • Story without theory mistaken for "narrative" — JBV wants disciplined narrative.
  • Abstract over 250 words or that omits the contribution.

Style execution pass for Journal of Business Venturing

Treat this skill as an executable review pass, not a prose hint. First lock the entrepreneurial mechanism, level of analysis, evidence design, and boundary conditions for ventures; then judge whether the current manuscript answers the venue's real reader: entrepreneurship reviewers who ask whether the paper advances venture formation, opportunity, founder, or ecosystem theory.

  • Do the pass: Rewrite the first two pages so each paragraph starts from the venue-level claim, not from chronology or method inventory; preserve exact source-map limits and move technical overflow to appendix or supplement.
  • Return a ledger: give claim / evidence / risk / manuscript location rows, so the next agent can edit rather than rediscover the issue.
  • Sibling guard: compare against Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice for broader entrepreneurship, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal for strategy interface, AMJ for general management; if a sibling owns the contribution, recommend re-routing before polishing format.
  • Stop condition: do not give submission-ready advice until the pack's resources/official-source-map.md has been checked for volatile rules and the manuscript has one concrete fix for the largest venue-specific risk.

Output format

【Hook】does it open on the phenomenon? fix ...
【Front-loading】question/mechanism/contribution early? ...
【Multidisciplinary clarity】jargon defined; integration signposted ...
【Voice】deductive | disciplined-narrative — consistent? ...
【Abstract】word count ≤250; phenomenon-first? ...
【References】complete/consistent; numbered style ready for revision/proof? ...
【Next step】jbv-submission