{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"When to Pivot, When to Quit","description":"IN THIS EPISODE: In this episode, Denise Silber HBS MBA welcomes Professor Daniel Elfenbein,  a triple Harvard alumnus and entrepreneurship researcher at Olin Business School. Together, they explore the delicate balance entrepreneurs must strike between confidence and overconfidence, commitment and detachment, and the hard truth of knowing when to pivot\u2014or when to quit. Dan shares insights drawn from his own entrepreneurial journey, research experiments, and global teaching experience. From biotech boardroom standoffs to mathematical models of founder behavior, he unpacks how emotions, attachment, and overconfidence affect decision-making in startups. You\u2019ll learn why \u201cquitting\u201d may just be the smartest pivot of all\u2014and how founders can better calibrate their confidence to avoid costly mistakes. GUEST BIO: Daniel Elfenbein is Professor of Strategy at Washington University in St. Louis\u2019s Olin Business School. A triple Harvard alumnus, Dan earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Business Economics from Harvard, and graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. in Chemistry. Dan is a leading scholar at the intersection of strategy, entrepreneurship, and organizational economics. His research delves into how trust, incentives, and behavioral biases shape outcomes in entrepreneurial ventures and strategic alliances. His work has been published in top-tier journals including the Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Management Science, and The Review of Economic Studies. A central theme of Dan\u2019s research is understanding the nuanced role of overconfidence in entrepreneurial decision-making. His work\u2014spanning computational modeling, experiments, and economic theory\u2014has provided deep insights into how different forms of overconfidence (including overestimation and overprecision) influence venture formation, pivot strategies, and exit decisions. He has demonstrated that some forms of overconfidence can impede learning and decision-making, while others may be counterbalanced by well-designed experimentation programs. Dan served as Chair of the Strategy and Entrepreneurship Area at Olin from 2020 to 2024, where he championed a culture of scholarly excellence and cross-disciplinary collaboration. He served as Academic Director and then as Associate Dean for Olin\u2019s joint Executive MBA Program with Fudan School of Management in Shanghai. Prior to academia, Dan worked as a consultant at Monitor Company\u2014a firm founded by Harvard Business School professors and graduates, including Michael E. Porter, with whom Dan had the great privilege to work. He also served as a staff economist with the President\u2019s Council of Economic Advisers in the Clinton Administration. He has held faculty appointments at Berkeley\u2019s Haas School of Business and has delivered invited talks at Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, and London Business School, and more than 30 other universities around the globe.   ","author_name":"Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Invites","author_url":"https:\/\/www.harvardae.org\/","html":"