Conducting field experiments using eLancing's natural environment

We propose the use of eLancing as a natural environment to conduct field experiments in entrepreneurship research. eLancing, or Internet freelancing, involves millions of people around the world and consists of websites that link individuals and organizations interested in purchasing services or commissioning people to complete some type of work with individuals and organizations interested in providing such services or performing such work. We provide a description of how to conduct practically feasible field experiments using eLancing's natural environment to investigate important substantive areas such as entrepreneurial team efficacy and how execution differs from opportunity recognition, among other areas. Using eLancing to conduct field experiments allows researchers to overcome pervasive methodological challenges as revealed by a content analysis of the 175 empirical articles published in the Journal of Business Venturing from January 2005 to November 2010. Specifically, eLancing allows researchers to improve generalizability, address the omitted variables problem, improve the operationalization of constructs, improve confidence regarding the nature of causal relationships, and address other challenges such as participant bias and selective survival. Thus, using eLancing as a methodological tool has the potential to lead to important theoretical advancements and subsequent practical applications. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.