jbv-writing-style - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: jbv-writing-style description: 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).

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