Competitiveness and entrepreneurship rate in Europe during the economic recovery phase, 2012–2016

Entrepreneurship is key for regional economic development. Regions can offer conditions that promote or limit business innovation activity. As the World Economic Forum points out, promotion and entrepreneurship support have been key factors for European countries to recover lost competitiveness. This study analyzes countries’ competitiveness level during the economic recovery phase using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and the Word Economic Forum Report for the 2012–2016 period. The sample comprises 19 countries of the European Union. The independent variable is Total Entrepreneurship Activity rate (TEA) and the dependent variables are the 12 pillars that measure competitiveness in the GEC Index. The results show that, over time, the macroeconomic environment conditions necessity entrepreneurship but, when the economy recovers, innovation determines the appearance of opportunity entrepreneurship. Differences between countries are less significant regarding entrepreneurial activity and competitiveness; however, patterns for northern and southern Europe still differ.

     

Endowed chairs in entrepreneurship: deans’ preferences versus chair holders’ expericences

Business school deans’ feelings about the importance of various teaching research and service activities in the roles played by holders of endowed chairs in Entrepreneurship were contrasted with the views of chair holders themselves, based on their experiences. Differences were highlighted and discussed. Results suggest that the chair holder role is negotiated between multiple constituencies, with deans’ influence being strong but limited. Implications for individuals aspiring to hold chairs are discussed.     

What are the antecedents of women’s entrepreneurial orientation?

This study seeks to identify the antecedents of women’s entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and exploring what possible relationships that may exist between them. The research focuses on women entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs in a quantitative perspective whose methodology consisted of the collection of primary data through a survey distributed to women in Portugal. After structural equation modelling was applied, the results suggested that recognition of opportunities influences EO. This influence is expressed both directly and indirectly through training in management and entrepreneurial skills. These findings led to the conclusion that policies promoting training for community members, in general, need to be rethought and policies need to emphasise training in management that enhances entrepreneurial skills, thereby increasing the proliferation of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship education and training should be promoted from basic education onwards in order to develop entrepreneurial skills from an early age. Prior to this study, the relationships between opportunity recognition, management training and entrepreneurial skills have never been studied in relation to women.     

The smartization of metropolitan cities: the case of Paris

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - Although the smart city literature is continuously increasing these last decades, there is still a need to better understand what make their...     

Creating a community of difference in entrepreneurship scholarship

This article argues for alternative forms of inquiry for exploring aspects of entrepreneurship scholarship that are often unseen, ignored or minimized. The label, ‘The European School of Entrepreneurship’, might serve as a useful rubric for identifying a community of scholars with tendencies towards the following: (1) an interest in the history of ideas that inform entrepreneurship scholarship, (2) a willingness to step outside of the entrepreneurship field, itself, to embrace a variety of ideas, particularly from philosophy and the humanities and (3) a concern for the ‘other’, so as to challenge the unspoken and often unrecognized ‘taken-for-granted’ aspects of what entrepreneurship is and what it might be. Such tendencies are fundamentally different by degree (rather than contrast) from current norms; yet, these tendencies can make a significant difference in current scholarly practice in entrepreneurship, as well as our understanding of the entrepreneurial phenomenon.     

Editorial to the special issue “Structured Literature Reviews in Entrepreneurship Research-Taking Stock and Setting the Agenda”

Management Review Quarterly - Entrepreneurship as a phenomenon has changed a lot over the last years. At the same time entrepreneurship as an interdisciplinary research field has seen strong growth...     

Modelling Inflation Volatility

This paper discusses estimation of US inflation volatility using time‐varying parameter models, in particular whether it should be modelled as a stationary or random walk stochastic process. Specifying inflation volatility as an unbounded process, as implied by the random walk, conflicts with priors beliefs, yet a stationary process cannot capture the low‐frequency behaviour commonly observed in estimates of volatility. We therefore propose an alternative model with a change‐point process in the volatility that allows for switches between stationary models to capture changes in the level and dynamics over the past 40 years. To accommodate the stationarity restriction, we develop a new representation that is equivalent to our model but is computationally more efficient. All models produce effectively identical estimates of volatility, but the change‐point model provides more information on the level and persistence of volatility and the probabilities of changes. For example, we find a few well‐defined switches in the volatility process and, interestingly, these switches line up well with economic slowdowns or changes of the Federal Reserve Chair. Moreover, a decomposition of inflation shocks into permanent and transitory components shows that a spike in volatility in the late 2000s was entirely on the transitory side and characterized by a rise above its long‐run mean level during a period of higher persistence. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Innovative outcomes from migrant entrepreneurship: a matter of whether you think you can,or think you can’t

The entrepreneurship literature has exposed some of the most influential antecedents of innovative entrepreneurship. Prior research has also identified crucial features of migrant entrepreneurship. This article employs lessons from these two areas and draws on social cognitive theory to explore the main drivers of innovative ventures among migrants. We center the attention on entrepreneurs, differentiating them between two management strategies: imitation or innovation; and we study the role of perceived self-efficacy, prior entrepreneurial experience, and social capital into the likelihood of acting innovative. For our empirical analysis, we primarily use data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for three years covering 2016–2018 and gathering 5713 observations of early-stage entrepreneurs from Chile. Our estimations show that being a migrant is in itself an insufficient condition to influence seeking substantial differentiation from what is traditionally offered in the local market; instead, we confirm that a migrant who feels capable of successfully starting a business will be likely to conduct innovative entrepreneurship. Contributions of these findings for theoretical and practical advances of the field are discussed.

     

Long-term finance and entrepreneurship

This paper investigates whether long-term finance affects firm entry worldwide. We construct a new database on short- and long-term credit provided by commercial banks to the private sector in 85 countries over the period 1995–2014. We then analyze whether differences in entrepreneurship are related to the provision of short- and long-term bank credit. Data on entrepreneurship are extracted from two frequently used databases: the Global Entrepreneurship Monitoring dataset and the Entrepreneurship Database, each of which captures different aspects of firm creation. The econometric results indicate that long-term credit does not stimulate firm entry. By contrast, we find that short-term credit is positively related to firm creation, from birth to registration. Controlling for potential endogeneity by implementing an instrumental variables approach does not affect our conclusions. Our findings suggest that better provision of short-term credit allows entrepreneurs to apply for formal loans instead of having to rely exclusively on informal loans or internal funds. The absence of impact of long-term loans can be explained by the difficulty entrepreneurs face in getting access to long-term credit.     

The art of crafting a systematic literature review in entrepreneurship research

Systematic literature reviews are an increasingly used review methodology to synthesize the existing body of literature in a field. However, editors complain about a high number of desk rejections because of a lack in quality. Poorly developed review articles are not published because of a perceived lack of contribution to the field. Our article supports authors of standalone papers and graduate students in the Entrepreneurship domain to write contribution-focused systematic reviews e.g. by providing a concrete guideline. Our article analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of a systematic literature review and how they can be overcome. Furthermore, we provide a combined list of highly ranked journals in the Entrepreneurship domain as a basis for quality appraisal. Finally, this article builds a scenario for the future of the systematic literature review methodology and shows how technological improvements have changed this methodology and what can be achieved in the future.

     

2008创业案例研讨会及学术观点综述

2008年9月20～21日,以通过案例研究创业为主题的2008年创业案例研讨会在南开大学商学院召开。大会在创业精神、创业者与创业机会制度、创业学习、领导与新企业成长草根创业新企业价值创造与管理教学型案例等方面取得了丰富的成果。作为中国首届创业案例研讨会,大会对于推动中国创业研究、促进创业教育具有重要的意义。     

Intention as a cognitive antecedent to international entrepreneurship��understanding the moderating roles of knowledge and experience

While International Entrepreneurship has attracted scholars’ attention during the last two decades, the impact cognitive aspects exert has been studied on cursory level only. The purpose of this paper was to apply the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to the very field of International Entrepreneurship in order to examine whether this theory contributes to clarify what influences Small and Medium-sized Enterprises’ (SME) decision-makers’ intention—an important cognitive antecedent to behavior—to play an active part in internationalization. In particular, it had to be clarified whether or not International Entrepreneurship—due to its contextual specificities—deserves to be extended by further elements, i.e. experience and knowledge. Based on more than 100 responses from German SME executives, the study yielded several interesting results. First, TPB indeed helps explain how intentions to actively participate in international business are built. Second, an extension of the theory’s basic model seems to make sense, probably due to the specificities of international entrepreneurial behavior. As for the extensions, direct and moderating effects have been observed. Furthermore, cognitive elements seem to be key entrepreneurial resources which serve as sort of enablers. From these results several conclusions can be drawn. Cognitive aspects are a promising starting point for understanding decision-making in SME. Thus, the intersection of international entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial cognition deserves further attention—several examples for possible future studies are presented. Policies supporting SME should be extended: pure resource-based approaches seem to be insufficient. Furthermore, entrepreneurship courses and curricula should reflect the relevance of cognitive aspects.     

Strong proposals make easy going on solicitation road

"Just get out a proposal," is a command that is heard all too frequently from the officers of an institution, notes this author. The result is a slap-dash replica of what should have been a carefully constructed piece. With advise on the do's and don'ts of proposal writing, the author explains how any fund raiser can reach what at first seemed an unobtainable goal.     

Real Geographies,Real Economies and Soft Spatial Imaginaries: Creating a ‘More than Manchester’ Region

This article develops a framework for analysing region‐building processes as spatiotemporal constructs, involving competing spatial imaginaries and attempts at consolidating these through institution building. Central here is the performative role of what we refer to as ‘soft space imaginaries’ in the ‘phased’ building of regions for planning and economic development over time. We demonstrate how this understanding can be used to examine the phased enactment of successive waves of region‐building by tracing the evolution of multiple soft spatial imaginaries in north‐west England. The analysis exposes the variable logics, alliances of actors, and tactics used to build momentum and secure legitimacy around preferred imaginaries which advocates often promoted on the grounds that they somehow reflected ‘real geographies’ or ‘real economies’. In this context, soft space imaginaries are seen to play an integral role in intellectual case making about the contemporaneous form and purpose of subnational governance. Yet our analysis also exposes the durability of past soft space imaginaries and their continued impact on efforts to build new soft spaces. What emerges is an understanding of soft space imaginaries as more than just superficial representations. They can help determine where government investment is channelled and into what kinds of policies.     

How did you get up and running? Taking a Bourdieuan perspective towards a framework for negotiating strategic fit

This article suggests a theoretical framework for illustrating significant iterative processes that need to be strategically managed when entering a new field or changing a social position within a field. Applying a process-relational perspective, the framework theoretically underpins what propels individuals to change their behaviour conceptualized as constructing a strategic fit between personal structure and fields. Using Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field and capitals as a lens the analysis reveals how capital transformations eventually can lead to a social construction of this temporary strategic fit. The article argues that the performance of habitus expresses temporary field specific social positioning as a social materialization of macrostructures (gender, age, class, etc.). This suggested framework is applied to conceptualizing how nascent entrepreneurs successfully negotiate entrepreneurial processes. It is concerned with a small aspect: how to physically start a business (its registration and the start of trading). In this context, the article unpacks how the transformation of capitals mediates nascent entrepreneurs’ social positioning. This article contributes to the growing ‘social turn’ research situating entrepreneurial processes within social relations and context and the emerging Entrepreneurship as Practice field. It offers practical implications for business support and research directions.     

Playing with the Pieces: Deconstruction and the Loss of Moral Culture

This paper investigates the assumptions and implications of the notion of deconstruction as they are found in writers concerned with organization theory and organization ethnography. Deconstruction, and postmodernism generally, is shown to be a continuation of modernity's attack on cultural authority and its celebration of the ideology of individualism with its concomitant of endless criticism. Deconstruction posits the oppositional nature of language and symbolism as a 'violent hierarchy' and seeks to overturn this hierarchy to achieve human freedom. This reading of the repressive aspects of culture is shown to undermine the essential dynamic of culture, which is a recurrent splitting of what is from what is not in the process of forming meaning.
By opening up structures of meaning to expose their repressed contents, deconstruction aspires to question all authority. This is particularly threatening to the ethical aspects of organizational culture, because it suggests a continuous attempt to question the boundary between right and wrong. Indeed, orders of right and wrong are seen by deconstruction as mere political attempts at controlling an organization. Ethics is reduced to politics; authority is confused with power.
I argue here, instead, that stable structures of meaning are needed over time to found a traditional and thus legitimate base for business ethics. Contrary to deconstruction's goal of opening meaning to its repressed opposite, I assert that memory should be seen as a moral decision based on past experience. Business ethics requires stable moral standards and, no less, the capacity to believe in them.     

Investigating the entrepreneurial perspective in smart city studies

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - Although the concept of smart cities has been largely discussed in the literature for over almost three decades, there is still a need to...     

Measuring entrepreneurship at the country level: A review and research agenda

The measurement of entrepreneurial activity across national contexts is a relatively recent and under-represented area of study. There was very little research carried out for comparable indicators of entrepreneurship until the end of the 1990s, when the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Consortium launched its annual surveys. In the last decade, other indexes and databases have been created, such as the EIM COMPENDIA database and the World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey dataset. The first objective of this paper is to review and analyse the existing entrepreneurship indexes with respect to their conceptual and methodological dimensions. This review shows that the conceptual foundations of most of the indexes are insufficiently developed. The second objective is to integrate and compare the indexes on 21 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries for which complete data is available. Strong convergence was found between the indicators of venture creation, business ownership and growth, while noticeable divergences were observed between these indicators and those concerning innovation. This was further explored through cluster analysis, which indicated that the 21 sampled countries could be classified into three distinct entrepreneurial profiles. The paper concludes by offering research directions and debating the use of unitary or composite measures of entrepreneurship in comparison to the analysis of multiple dimensions as exemplified in this paper.     

The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship: the developing country context

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - This is among the few studies to test the Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship (KSTE) at the city level in a developing country...     

Influences on students attitudes toward entrepreneurship: A multi-country study

Entrepreneurship has been emphasized in many countries as a way of boosting economic growth and job creation. As entrepreneurship is becoming popular around the world, its education should be customized according to each country’s unique cultural context. The purpose of this paper is to identify differences among the selected nations in terms of factors that are important to enhance the pedagogical effect of entrepreneurship education. This is an empirical study based on the data collected from university students in the US, Korea, China and Fiji representing nations with significantly different cultural contexts. The results imply that customized approaches based on unique cultural context are needed for effective entrepreneurship education in each country.