Kinship and business: how entrepreneurial households facilitate business growth

Building on studies that have stressed the importance of context and the role of the family in business growth, this study explores the role of the entrepreneurial household in the process of business development and growth. We seek to understand how household strategy influences the development of new businesses, the ways in which household characteristics and dynamics influence business growth strategy decisions and how business portfolios are managed and developed by the household. To examine these questions, comparative case studies were undertaken drawing data from four entrepreneurial households located in remote rural regions of Norway and Scotland. The data reveal the role of the entrepreneurial household in the evolution of business creation and growth, examining the processual aspects of entrepreneurial growth, the interactions between business activities and entrepreneurial households and how business portfolios are developed in practice. Three analytical themes emerged from the analyses: the tightly interwoven connections between the business and the household, the use of family and kinship relations as a business resource base and how households mitigate risk and uncertainty through self-imposed growth controls. Although previous studies have viewed entrepreneurial growth largely as an outcome of personal ambition and business strategy, these results reveal the importance of the entrepreneurial household and the household strategy in determining business growth activities.     

Leadership in the Context of Corporate Entrepreneurship

Established companies rely on innovation to maintain their competitiveness in the rapidly changing economic environment. These companies must perpetually develop new products and services, and create new businesses and new business models. To do so, entrepreneurial leaders within established companies need to understand and align their projects with the corporate vision and business goals. The entrepreneurial leaders must also lead by influence to obtain necessary resources to fulfill these goals. Creating an environment that encourages innovation and engenders trust is necessary for the success of entrepreneurial leaders. Skills relating to perspective taking and influence as well as the need for agility are also crucial.     

Technology transfer, specific local knowledge and entrepreneurial partner control in international joint ventures

Previous research has sought to demonstrate the influence of control of an IJV on achieving the learning objectives of the partners involved. However, the effect that certain types of learning have on the control of the IJV, which are vital for the success of the internationalization of the entrepreneurial firm, has yet to be explored. The results from case studies of six IJVs show that, during the post-formation stage, the configuration of entrepreneurial partner control over the IJV is conditioned by both technology transfer and by learning specific local knowledge by the entrepreneurial partner. The study also shows that the negative relation between trust and control suggested by the literature is limited to cases where trust has broken down. Greater levels of trust are also compatible with greater control with a view to appropriately exploiting when firms see the need to intensify control or need to implement new control mechanisms in order to properly exploit the resources contributed to the IJV.     

Influence of the entrepreneur's capacity in business performance

The article presents a theoretical model of the entrepreneur's capacities and their influence on business performance. Starting from the traditional theory of dynamic capacities, those related to entrepreneurship and/or that influence the entrepreneur's capacities are identified, determining factors such as training, experience and confidence. In addition, other factors such as the environmental and institutional environment have been taken into account as they affect the entrepreneurship. For this purpose, a study was carried out with the Smart PLS software in a sample of companies in the tourism sector in the Mar Menor Region (Spain). An essential factor in the development of entrepreneurship in the region is the sustainability of the coastal lagoon. Some considerations are obtained from the study of the factors that determine the model of capacities, in which the confidence of the entrepreneur and the environmental sustainability, exert a positive and significant influence in the business performance. Furthermore, among the mentioned capacities of the entrepreneurial influence, experience and trust are the ones that most influence the success of the tourism business.     

Aspiring,nascent and fledgling entrepreneurs: an investigation of the business start-up process

This study focuses on three different milestones in the business gestation process, i.e. becoming an aspiring entrepreneur, a nascent entrepreneur, and a founder of a fledgling new business. Moreover, this study uses a combination of both individual and regional (or environmental) factors in predicting individuals’ success or failure to reach each of these three milestones. Hypotheses are developed to test the effect that human and environmental resources have on the odds of reaching the different milestones in the business start-up process. The study is based on interviews of a representative sample of 9533 Norwegians aged 18 years or older. From this group, 197 respondents qualified as nascent entrepreneurs. These were subsequently interviewed in follow-up interviews conducted in 1996, 1997 and 1999. In addition, regional data at the municipality level is included to measure the available pool of environmental resources. The results indicate that entrepreneurial experience is the single most important factor for predicting the outcome of the business start-up process. Even though environmental resources play a role, human resources are generally found to be better predictors of the outcome of the business start-up process. Several important implications for policy-makers are presented.     

工作嵌入对知识型员工离职创业过程的影响研究

知识型员工离职创业已成为高新技术产业发展的新特点,其工作经历在离职创业过程中发挥重要作用。工作嵌入描述个体与工作或工作外的环境产生各种联系,并影响个体的行为和决策过程。以工作嵌入为研究视角,深入揭示工作经历、社会资本的"嵌入性"对知识型员工离职创业过程的影响机理。创业者通过工作经历"嵌入"能够积聚知识和资源,同时要注意工作嵌入给创业过程带来的局限。     

Entrepreneurship and diversification on English farms: Identifying business enterprise characteristics and change processes

Despite the growing importance attached to entrepreneurship as a policy concept in European Union (EU) agriculture, little assessment has been made of its practical application. This paper makes a preliminary consideration of the issues in relation to on-farm diversification. First the literatures on agricultural diversification and innovation are reviewed to establish entrepreneurial traits in (1) business change processes, and (2) business enterprise characteristics. The business enterprise characteristics are then used to identify entrepreneurial diversified businesses from a sample of 118 agricultural enterprises in England. Some 15 entrepreneurial farm businesses were identified and their managers interviewed to reflect on the underlying change processes that they had adopted during 1997–2001; the effects of diversification in terms of socio-economic benefits at business and regional levels; and the effectiveness of agricultural business advice services in supporting entrepreneurial behaviour. Respondents confirmed the importance of networking processes to managing change in their businesses. Importantly all had benefited from diversification, through increased net income, reduced dependence on agricultural subsidies and greater income stability during the survey period. Regional economic benefits were more difficult to quantify, although positive employment generating effects were evident among businesses. Importantly respondents commented on their disengagement from sectoral extension agencies in contrast to their enthusiastic use of generic business support. Consequently, consideration is made of adjustments in extension and advisory provision to enhance on-farm entrepreneurial diversification.     

Linking entrepreneurial and market orientation to the SME’s performance growth: the moderating role of entrepreneurial experience and networks

Entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation (EO and MO, respectively) have received extensive research attention in the past several decades. Although scholars widely agree that both MO and EO are critical to firms’ performances, a better understanding is still needed about how market and entrepreneurial orientation develop over time as well as their relative impact on the growth of the SME’s performance. This study does not consider MO and EO as generic resources that always positively influence firms’ performances; instead, it tries to explore contingent elements, such as social and business networks and accumulated entrepreneurial experience. The hypotheses were tested on 191 small and medium-sized electronic firms located in an Italian geographical cluster during two periods: 2005 and 2016. This study suggests that SMEs, which develop social networks, may enjoy considerable advantages from entrepreneurial and market orientation, improving their performance benefits. Moreover, our results show that previous entrepreneurial experience, when specific, can reinforce the impact of entrepreneurial and market orientation on firms’ performance growth. This analysis makes several important contributions to the management literature on the strategic orientation of firms, the entrepreneurial experience and network development.

     

Social Networks and Business Success

A bstract .   The main objective of this paper is to illuminate social and cultural preconditions for networking and success in business in an African context. By in-depth studies of small-scale entrepreneurs in the wood business in Tanzania, we find that people belonging to an Asian subculture probably have a better standing for entering and thriving in business, due to group cohesion, mobility, and level of education. Through high-quality social networks, characterized by a high number and variety of relations, certain groups seem to be in a better position to enact their business environment and raise entrepreneurial resources such as motivation and ideas, information, capital, and trust. To reduce social discontent and inter-ethnic and religious conflicts in this area, we suggest that policy measures be taken to enhance levels of education and access to information for all citizens to create a "level playing field" in economic affairs.     

May business mentors act as opportunity brokers and enablers among university students?

Networks are recognized as a central component of the entrepreneurial process, in particular with regard to opportunity identification and exploitation. In this study, we specifically analyze the role of mentors who are in business as opportunity brokers and enablers among university students with entrepreneurial intentions. Our investigation on 1022 students from 13 French-language universities based in Canada, France, Belgium and Algeria indicates that mentors in business, contrary to other mentors, support opportunity identification and exploitation among university students. Although student gender, entrepreneurial experience and education have a more pronounced effect, mentoring is the only element that can be controlled for through the creation of formal support programs. These results call on public authorities, and universities in particular, to implement formal mentoring programs to support students who are interested in starting their own business, and who would not otherwise have access to business mentors in their environment.     

Passion Isn't Always a Good Thing: Examining Entrepreneurs' Network Centrality and Financial Performance with a Dualistic Model of Passion

We propose a conceptual model that links entrepreneurs' passion, network centrality, and financial performance, and test this model with small business managers in formal business networking groups. Drawing on the dualistic model of passion, we explore the relationships that harmonious and obsessive passion have with financial performance, mediated by network centrality. Results indicate that harmoniously passionate entrepreneurs had higher out‐degree centrality in their networking group (i.e., they were more inclined to seek out members to discuss work issues), which increased the income they received from peer referrals and, ultimately, business income. Obsessively passionate entrepreneurs had lower in‐degree centrality (i.e., they were less likely to be approached by peers), and in turn received less income from referrals and less business income. These findings highlight that entrepreneurial passion does not always result in positive financial outcomes – the type of passion makes a difference. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Determinants of agricultural entrepreneurship: a GEM data based study

The aim of this study is to explain the determinants of entrepreneurship in agriculture industry. What are the drivers of early stage entrepreneurial activity of agri-business entrepreneur and how it is influenced by various cognitive and social capital factors? To answers these questions various driving factors of entrepreneurial activity have been explored from the literature. To achieve the objective, the study uses APS (Adult Population Survey) 2013 data of 69 countries provided by GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor). Total number of respondents 1470, those who are alone or with others, currently trying to start a new business, including any self-employment or selling any goods or services to others in Agriculture Industry, were selected from the data set. To measure the influence of cognitive and social capital factors on early stage entrepreneurial activity logistic regression was employed. The findings show that those who see entrepreneurial opportunities, are confident in their own skills and ability, having personal relationship or social networks with existing entrepreneurs, and have invested in others business as business angels are more likely to become an entrepreneur. Additionally, fear of failure or risk perception does not prevent people to become entrepreneur. Policy implications have been discussed. This is one the first study of its kind and contributes to the existing literature by explaining agricultural entrepreneurship through an integrated approach of entrepreneurial cognition and social networking.

     

Book review of Economic Geography of Higher Education: Knowledge Infrastructure and Learning Regions. Edited by ROEL RUTTEN,FRANS BOEKEMA and ELSA KUIJPERS (London: Routledge, 2003). [Pp. 258]

This paper focuses on the growing aspect of entrepreneurship associated with lifestyle-induced migration from wealthy countries, through investigating self-employment among expatriates from northern Europe in rural areas of southern France and Spain. Most expatriates had no prior experience of entrepreneurship and typically established their business opportunistically and some time after arrival. Based upon interviews with 41 expatriate households (operating 70 business ventures), the study explores the characteristics of the individuals involved, the nature of their businesses, factors influencing start-up, and processes and patterns of business development. Self-employment is shown to be the most effective available mechanism for supporting lifestyle objectives of expatriates who vary greatly in their skills, experience and resources. The study identifies significant differences between the respective groups from the two countries, reflecting the spatially differentiated character of migration in terms of age, education, qualifications and capital resources. These appear to have given rise to a more sophisticated profile of businesses in the French areas. Sharp differences in language skills as between the different countries are seen as influencing the ability of entrepreneurs to network with, and market to, the indigenous population, with implications for the future development of the businesses, and their local impact. The study seeks to augment standard conceptual approaches to entrepreneurship, through taking account of the primacy of the migration decision and specific related processes, and proposes a model that advances our understanding of the phenomenon.     

Social capital effects on the discovery and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities

Social capital refers to social networks and the norms of reciprocity, cooperation and trust associated with them. It can be studied at different levels of analysis. As previous literature suggests, social capital has aspects at both the individual and collective levels. However, theory development and empirical research have focused on separate, sometimes diverging levels. In an attempt to address this, this research examines the simultaneous influence of individual and regional social capital on the discovery and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities using individual-level data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor linked with regional-level data on social capital. The results show that individuals from regions with higher social capital are more likely to discover and to exploit entrepreneurial opportunities. Moreover, individuals having networks with other entrepreneurs are also more likely to identify a business opportunity and to become an entrepreneur. Also, we found that social capital at individual level had a greater effect than social capital at regional level in the two stages of the entrepreneurial process.     

Effective entrepreneurial narrative design in reward crowdfunding campaigns for social ventures

One of the most important challenges for social venture entrepreneurs is acquiring resources. Reward crowdfunding is considered a suitable tool for meeting the financing needs of social ventures, whose backers are particularly interested in firm ideas and core values rather than in collaterals or business plans. A strategic factor that is able to influence the outcome of crowdfunding campaigns is the entrepreneurial narrative. Very few scholars have examined the key factors that support a crowdfunding campaign, particularly those on reward-based crowdfunding platforms, and the effects of entrepreneurial narratives on investors’ decisions. Aiming to fill this research gap, this paper investigates how entrepreneurs in the technology industry describe their social ventures and projects on Eppela, an Italian reward-based crowdfunding platform. Thematic analysis was applied to detect the five following key factors of effective entrepreneurial narratives in reward-based crowdfunding campaigns for social ventures: 1) problem/need; 2) project; 3) product; 4) team; and 5) venture. Each key factor includes specific subfactors. Lexical data analysis was then performed to identify the following expected effects of the examined entrepreneurial narratives on potential investors, leading these investors to understand, trust, and approve the project proposal, and thus, finance the social venture’s project: 1) reassurance, 2) reliability, and 3) credibility. Based on these results, this study proposes an explanatory model about how to design effective entrepreneurial narratives to be presented to contribute as much as possible to the success of projects in crowdfunding platforms.

     

Entrepreneurial orientation and social capital as small firm strategies: A study of gender differences from a resource-based view

Women entrepreneurs have recently been the subject of many studies which have revealed that though women possess some of the same resources as male entrepreneurs, success levels are not the same. The current study looks at the resources utilized by small business owners within downtown business districts. Using a sample of 467 small business owners, we test differences in entrepreneurial orientation and social capital between men and women entrepreneurs. Though women actually reported higher levels of entrepreneurial orientation and social capital, there were no differences in their abilities to utilize these two resources in achieving firm performance. We offer discussion of why these findings are relevant, as well as research implications.     

What drives equity market non-participation?

This paper produces endogenous equity market non-participation in an economy with uninsurable labor income risk and heterogeneous skill levels. Prudence and impatience generate stationary household wealth levels that depend on income. Skill, and therefore labor income, heterogeneity leads to wealth heterogeneity, with high skill households accumulating high wealth and low skill households accumulating low wealth. A HARA class utility with subsistence consumption requirement generates decreasing RRA with respect to household wealth. Consequently, low skill households also have significantly higher local RRA. In addition low skill households have less human capital and therefore have lower diversification demand for stocks. Low wealth, high RRA and low diversification demand predicts that low skill households do not hold stocks in the face of a moderate ownership cost. In addition, the model predicts a humped lifecycle wealth accumulation pattern and a humped lifecycle stock allocation pattern. I also find that stockholders exhibit a greater aggregate willingness to supply risky capital during the expansion phase of a business cycle, despite the lower conditional equity premium.     

Determinants of credit to households: An approach using the life-cycle model

This paper applies a life-cycle model with individual income uncertainty in order to investigate the determinants of credit to households. We show that the household credit to GDP ratio depends on the lending-deposit interest rate spread, individual income uncertainty, and individual income persistence. We subsequently provide empirical evidence for the prediction of a theoretical model on the basis of data from OECD and EU countries.     

Property Tax Circuit-breakers: Good Causes but Bad Economics

A bstract . Since 1965, 30 states and the District of Columbia have enacted programs designed to reduce the effective rate of property taxation for some low income households and for the elderly. Most often this relief is provided by so-called "circuit-breakers." It is contended that the economic arguments favoring circuit-breakers are empirically unproven and theoretically suspect. The tax may be progressive , not regressive , and the device may transfer income from low to high income households. Any short run redistribution of income to favor the poor or the elderly would, in the long run, merely shift the timing of their tax payments. Circuit-breakers encourage over-consumption of housing and misallocation of housing resources. Reducing the tax base, they produce higher rates and so increase the tax burden.     

SLUM DWELLERS' ACCESS TO BASIC AMENITIES: THE ROLE OF POLITICAL CONTACT, ITS DETERMINANTS AND ADVERSE EFFECTS

This paper analyzes slum dwellers' access to basic amenities and the ways in which they gain access. Associations between Indian states' share of slums, proportions of notified slums, and prevailing conditions in terms of basic amenities present political contact as a key factor. Based on the political economy framework, slum survey data (2004–2005) show that political contact helps access facilities such as land tenure and basic amenities. The logit model identifies determinants of political contact by examining social networks and individual endowments. While political accessibility is crucial as a survival strategy, slum dwellers' vulnerability hardly diminishes over time; on the contrary, the political use of slums perpetuates it. However, strong social networks can prevent low income households from declining to a low equilibrium. The role of political contact is less applicable in other Asian countries. Instead, rational policies have greater relevance in improving the conditions of these low income households.