Identity and entrepreneurship: do school peers shape entrepreneurial intentions?

We incorporate the concept of social identity into entrepreneurship and analyze the determinants of having entrepreneurial intentions. We argue that an entrepreneurial identity results from an individual’s socialization. This could be parental influence but, as argued in this paper, also peer influence. Based on Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006 data in which students report their entrepreneurial intentions at the age of 15, we find that having an entrepreneurial peer group has a positive effect on an individual’s entrepreneurial intentions. We find that the strength of the peer effect in a country is moderated by prevailing values, namely individualism.     

The Role of Perceived University Support in the Formation of Students' Entrepreneurial Intention

Entrepreneurship education is central to student entrepreneurship. Previous research has attempted to understand the role of entrepreneurship education in the formation of students' entrepreneurial intention and behavior, albeit in an isolated manner. Universities can support entrepreneurship in many ways, but it is important to measure students' perception of the support that they receive in order to understand the extent of such support and its impact on students. The current study proposed and tested an integrative, multiperspective framework. We have hypothesized that the three dimensions of university support, that is, perceived educational support, concept development support, and business development support, together with institutional support, shape students' entrepreneurial self‐efficacy. In turn, entrepreneurial self‐efficacy and individual motivations constitute the fundamental elements of the intention to start a business. A sample of 805 university students took part in the study and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Our findings showed that perceived educational support exerted the highest influence on entrepreneurial self‐efficacy, followed by concept development support, business development support, and institutional support. Self‐efficacy in turn had a significant effect on entrepreneurial intention. Individual motivations such as self‐realization, recognition, and role had an additional impact on intention. However, intention was not related to financial success, innovation, and independence. The findings suggest that a holistic perspective provides a more meaningful understanding of the role of perceived university support in the formation of students' entrepreneurial intention. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Evolution of entrepreneurship and organizational configurations at Zildjian, 1623�C2010

This work uses a case-based research approach and Siggelkow’s (Acad Manag J 47:125–159, 2002) four-phase organizational configuration model to analyze Zildjian’s evolutionary growth and entrepreneurial initiatives in the global music industry. Zildjian is a unique and well-respected cymbal manufacturer that originated out of Turkey in 1623 and continues to be a major force in the music instruments sector. Turkey was a growing market during the periods of 1700 and 1800 that helped Zildjian to become an increasingly successful company. This also led to creating 13 generations of a successful family business. The work discusses Zildjian’s 387-year family genealogy and its growth within the domains of entrepreneurship, organizational configurations, and strategic inertia. The work finds that behind Zildjian’s marvelous expansion and well-known cymbals, there is a tightly knit family firm that continues to operate like an entrepreneurial venture, dealing with thousands of artists, musicians, educators, orchestras, and bands worldwide. As of 2011, the company may not be a large multinational corporation but its business model is a classic addition to the international entrepreneurship literature. Staunchly traditional in its family business, Zildjian thrives as a privately held company and protects its closely guarded metallurgical formula. The significance of this work lies in its unique methodology within the evolution of Zildjian’s entrepreneurial growth and organizational configurations.     

Nascent Entrepreneurship and the Level of Economic Development

Based upon two strands of literature, this paper hypothesizes a U-shaped relationship between a country’s rate of entrepreneurial dynamics and its level of economic development. This would imply a different scope for entrepreneurship policy across subsequent stages of development. Regressing global entrepreneurship (GEM) 2002 data for nascent entrepreneurship in 36 countries on the level of economic development as measured either by per capita income or by an index for innovative capacity, we find support for a U-shaped relationship. The results suggest that a ‘natural rate’ of nascent entrepreneurship is to some extent governed by ‘laws’ related to the level of economic development. For the most advanced nations, improving incentive structures for business start-ups and promoting the commercial exploitation of scientific findings offer the most promising approach for public policy. Developing nations, however, may be better off pursuing the exploitation of scale economies, fostering foreign direct investment and promoting management education. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Opportunities to Improve Entrepreneurship Education: Contributions Considering Brazilian Challenges

This paper identifies challenges and opportunities for enhancing higher education in entrepreneurship considering student perceptions concerning both their demand for entrepreneurship education and their entrepreneurial intention as well as previous studies that present the points of view of experts. The main focus is Brazilian higher education, but the results address challenges that cross borders, such as the need for a practical approach. The study analyzed the data from the Brazilian version of the 2011 Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (GUESSS) obtained with an online questionnaire answered by 25,751 Brazilian students from 37 colleges and universities. To give a reference for a better understanding of Brazilian statistics, data were compared to those of the 2011 international GUESSS involving also 25 other countries and 64,079 responses from them. Three hypotheses were tested. The results show that entrepreneurship education has a significant negative effect on student entrepreneurial intention and also on self‐efficacy. The same occurs between entrepreneurial intention and students' demand for entrepreneurship education. Brazilian students present higher levels of entrepreneurial intention and are significantly more motivated to take courses and activities in entrepreneurship than those students in the international sample. Approximately 50 percent of Brazilian students are potential entrepreneurs. One of the opportunities identified is to take advantage of students' positive attitudes and their high demand. The opportunities could play an important role in overcoming the challenges recognized, among which are the need for a more practical approach and the need for larger and diversified educational offerings beyond business planning. The challenges make Neck and Greene's recommendations, presented in a 2011 issue of JSBM, particularly important for Brazil. The last three sections propose different explanations, suggestions for more research, and practical recommendations.     

Relationship between individualist–collectivist culture and entrepreneurial activity: evidence from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data

This paper examines how one dimension of national culture (an individualist–collectivist orientation) is related to Total Entrepreneurial Activity, depending on the level of economic development, measured by GDP per capita. Researchers have traditionally associated individualism with high rates of firm creation, arguing that an orientation towards achievement and the pursuit of personal objectives (dominant aspects in individualist cultures) are determinants of entrepreneurial activity. The current analysis shows that a country’s culture correlates to entrepreneurship, but cannot uphold the idea that higher levels of individualism mean higher rates of entrepreneurship. Using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor on 52 countries, the results show that a country’s entrepreneurship rate is negatively related to individualism when development is medium or low, and positively related to individualism when the level of development is high. Thus, individualism is not related to entrepreneurship in the same way in countries with differing levels of development.     

Do entrepreneurship programmes raise entrepreneurial intention of science and engineering students? The effect of learning,inspiration and resources

Drawing on the theory of planned behaviour, this study tests the effect of entrepreneurship programmes on the entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions of science and engineering students. This is necessary in order to confirm (or disconfirm) conventional wisdom that entrepreneurship education increases the intention to start a business. The results show that the programmes raise some attitudes and the overall entrepreneurial intention and that inspiration (a construct with an emotional element) is the programmes' most influential benefit. The findings contribute to the theories of planned behaviour and education and have wider implications for a theory of entrepreneurial emotions and also for the practice of teaching entrepreneurship.     

Scientific Paradigms,Entrepreneurial Opportunities and Cycles in Economic Growth

In this paper I present a model of economic growth that combines insights from endogenous growth theory, the field of entrepreneurship research and the philosophy and economics of science. The model is built on three relatively standard assumptions and a Kuhnian approach to scientific knowledge accumulation. I assume that innovation generates economic growth, that opportunity driven entrepreneurship is an important source of innovation, that entrepreneurial opportunities increasingly arise out of scientific knowledge creation and that science follows Kuhnian paradigm shifting dynamics. The model then generates opportunity driven cycles in entrepreneurial activity that in turn cause waves of innovation and cycles in economic growth. This result is highly relevant and fills a gap in all three literatures as ‚traditional’ endogenous growth models typically generate constant growth rates in the steady state, entrepreneurship research keeps the origin of entrepreneurial opportunity exogenous and the literatures on the philosophy and economics of science ignore the important downstream economic implications of the non-profit driven institutional framework that governs scientific knowledge accumulation. This paper contributes by identifying scientific institutions and entrepreneurial activity as prerequisites for economic growth and it offers a tentative explanation for the rise and fall in the levels of scientific, entrepreneurial and economic activity over the Kondratieff-cycle.      

Determinants of students’ entrepreneurial intention to compete in a fast-pitch competition

Despite the heightened popularity of entrepreneurship education, there remain open questions regarding best practices in co-curricular programs. Using the theory of planned behavior, the authors examine how students’ intention is shaped to increase the likelihood of participation in entrepreneurship co-curricular programs. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the relation between entrepreneurial identity and entrepreneurial intention theory. They find the popular personality trait, openness, is related to ambition, which reveals the interaction between personal elements (personality/identity) and contextual elements (aspirations to success/intention), a novel finding in the literature. This further illustrates the interconnectedness between the theory of planned behavior and the entrepreneurial event model     

Financing, Regulatory Costs and Entrepreneurial Propensity

In this paper, we compared the availability of different types of financing sources to address the issue of capital availability to entrepreneurial propensity and we scrutinise the influence of business costs by utilising a new composite index using data from the World Bank’s Doing Business Database. The availability of three types of financing sources was analysed: traditional debt financing, venture capital financing, and informal investments. The study’s findings show that only informal investments have statistically significant influence on entrepreneurial propensity. Regulatory business costs were found to deter opportunity driven entrepreneurship, but had no impact on necessity entrepreneurship. Final version accepted on October 2006.     

The influence of sustainability orientation on entrepreneurial intentions — Investigating the role of business experience

Do individuals who are concerned by issues of sustainability also exhibit stronger entrepreneurial intentions? Given that existing imperfections in the market create numerous opportunities for entrepreneurship connected with sustainable development, adding individual sustainability orientation to models of entrepreneurial intention could increase their explanatory power. Based on survey data collected from engineering and business students and alumni of three universities, we provide evidence that entering sustainability orientation into the equation is actually meaningful. However, our findings suggest that the positive impact of sustainability orientation vanishes with business experience. Consequently, we suggest measures to nourish an evidently existing potential for sustainable entrepreneurship.     

Regulative institutions supporting entrepreneurship in emerging economies: A comparison of China and India

China and India are touted as new entrepreneurship powerhouses. The two countries’ different institutional history and characteristics have led to differences in environments related to entrepreneurship. There are some well-founded rationales as well as a number of misinformed and ill-guided viewpoints about the friendliness of the environment to support entrepreneurship in each country as well as the China–India differences concerning entrepreneurial environment. This article contributes to this debate by offering theoretical and empirical evidence regarding the differences in regulative institutions in the two economies. Specifically, we compare the state’s regulative, participative, and supportive roles from the standpoint of entrepreneurship in the two countries.     

A theory of serial entrepreneurship

The contribution of serial entrepreneurs to entrepreneurial activity is significant: in Europe, 18–30% of entrepreneurs are serial; in the US, their contribution is about one-eighth. Yet, theories of entrepreneurship and industry dynamics presume that all firms are launched by novice entrepreneurs and firm failure is synonymous with exit from entrepreneurship. We propose a theory of serial entrepreneurship in which an entrepreneur has three occupational choices: maintain his business in operation, shut it down to enter the labor market to earn an exogenous wage, or shut it down to launch a new venture while incurring a serial startup cost. In equilibrium, a high-skill entrepreneur shuts down a business of low quality to become a serial entrepreneur, launching and subsequently closing firms until a high quality business is found; a low-skill entrepreneur shuts down a business of low quality to enter the labor market, never to become a serial entrepreneur. A decrease in the wage or serial startup cost, or an increase in the startup capital, enhances the contribution of serial entrepreneurs to entrepreneurial activity and promotes new firm formation (by increasing entrepreneurship and the number of new firms that survive), but its effect on the exit rate of new firms is ambiguous. We show the model is consistent with evidence relating to the impact of an entrepreneur’s characteristics and prior experience in entrepreneurship on the survival of his firm and his entry into and survival in entrepreneurship.     

An Essay on the Origins of Entrepreneurial Opportunity

In this article, we apply a process of logical inference to draw conclusions about the origins of entrepreneurial opportunity from existing conversations in the field of strategic management. We equate the execution of a competitive strategy – as described in the strategic management literature – to the exploitation of an entrepreneurial opportunity – as described in the entrepreneurship literature. Given this assumption, we survey five extant theories of strategy in an attempt to categorize and describe the circumstances that define how and with what consequence entrepreneurial opportunity exploitation results in future opportunity. Given this review, we characterize the `outcomes’ of strategy execution as a function of the ‹match’ between strategy and environment in an effort to extend and refine Holcombe’s [Holcombe, Randall, 2003, Review of Austrian Economics 16(1), 25–43] position that entrepreneurial opportunity is born of prior entrepreneurial action.

‘Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.’ Ovid, A.D. 17

     

大学生创业瓶颈分析与对策研究——以江苏镇江大学生创业为例

大学生创业是促进大学生就业的重要途径。文章以江苏镇江的大学生创业为研究对象,在查阅文献和问卷调查的基础上,从社会、高校、个人三个层面分析制约大学生创业的瓶颈,创业瓶颈是由创业环境、创业教育、创业意识三个方面的原因造成的。要解决大学生创业瓶颈问题,就必须采取提升城市总体经济实力、完善创业保障机制、加强对大学生创业意愿培养。     

Entrepreneurship as a twenty-first century skill: entrepreneurial alertness and intention in the transition to adulthood

Given the importance of entrepreneurial thinking and acting as a meta-skill in the future world of work, we focus on the emerging entrepreneurial mind-set in the transition to adulthood. We study the role of personality characteristics and age-appropriate entrepreneurial competencies (leadership, self-esteem, creativity, and proactivity motivation) in the prediction of entrepreneurial alertness and career intention. Using two-wave longitudinal data from high schools in Helsinki, Finland (N = 523), we tested a mediation model with competencies as mediators between personality and entrepreneurial alertness and intention. The findings suggest that entrepreneurial alertness and career intention (a) are rather independent career development constructs of the emerging entrepreneurial mind-set, (b) are both an expression of an entrepreneurial personality structure, and (c) are predicted by different underlying competencies: leadership and self-esteem mediated the personality—entrepreneurial intention link, and leadership, creativity, and proactivity motivation the personality—entrepreneurial alertness link. Consistent with the balanced skill approach to entrepreneurship, the intraindividual variety of these competencies was also a valid mediator; it did not show incremental predictive power though. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Linking international entrepreneurship to uncertainty,opportunity discovery,and cognition

In this paper, we suggest a model of international entrepreneurship that links cognition, noticing opportunities, absorbing uncertainty, and bearing uncertainty, to international entrepreneurial action, which is important because of the increased interest in international entrepreneurship. The ways in which cognition affects opportunity identification are discussed to show how international entrepreneurs’ cognitive processes work in terms of identifying opportunities. We also explore the role of cultural differences, with respect to tolerance for bearing uncertainty, on international entrepreneurship. Finally, the model is used to identify areas for future international entrepreneurship research.     

Serial entrepreneurship: impact of human capital on time to re-entry

This study uses a longitudinal matched employer–employee database to examine how ex-entrepreneurs’ levels of general and specific human capital influence their likelihood of re-entering entrepreneurship over time, in a different firm, thereby becoming serial entrepreneurs. The results reveal a negative effect of general human capital on the hazard of becoming a serial entrepreneur; the impact of entrepreneurial-specific human capital on the hazard of re-entering entrepreneurship is in general positive. This research provides a dynamic approach to serial entrepreneurship revealing that specific types of human capital play distinct roles on individuals’ entrepreneurial behavior.     

Making decision with an alternative mind-set: Predicting entrepreneurial intention toward f-commerce in a cross-country context

Facebook commerce (f-commerce) is a relatively new online entrepreneurial initiative that employs Facebook as an electronic space to promote and implement commercial trades. Available empirical research on f-commerce indicates that research on factors affecting entrepreneurial intention toward f-commerce is sparse. Grounded on the theory of bounded rationality, this paper investigates the drivers of f-commerce entrepreneurial intention of young generation on a cross-nationality basis. Data were gathered from the young pool of senior university students from three countries through self-administered questionnaire. The data were analyzed utilizing PLS-SEM. Findings indicate that all of the predictors appear to be robust in predicting f-commerce entrepreneurial intention of the young adults of all three countries. These outcomes will help potential young entrepreneurs in selecting f-commerce entrepreneurship as an option for their future career.     

“I know I can,but I don't fit”: Perceived fit,self-efficacy,and entrepreneurial intention

While extant literature generally suggests a positive relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention, several moderators have been identified – suggesting possible boundary conditions on that relationship. This paper introduces perceived person-entrepreneurship fit to entrepreneurship and shows that it moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention. Three studies are conducted which illuminate the utility of randomized experiments and methodological approaches to address limitations in the interpretation of empirical results. Studies 1 and 2 are randomized experiments to examine causality; Study 3 contains two correlational surveys to triangulate the results by examining whether the proposed effects withstand the influence of confounding variables in real-life. The findings indicate that when a strong perception of fit with entrepreneurship is achieved, entrepreneurial intention is strongly predicted by entrepreneurial self-efficacy. In contrast, if one perceives a low level of fit or no fit, entrepreneurial intention will be low, regardless of entrepreneurial self-efficacy.