Recent developments in the economics of entrepreneurship

This paper serves as an introduction to the special issue of JBV on the economics of entrepreneurship. Since the beginning of the 18th century, economics has recognized the importance of entrepreneurship at both the microeconomic and macroeconomic levels. This paper reviews recent developments in the economics of entrepreneurship, discusses the principles behind the emergence of a new heterodoxy in economics, and how these new principles provide fertile grounds to further our understanding of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behavior. Finally, the paper reviews the contributions included in this special issue and puts them in the context of recent developments in entrepreneurship research.     

High‐Growth Women’s Entrepreneurship: Fueling Social and Economic Development

High‐growth firms, often referred to as “gazelles,” are equated with entrepreneurial success and celebrated as the key to growing economies, and women’s entrepreneurship is a vehicle of economic and social development. This special issue publishes papers that address the general lack of research on high‐growth women’s entrepreneurship. In this introduction paper, we offer an adapted framework for the factors driving high growth across multiple levels: individual (entrepreneur and entrepreneurial team characteristics), venture (strategy, organizational structures, and systems), resources, location, and environment. We also introduce the papers in this special issue and present an overview of the contributions to this issue.     

International entrepreneurship in universities: Context,emergence and actors

This special issue presents an opportunity to explore the international aspects of academic and university based international entrepreneurship. Over the last decades much research attention has been focused on university spin-off firms (USOs) on issues such as, creation, risk, strategies and performance (see Druilhe and Garnsey, 2004; Link and Scott, 2005; Lockett and Wright, 2005; Walter et al, 2006; Wright et al., 2006). There has been a dearth of studies that have examined the international dimensions and aspects of university-based spin-off firms. The six articles presented in this special issue point towards interesting future research agendas at the interface between academic and international entrepreneurship. Three core themes emerge from this special issue: Context, Emergence and Actors. In sum, this special issue pinpoints: firstly, specific features of universities and research organizations as contexts for international technology entrepreneurship; secondly, the process of organizational emergence and entrepreneurial cognition; and thirdly, insight into learning processes of USOs and the role of non-academic actors. Our article concludes by identifying future avenues of research.     

Immigrant entrepreneurship: Scrutinizing a promising type of business venture

Immigrant entrepreneurship is an important socioeconomic phenomenon today. In major destination countries for immigrants such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, immigrant entrepreneurship plays a critical role in economic development. The economic impact of immigrant entrepreneurship in the host country is well known, but the influence of immigrant entrepreneurship in the host country is not limited to its economic aspects. It includes important noneconomic effects such as the development of vibrant ethnic communities, social integration and recognition of immigrants, a nurturing entrepreneurial spirit, and providing role models for immigrants. From the management perspective, there are many aspects of immigrant entrepreneurship that are still unknown and need to be addressed. The purpose of this special issue is to shed light on some of those aspects. The articles selected to be published in this issue offer an excellent analysis of various important aspects of the topic, including the success factors of immigrant entrepreneurship, the influence of family networks, and the noneconomic effects of immigrant entrepreneurship. We believe the issue breaks new ground and offers excellent information on the topic. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Entrepreneurship, developing countries, and development economics: new approaches and insights

This paper provides an introduction to this special issue of Small Business Economics dealing with the (long-postponed) integration of entrepreneurship into the discipline of development economics and casting a formal light on the role of entrepreneurship in developing countries. The paper departs from the premise that with more than a billion people living in absolute poverty, it is of great practical importance to understand if and when entrepreneurship is a binding constraint on economic development and catching up in developing countries. This in turn requires at least a deeper theoretical modeling of the entrepreneur in development economics. This special edition contains a number of contributions emanating from the UNU-WIDER project on Promoting Entrepreneurial Capacity, which integrates the disciplines of entrepreneurship and development economics. These contributions model and explore the role of the entrepreneur in key areas of concern for development economics, such as structural change and economic growth, income and wealth inequalities, welfare, poverty traps, and market failures. This introduction discusses and contextualizes these various contributions and their implications for further theoretical and empirical work.     

Ethics and entrepreneurship

As the study of entrepreneurship and the study of business ethics become increasingly established, the intersection of entrepreneurship and ethics is receiving increasing scholarly attention. In this paper, we review the research connecting ethics and entrepreneurship, classifying the literature into three broad themes; we also identify and integrate the key themes that emerge, and we offer suggestions for future research. We conclude by introducing the articles in this special issue.     

Entrepreneurship and innovation networks

In this paper, we give a general introduction to the notion of entrepreneurship and how it has many complex meanings. Entrepreneurs in new firms but also in incumbent firms have a key role in local, regional and national economic development by taking risks to get things done by developing new combinations of ideas and/or doing things differently. In view of this, two of the main questions that are dealt with are: (1) which features make structural differences in institutions and innovation networks remain invariant between decades, and (2) how knowledge about such features can be employed in policy at the national and the regional level. The research questions highlighted in this special issue relate to many pertinent national and regional policy issues. The most apparent concerns conditions conducive for entrepreneurship in the form of new firms and firm growth. In this paper, we also introduce the different contributors to this special issue.     

Entrepreneurship and well-being: Past,present, and future

Entrepreneurship research typically emphasizes firm-level outcomes such as growth and performance. However, people pursue entrepreneurship for deeply personal, idiosyncratic reasons. Therefore, as in other self-organized human pursuits, how entrepreneurship relates to fulfillment and well-being is of utmost importance. In this paper, we provide an overview of the well-being concept, related research, and its connection to entrepreneurship. We define entrepreneurial well-being as the experience of satisfaction, positive affect, infrequent negative affect, and psychological functioning in relation to developing, starting, growing, and running an entrepreneurial venture. We explain this definition of entrepreneurial well-being and review significant developments in our field and the broader field of well-being. Highlights of social, technological and institutional trends illustrate key areas for future research that can enhance our understanding of these phenomena. The eight papers in this special issue focus on entrepreneurial well-being each offering a specific perspective on how scholars can theorize and study the antecedents and consequences of entrepreneurship related to well-being.     

Entrepreneurship through a qualitative lens: Insights on the construction and/or discovery of entrepreneurial opportunity

This article applies inductive analytic techniques to identify and elaborate on two recurring themes that underpin the core puzzle of entrepreneurship research — where entrepreneurial opportunities come from. The first theme is the unique role of imprinting, or the profound influence of social and historical context in constraining the perceptual apparatus of entrepreneurs and delimiting the range of opportunities for innovation available to them. Second, our analysis offers insight into the counterbalancing role of reflexivity, operating at both individual and collective levels of analysis, in generating the ability of entrepreneurs to overcome the constraints of imprinting. These insights are based on a thematic review of the nine studies that comprise this special issue on qualitative research. The nine studies, individually and each in their own way, offer key insights into how we might better understand the emergence of entrepreneurial opportunity.     

Franchising and the domain of entrepreneurship research

In this essay, we explore the relationship between franchising and entrepreneurship in general, and their research domains in particular. We begin by categorizing the focus of various representative definitions of entrepreneurship as: (1) traits, (2) processes, or (3) activities, and adopt the view that identifying the unique research domain of entrepreneurship is a more worthwhile endeavor than attempting to reach definitional consensus. We subsequently discuss the differences between entrepreneurship in the manufacturing and retailing contexts, and the particular features of franchising as it relates to the study of retailing entrepreneurship. Specifically, four areas are examined: the franchisor’s role in creating an innovative concept, the franchisee’s role in bringing the franchisor’s concept to new markets, the franchisee’s acceptance of risk, and the special issues surrounding the pervasive practice of multi-unit franchising. We conclude with a brief discussion of the reasons for including the study of franchising, franchisors, and franchisees as integral areas within the distinctive domain of entrepreneurship research, and similarly exhort franchising researchers to explore the implications of their work for the study of entrepreneurship.     

Machines augmenting entrepreneurs: Opportunities (and threats) at the Nexus of artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to machines that are trained to perform tasks associated with human intelligence, interpret external data, learn from that external data, and use that learning to flexibly adapt to tasks to achieve specific outcomes. This paper briefly explains AI and looks into the future to highlight some of AI's broader and longer-term societal implications. We propose that AI can be combined with entrepreneurship to represent a super tool. Scholars can research the nexus of AI and entrepreneurship to explore the possibilities of this potential AI-entrepreneurship super tool and hopefully direct its use to productive processes and outcomes. We focus on specific entrepreneurship topics that benefit from AI's augmentation potential and acknowledge implications for entrepreneurship's dark side. We hope this paper stimulates future research at the AI-entrepreneurship nexus.Executive summaryArtificial intelligence (AI) refers to machines that are trained to perform tasks associated with human intelligence, interpret external data, learn from that external data, and use that learning to flexibly adapt to tasks to achieve specific outcomes. Machine learning is the most common form of AI and largely relies on supervised learning—when the machine (i.e., AI) is trained with labels applied by humans. Deep learning and adversarial learning involve training on unlabeled data, or when the machine (via its algorithms) clusters data to reveal underlying patterns.AI is simply a tool. Entrepreneurship is also simply a tool. How they are combined and used will determine their impact on humanity. While researchers have independently developed a greater understanding of entrepreneurship and AI, these two streams of research have primarily run in parallel. To indicate the scope of current and future AI, we provide examples of AI (at different levels of development) for four sectors—customer service, financial, healthcare, and tertiary education. Indeed, experts from industry research and consulting firms suggest many AI-related business opportunities for entrepreneurs to pursue.Further, we elaborate on several of these opportunities, including opportunities to (1) capitalize on the “feeling economy,” (2) redistribute occupational skills in the economy, (3) develop and use new governance mechanisms, (4) keep humans in the loop (i.e., humans as part of the decision making process), (5) expand the role of humans in developing AI systems, and (6) expand the purposes of AI as a tool. After discussing the range of business opportunities that experts suggest will prevail in the economy with AI, we discuss how entrepreneurs can use AI as a tool to help them increase their chances of entrepreneurial success. We focus on four up-and-coming areas for entrepreneurship research: a more interaction-based perspective of (potential) entrepreneurial opportunities, a more activities-based micro-foundation approach to entrepreneurial action, a more cognitively hot perspective of entrepreneurial decision making and action, and a more compassionate and prosocial role of entrepreneurial action. As we discuss each topic, we also suggest opportunities to design an AI system (i.e., entrepreneurs as potential AI designers) to help entrepreneurs (i.e., entrepreneurs as AI users).AI is an exciting development in the technology world. How it transforms markets and societies depends in large part on entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs can use AI to augment their decisions and actions in pursuing potential opportunities for productive gains. Thus, we discuss entrepreneurs' most critical tasks in developing and managing AI and explore some of the dark-side aspects of AI. Scholars also have a role to play in how entrepreneurs use AI, but this role requires the hard work of theory building, theory elaboration, theory testing, and empirical theorizing. We offer some AI topics that we hope future entrepreneurship research will explore. We hope this paper encourages scholars to consider research at the nexus of AI and entrepreneurship.     

Market imperfections,opportunity and sustainable entrepreneurship

This research develops the argument that four types of market imperfections (i.e., inefficient firms, externalities, flawed pricing mechanisms and information asymmetries) at once contribute to environmental degradation and that they also provide significant opportunities for the creation of radical technologies and innovative business models. We show that these opportunities establish the foundations for an emerging model of sustainable entrepreneurship, one which enables founders to obtain entrepreneurial rents while simultaneously improving local and global social and environmental conditions. To advance this new field, we offer suggestions for a research agenda focusing on two areas: the relationship between market imperfections and entrepreneurial opportunities, and the emerging field of sustainable entrepreneurship.     

Entrepreneurship as a solution to poverty

Individuals living in poverty remain a critical issue. This special issue focuses on how entrepreneurship can help to solve such poverty. Rather than viewing those in poverty as a market for goods, the solution lies in understanding how to help those living in poverty create their own businesses. Ultimately, entrepreneurship among those in poverty will create a long lasting solution to their poverty. Herein, we initially examine the extant knowledge about entrepreneurship. We then examine where future research on this important topic should move. Finally, we introduce the five articles that make up this special issue. These five articles came from the initial 71 submissions and enhance our knowledge about entrepreneurship as a pathway to reducing poverty.     

Institutions,entrepreneurship and co-evolution in international business

A recent and promising trend in international business and international management research has been to consider institutions not only as taken-for-granted constraints that need to be accommodated, but also the outcomes of agency; purposive action by individuals, firms, coalitions and other actors. We elaborate the development of research in this vein, and advocate a more nuanced view of the nexus between agency and institutions of different kinds and residing at various levels of analysis, and the associated co-evolutionary processes. Recent developments from cognate fields – particularly, institutional entrepreneurship and institutional work – offer a theoretical foundation for further insights into the nexus of institutions, agency and co-evolution. We discuss the papers that appear in this special issue and how they further develop and expand our understanding of institutions, agency and co-evolution, and conclude with questions and directions for future research.     

Resource interaction in inter-organizational networks: Introduction to the special issue

This article introduces the special issue of Journal of Business Research on the topic of resource interaction in inter-organizational networks. Both networks and resources receive considerable attention in the field of business studies. As companies specialize further and rely on cooperative agreements with external parties, the importance of networks is gaining increasing recognition. Resources are typically a key factor for identifying a company's competencies, or its sources of growth, profitability, and sustained competitive advantage. This special issue takes a novel approach by directing attention toward the processes of interaction in which companies combine and recombine resources at the network level. This approach provides new insights into the development, production, exchange, and use of resources. The introductory article also reviews the 13 articles in this special issue and concludes by discussing their contributions to the fields of marketing, innovation, entrepreneurship, and logistics.     

Introduction to special issue of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Small Business Economics</Emphasis> on female entrepreneurship in developed and developing economies

Research into entrepreneurship has for many years been interested in the differences in rate of participation and performance by female entrepreneurs. The motivation for considering female entrepreneurship in both developing and developed countries arises from our increasing understanding of the significance of the role of women in creating, running and growing businesses as a fundamental driver for economic growth. This special issue examines the reasons for differences in gender participation across levels of development using empirical studies.     

Start-up incentives: Entrepreneurship policy or active labour market programme?

As several European governments develop new start-up programmes during recessions, the appropriateness of these policies recently has become a hot policy issue. This study suggests that the contribution of these incentives is dubious, if aimed to combat economic and jobs crises as part of the entrepreneurship policy, and can be shaped by various country-specific factors, such as the economic situation and the stringency of labour laws. To provide support for these claims, this paper investigates the underlying determinants of an individual's decision to switch from unemployment to self-employment in Europe and stresses the need to devote special attention to the role of three essential dimensions: (i) the existing heterogeneity within self-employment, by considering self-employed individuals who hire employees (employers) and self-employed individuals without personnel (own-account workers) as separated groups; (ii) the effects of different measures of social capital and network contacts, as forms of micro level institutional factors; and (iii) the explanatory power of cross-country differences in the state of the economy, expenditure on start-up incentives, and the stringency of labour laws, as forms of macro level institutional factors. This study has useful theory and policy implications for entrepreneurship development.     

Potential benefits of the cognitive perspective: expanding entrepreneurship's array of conceptual tools

Entrepreneurship is a highly complex process influenced by an enormous range of variables. In view of these facts, it seems reasonable to suggest that entrepreneurship, as a field, can benefit greatly from expanding the array of conceptual tools at its disposal. The cognitive perspective provides a potentially rich source of such tools. Consistent with this reasoning, the papers in this special issue focus on concepts, theories, and findings in cognitive science that have not yet been “imported” by entrepreneurship researchers, but which may prove helpful in enhancing our basic understanding of the entrepreneurial process.     

Entrepreneurial activity and regional competitiveness: an introduction to the special issue

An important goal of this special issue is to gain a better understanding of the linkage between the entrepreneurial activity of a region and its level of competitiveness. Comparative studies across countries abound in the literature, but much still remains to be investigated on the role played by entrepreneurship in transforming local economies. The set of papers included in this special issue aims to fill this conceptual and empirical gap. In general, besides acknowledging the existence of a bi-directional relationship between entrepreneurship and regional competitiveness, the papers shed some light on the endogenous process of wealth creation in local economies.