“Do incentives matter to promote high technology-driven entrepreneurial activity?”

A productive human capital is a necessary but not sufficient condition for regional economic growth. An additional condition is the adequate allocation of talented people in innovative entrepreneurial activities, which according to previous literature have a higher social value than traditional ones. Using a large and representative sample of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) located in the Basque Autonomous Community (Spain), we empirically analyze, separately in manufacture and services, whether individual incentives and market conditions are aligned in such a way that the talent is properly allocated in innovative entrepreneurial activities. Through a novel use of existing empirical methods we find that (i) entrepreneurs operating in high-tech sectors have, on average, more entrepreneurial talent and private returns than their counterparts; and that (ii) entrepreneurial talent and private returns are positively and significantly correlated. These novel insights suggest that private and social incentives are adequately aligned.     

Entrepreneurial motivation

Recent research on entrepreneurship has focused largely on macrolevel environmental forces [Aldrich, H. (2000). Organizations evolving. Beverly Hills: Sage] and the characteristics of entrepreneurial opportunities [Christiansen, C. (1997). The innovators dilemma. Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press]. Although researchers adopting this focus have rightly criticized much of the existing empirical research on the role of human motivation in entrepreneurship [Aldrich, H., & Zimmer, C. (1986). Entrepreneurship through social networks. In D. Sexton & R. Smilor (Eds.), The art and science of entrepreneurship (pp. 3–23). Cambridge, MA: Ballinger; Adm. Sci. Q. 32 (1987) 570], we believe that the development of entrepreneurship theory requires consideration of the motivations of people making entrepreneurial decisions. To provide a road map for researchers interested in this area, we discuss the major motivations that prior researchers have suggested should influence the entrepreneurial process, as well as suggest some motivations that are less commonly studied in this area. In addition to outlining the major reasons for exploring these motivations, we identify the major weaknesses that have limited the predictive power of previous research on this topic. We offer explicit solutions for future research to adopt to overcome these problems.     

Special issue on “The role of networks in entrepreneurial performance: new answers to old questions?”

The nature and extent of relationships between entrepreneurial networks and entrepreneurial performance are old questions. Scholars have explored the nature of entrepreneurial networks and have focused on their relationship with, and effects on, performance, which is viewed in this special issue in terms of the strategic development of established businesses and new ventures. However, while much is now known about the origins and effects of social networks there continues to a paucity of research on how social networks are used in various organizations, and when one or more networks are drawn upon for what specific purpose. Each article in this special issue addresses one or more of these questions in a range of industries and environments, namely poor village entrepreneurs who have to work in a highly challenging financial and social environment in Bangladesh, “early internationalizing small firms” in South Africa, high technology “early-stage ventures” in Hong Kong, 3-D technology ventures that operate with an “open” business model, and the “multi-rational” nature of networks in family businesses in and beyond the UK. In all, this collection of papers comprises a body of scholarship with fine-grained studies on how and when specific social networks are drawn on in various forms of organization. The subsequent discussion of these issues extends knowledge of the various ways in which entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial businesses advance their interests by leveraging familiar business and social networks.     

Evaluating the impact of prior experience in entrepreneurial intention

Although entrepreneurial behavior is proposed as part of the solution to fragile labor markets, in particular in periods of economic and social change, policy makers are struggling to find the right levers to promote it. Despite the extant prior research on entrepreneurial behavior, little is known on the entrepreneurial behavior drivers for the individuals of working age with experience. Prior research explores the influence of entrepreneurial knowledge to study the drivers of experienced individuals evaluating whether or not to engage in an entrepreneurial behavior. This research introduces entrepreneurial knowledge to study the impact of prior experience on entrepreneurial intention. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this research work analyzes the relationship between entrepreneurial knowledge and entrepreneurial intention, and the mediating effects of the TPB perceptual variables: personal attitude (PA), social norm (SN), and perceived behavioral-control (PBC). A structural equation model (SEM) has been used to analyze the responses of a sample of 431 experienced individuals of working-age that completed a questionnaire based on Liñan & Chen’s, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 593–618, (2009) Entrepreneurial Intention Questionnaire (EIQ). The results showed that entrepreneurial knowledge positively influences entrepreneurial intention and that this influence is mediated by the perceptual variables of the TPB model (PA, SN, PBC). These findings contribute to the understanding of the entrepreneurial intention for experienced individuals and consolidate the use of the TPB model to study individual entrepreneurial intention. The findings suggest that policy makers should pay more attention to individual entrepreneurial knowledge, and strengthen the attractiveness of an entrepreneurial career, if they are interested in fostering entrepreneurial behavior among individuals of working age with experience.     

Entrepreneurial learning from observing role models

Abstract

This study examines entrepreneurial learning through the observation of role models. Adopting an interpretive and inductive approach, and using biographical interviews and life course techniques, the article examines how sixteen entrepreneurs articulate their entrepreneurial learning from role models. The overarching research question ‘How do entrepreneurs learn from observing role models?’ enables illustrating who the role models are (parents, teachers, colleagues, other entrepreneurs), the relevant social contexts (home, education, workplace) and what is learned in relation to entrepreneurial learning tasks (learning about oneself, managing relationships, the business and small business management). The study contributes to developing the social perspectives of entrepreneurial learning by demonstrating the significance of learning from role models in different social contexts and at distinct entrepreneurial stages pre- and post-start-up.     

Old flames never die – the role of binding social ties for corporate entrepreneurship in family firms

This paper investigates the role of social ties and family embeddedness for corporate entrepreneurship in family firms. Family firms are mostly characterized by close and often inseparable ties between the dominant family coalition and the firm and offer specific resources within a context of both rational as well as non-rational factors that influence entrepreneurial strategies. We empirically test (n =?181) the relationship between binding social ties and innovation, strategic renewal, and corporate venturing. Our findings indicate a strong significance for networks and close and stable relationships both to inside the firm and the outside in decision making for corporate venturing and innovation. In contrast, the results for strategic renewal show no relevance of strong social ties. We link up with the debate on the role of owners as an important stakeholder group.

     

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.

     

Do social enterprises attract workers who are more pro-socially motivated than their counterparts in for-profit organizations to perform low-skilled jobs?

Abstract

The literature highlights that social enterprises (SEs) attract workers who are motivated to help others and to meet the social aims in which they believe. However, this assumption is challenged in the case of low-skilled jobs. Therefore, we have performed an empirical study in the quasi-market of service vouchers in Belgium to know if SEs attract workers who have a different motivational profile than their counterparts in for-profit organizations (FPOs) to perform low skilled jobs (N = 217). No significant differences were found. Next, we have compared FPOs with two types of social enterprises, Home Care Services Organizations (HCSOs) and Work Integration Social enterprises (WISEs), and again no significant differences were found for the whole sample. However, it seems that a selection effect exists in WISEs when the sample is reduced to people who were not previously unemployed. In others words, when WISEs deviate from their initial mission of ‘hiring the most vulnerable people on the labor market’, it is only to hire workers whose are highly motivated to achieve the organization’s mission and who fit with the values defended by the organization.     

Entrepreneurial migrants from/in emerging economies: breaking taboos and stereotypes

Entrepreneurial migration from/in emerging economies, as grand societal and humanitarian challenges that we currently face, underscores the need for scholarly research. In our role as social science researchers, this special issue aimed to stimulate scholars from different social science fields to rethink more broadly about the opportunities for making an impact with our research focus on entrepreneurial migration from/in emerging economies. This article provides an overview of the theoretical, empirical, managerial, and policy implications of entrepreneurial migrants from/in emerging economies research. It puts forward key concepts and measures, explores the relations within the current broader literature on migration and entrepreneurship, and identifies several gaps that represent future research questions. We also introduce eight papers in a special section of this issue, which offer answers to critical gaps and questioning some taboos/stereotypes related entrepreneurial migrants. We conclude by outlining an agenda for engaging the academic community to extend research on entrepreneurial migrants from/in emerging economies. It is the perfect time to “make a difference” through our research, teaching, and interaction with multiple socioeconomic agents to constitute impacts that “endorse a real transformation” for supporting the migrants’ community.

     

Sharing my way to success: A case study on developing entrepreneurial ventures using social capital in an OSS community

While Open Source Software (OSS) communities provide opportunities for knowledge creation, we have a limited understanding of how entrepreneurs leverage OSS communities for their entrepreneurial ventures. Using social capital theory in a mixed methods case study, we compare entrepreneur and non-entrepreneur behaviors to investigate how entrepreneurs build social capital within an OSS community. This study shows that entrepreneurs differentiate themselves from non-entrepreneurs by focusing on cognitive and relational capital building activities, which in return makes it possible for them to leverage their social capital to influence and shape the environment in which they are operating. Our findings suggest that entrepreneurs strategically select which activities within the community to expend their limited resources on (e.g., developing code over participating in email conversations) and build their social capital more through their actions than through their words (e.g., showing their commitment to the community through code commits, bug fixes, and documentation). Given the liabilities of newness and smallness as well as other challenges faced by entrepreneurs, applying an open innovation strategy in OSS communities could be one approach where entrepreneurs, by developing and freely revealing their intellectual property to the community, share their way to success via OSS-infused entrepreneurial business ventures.     

Who am I? The influence of social identification on academic entrepreneurs’ role conflict

Academic entrepreneurs are the key actors in academic entrepreneurship. However, the individual level of research on academic entrepreneurship remains undeveloped. To better understand the micro foundation of academic entrepreneurship, we investigate the influence of social identification on academic entrepreneurs’ role conflict. Using data from 246 academic entrepreneurs, we explore the effects of scholarly identification, entrepreneurial identification, and social identity continuity on academic entrepreneurs’ role conflict. The results suggest that, entrepreneurial identification and social identify continuity are both negative related to identify conflict, while a scholarly identification is positively related to role conflict. In addition, the interaction of scholarly identification and entrepreneurial identification is negatively associated with role conflict. We also investigate the performance implications of such a role conflict and show that it is negatively related to academic entrepreneurship performance. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

     

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.

     

Unveiling the role of entrepreneurial knowledge and cognition as antecedents of entrepreneurial intention: a meta-analytic study

Although entrepreneurial intention has been regarded as one of the most important drivers of creativity, innovation, and performance in firms, a comprehensive framework that integrates the relevant influential factors has yet to be developed. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior and the social cognitive career theory, this study investigates the critical antecedents, mediators, and moderators of entrepreneurial intention. A meta-analytic approach is employed to validate the proposed hypotheses, and 89 primary studies with a total sample size of 51,919 are analyzed. The results indicate the existence of differences in the manner in which entrepreneurial knowledge influences cognitive antecedents in the individuals who participate in new ventures. Furthermore, personal attitude and self-efficacy play a vital role in predicting entrepreneurial intention. Demographic characteristics (such as age, gender, and education background) significantly moderate the relationship between cognitive antecedents and entrepreneurial intention, indicating that men tend to adopt more entrepreneurial behaviors than women, that older individuals with more positive attitudes have a higher propensity to start ventures than younger ones, and that those with higher education attainment tend to have lower self-employment. These findings offer several recommendations. They could provide valuable references for further academic work, which should aim to extend and validate them. The findings are also very beneficial for professional experts tasked with the design of effective programs for enhancing entrepreneurial behavior.

     

Examining the influence of servant and entrepreneurial leadership on the work outcomes of employees in social enterprises

Abstract

The present study examines the relative influence of two distinct leadership styles, servant leadership and entrepreneurial leadership, on the organizational commitment and innovative behavior of employees working in social enterprises. Analyzing data from 169 employees and 42 social entrepreneurs, we found that, although servant leadership was positively related to followers’ organizational commitment, the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and organizational commitment was insignificant. In contrast, whilst we found evidence that entrepreneurial leadership was positively related to followers’ innovative behavior, the relationship between servant leadership and employees’ innovative behavior was insignificant. Our research contributes to the underdeveloped literature on leadership in social enterprises by exploring the relative effectiveness of different leadership styles (namely an entrepreneurial leadership style and a servant leadership style) in promoting follower work attitudes and behaviors in social enterprises. In addition, our research demonstrates the importance of leadership over and above followers’ individual differences such as pro-social motivation and creative self-efficacy.     

Disassembling the influences of perceived family relational conflict on business family offspring’s intrapreneurial intentions

Entrepreneurial business family offspring are key figures in helping family businesses achieve transgenerational entrepreneurship. However, a global survey reveals that entrepreneurial offspring avoid the family business when conducting entrepreneurial activities. Our study makes the first effort to explore what reduces business family offspring’s intrapreneurial intentions in the family business context. Applying a mixed-method approach, we conduct 18 explorative interviews, a pretest of 124 Chinese business family offspring, and a formal survey of 131 Chinese business family offspring approaching their career decision point. We realize that growing up in family businesses often exposes offspring to two types of perceived family relational conflicts that their parents’ entrepreneurial endeavors incur, which we define as “big-family” and “parent-offspring” relational conflicts. Our empirical results suggest that the relationship between perceived family (i.e., parent-offspring and big-family) relational conflict and family business intrapreneurial intentions were serially mediated by family relational outcome expectation and family relational self-efficacy. Contributions to family business research and social cognitive career theory are discussed.

     

Entrepreneurial index for low-income households in Malaysia

Even though development organizations provide access to working capital and enterprise development training, they often fail to improve the socio-economic condition of low-income households. One of the factors contributing to the failure of development programs is their lack of capacity to measure the entrepreneurial potentials among the low-income participants. This study focused on the development of an entrepreneurial index that measures the entrepreneurial potentials among low-income households. Adopting a cross-sectional design, a total of 403 micro-entrepreneurs were approached from the list provided by ‘Majlis Amanah Rakyat’ and ‘Majlis Agama Islam Dan Adat Istiadat’, Kelantan. This study used formative hierarchial model to determine the local and global weights for all the items used to develop the index. Further, the nomological validity revealed a positive effect of entrepreneurial index on entrepreneurial competency, enterprise performance, and enterprise sustainability.     

Do environmental regulations hamper small enterprises' market entry? Evidence from China

Due to the serious increase of environmental pollution in China, environmental regulations have become significantly stringent. Such regulations are playing an increasingly important role in the development of small enterprises (SEs) in China, especially in SEs' market entry. However, existing studies pay little attention to this issue. This paper investigates for the first time the effect of environmental regulations on SEs' market entry and the mechanism of environmental regulation effects in China. We consider two sets of panel data for the periods 2003–2010 and 2012–2015 in China. We also use the fixed effect model and the instrumental variable method to explore the role of environmental regulations in SEs' market entry. The results show that, overall, environmental regulations play a significantly positive and robust role in SEs' market entry. However, the mechanisms associated with the effect of environmental regulations on different innovative types of SEs differ. Environmental regulations promote the market entry of SEs with product innovation, but this impact is not significant for SEs with research and development (R&D) activities and R&D institutions. Our findings indicate that China's SEs prefer product innovation, which is a lower level innovative type, over R&D innovation, as a means to avoid the negative impact of stringent environmental regulations.     

Gendered cognitions: a socio-cognitive model of how gender affects entrepreneurial preferences

ABSTRACT

This research explores the social-cognitive factors which lead both women and men to pursue ventures consistent with their gendered social identity, therefore, reinforcing the gender gap in entrepreneurship. We measured the self-assessments of individuals presented with experimentally manipulated entrepreneurial opportunities that were either consistent or inconsistent with their self-reported gender. A theoretical model derived from Social Role Theory is presented and tested. It posits that a gender match (mismatch) with the entrepreneurial opportunity results in higher (lower) reported self-efficacy, anticipated social resources, and venture desirability and lower (higher) venture risk perceptions. The experimental data are tested in a sequential mediation SEM model. We find evidence that self-efficacy and anticipated social resources mediate the effect of gender congruency on perceived risk and venture desirability. The results provide insight into the insidious barriers that play a role in reproducing a gender gap in entrepreneurial outcomes by ‘nudging’ women into lower-return ventures in less lucrative industries.     

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.