The booster function and the entrepreneurial quality: an application to the province of Seville

The objectives of this paper are two-fold. First, to elaborate a theoretical model that shows the characteristics of an entrepreneur of quality and the factors that influence them. Second, to apply the model to entrepreneurs in the province of Seville, one of the least developed areas in the European Union. The purpose is to show the importance of entrepreneurship for business success and, more importantly, in economic development. In summary, the model shows that entrepreneurs of quality possess an intrinsic motivation and, as consequence of this, they adopt some energizer behaviours, such as the capacity for innovation, ambition and co-operation with others. The model also takes into account factors that influence these characteristics, including the personal context of the entrepreneur, such as experience, education and family, and the global context, such as productive opportunities, socio-cultural factors and political-institutional factors. In the analysis of the entrepreneurs of Seville, the paper mainly focuses on the motivation and the energizer behaviours and their interdependence. The empirical findings indicate that the model is valid.     

Spatial co-localisation of firms and entrepreneurial dynamics

In this conceptual paper, I propose an interpretation of business dynamics in terms of the spatial co-localisation of firms—considered as an intelligent cognitive system—in a circumscribed area in order to form clusters of various types. I interpret clustering by adopting the methodology of multi-agent combinatory systems: that is, systems formed by collectivities of agents (firms) in which an internal feedback recombines the micro behaviours of the agents (localisation) in order to produce a macro effect (cluster) which, in turn, modifies the attractiveness of the area and conditions the subsequent localisations. I also present the idea that if a cluster has fitness advantages for new firms, then usually new entrepreneurs are formed within it and the cluster widens, due to the endogenous genesis of new firms.     

一心创业,一路坚持:青年创业者创业韧性影响因素的扎根研究

近年来,国家不断部署深入推进"大众创业、万众创新",重点支持高校毕业生等青年群体就业创业。然而,创业是一项高风险活动,我国青年创业平均成功率仅有约2%。创业韧性有助于青年创业者在创业过程中应对各种困难和挑战,从而获取创业成功。尽管如此,"青年创业者的创业韧性如何产生,受哪些因素影响,其形成机理是什么"这一问题还少有考察。本研究以我国青年创业的主力军大学生创业者为研究对象,运用扎根理论方法 ,通过对30个青年创业大学生的深度访谈,构建出"重大事件激活—动机形成—动态能力形成"的理论模型,包括重大事件等13个子范畴以及创业期望的形成等7个主范畴,并运用事件系统理论、自我差异理论、社会转型理论和场理论分析形成此模式的深层次原因。在此基础上探讨促使其增强创业韧性行为的外部干预措施,研究结论对发展创新创业教育的理论和实践都有一定的促进作用。     

Developing an entrepreneurial typology: the roles of entrepreneurial alertness and attributional style

This study develops an entrepreneurial typology employing two dimensions, high versus low entrepreneurial alertness and internal versus external attributional styles that helps illustrate why entrepreneurs start new businesses. The resulting 2 × 2 typology of entrepreneurs identifies four entrepreneur types based on these two dimensions: the true believer, clueless, practical, and reluctant. Using a representative sample of 315 nascent entrepreneurs from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, we found that some types differed across three key entrepreneurial characteristics, need for achievement, risk-taking propensity, and commitment, thereby providing some preliminary empirical support for the typology’s validity. We conclude by discussing future research avenues.     

Enhancing female entrepreneurship by enabling access to skills

Literature reveals the need for entrepreneurship training programmes that focus on the skills required by female entrepreneurs. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Women Entrepreneurship Programme (WEP) as an initiative to provide entrepreneurial and business skills to female entrepreneurs. An experimental group of 116 women attended this training intervention whereas 64 women formed the control group who did not attend the WEP. The findings highlight that through the WEP the experimental group gained new skills and knowledge relevant to running a business; increased their confidence in their entrepreneurial abilities; and used these skills to start new ventures.     

Entrepreneurial talent and economic development in China

In this paper, we argue that the economic miracle of China in the past three decades can be attributed to the reallocation of entrepreneurial talent from the government/state and agricultural sectors to business activities. This change is unprecedented in the past two thousand years of Chinese history. When entrepreneurial talent was moved more to business activities, it created wealth, and the economy boomed. Three dominant groups of entrepreneurs are identified: (1) Peasants-turned entrepreneurs, (2) officials-turned entrepreneurs, and (3) overseas-returned, and engineers-turned, entrepreneurs. They have emerged sequentially, and successively led three decades of economic growth. The success of the Chinese economy arises from a gradual replacement of position-based rights with property-based rights that has triggered this reallocation of entrepreneurial talent. We also argue that when position-based and property-based rights coexist, value-creating and rent-seeking can be complementary. Therefore, one should not be puzzled by the coexistence of rapid economic growth and pervasive corruption in China. In order to improve the efficiency of allocation of entrepreneurial talent and efforts, it is important to further reduce the domain of position-based rights, and build a better-defined and more effectively-protected property rights system.     

Bricolage in the urban cultural sector: the case of Bradford city of film

Abstract

This article discusses bricolage in the context of a social enterprise for urban development. It focuses on the case of BDK Limited, and discusses how this organisation contributes to the economic and social development of the British city of Bradford by promoting city-wide film-based cultural consumption and cultural pride. This research used semi-structured interviews, participant observation and documentary analysis to examine this organisation’s different modes of material and ideational bricolage. The entrepreneurs serve as material bricoleurs as they transform the residuals of the city’s industrial past from materials of no use and reminders of backwardness to sites for cultural consumption. This paper also identifies patterns of ideational bricolage. In Bradford, ethnic diversity has long been discursively associated with conflicts and backwardness by local businesses, potential investors, the media and even urban social entrepreneurs themselves. However, in this case study, diversity is re-perceived as a cultural asset for urban tourism and related industries.     

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.     

Collectively created opportunities in emerging ecosystems: The case of solar service ventures

This study suggests that in the entrepreneurial communities of emerging industries, individual entrepreneurs may simultaneously create opportunities that spill over to others and discover opportunities already created by others. Extant opportunity literature, focused on single actors and their personal networks or on the information function of market prices, is largely mute on the role of opportunities in value networks with distributed entrepreneurial efforts. Ecosystem theory, a literature stream that seldom intersects opportunity literature, contributes with a conceptual framework to study the question. The paper seeks to shed light on how opportunities are created or discovered by new ventures as they are involved in the interlinked endeavor of forming a new ecosystem.The study examines five case studies of US ventures in the early phase of the solar service industry, an industry in which entrepreneurs offer customers access to solar panels as a service rather than as a product. These ventures inadvertently created an industry ecosystem together, as they could not protect the value created by their business partners׳ new knowledge, or by the emerging social webs between partners. They shaped opportunities together, passing value back and forth amongst themselves. This paper offers fundamental observations on how opportunity creation and discovery is distributed among a community of entrepreneurs as a business ecosystem grows.     

产业集群创业人才素质模型构建

借鉴相关研究成果,结合对产业集群创业人才素质的理论分析,并基于"资本"的视角构建了由心理资本、关系资本和能力资本三个维度组成的产业集群创业人才素质模型。在此基础上,为验证模型的科学性,设计产业集群创业人才素质调查问卷,运用SPSS和LISREL软件对问卷调查数据进行验证性因子分析,因子分析结果支持产业集群创业人才素质模型的理论建构,并显示该模型具有较高的拟合度和稳定性。     

Optimal R&D investment for a risk-averse entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs investing in R&D projects face technical uncertainty associated with the cost to completion of the project, which is idiosyncratic and inherently unhedgeable. We extend existing real options models of R&D investment to incorporate the cost of bearing this unhedgeable risk and find it decreases risk-averse entrepreneurs’ valuations of R&D projects and increases the minimum NPVs required for continued investment in R&D (threshold NPVs) relative to ‘unpriced risk’ values and threshold NPVs. As in the ‘unpriced risk’ case, for less risk-averse entrepreneurs with small R&D projects, threshold NPVs remain negative and decrease with technical uncertainty. However, for sufficiently risk-averse entrepreneurs with sufficiently large R&D projects, threshold NPVs can become positive and increase with technical uncertainty.     

Academic Entrepreneurial Behavior: Birds of more than one feather

While Entrepreneurial behavior involves starting and running a new venture (Gartner, 1988), it seems that Academic entrepreneurial behavior (AEB) is somewhat unique as it extends beyond a focus on startups to include both commercial and non-commercial activities (Abreu and Grinevichb, 2013). Additionally, AEB is influenced by both financial and non-financial rewards (Lam, 2010). Despite these differences, studies of AEB have typically focused primarily on academics who have participated (or intend to participate) in a university spinout, as if all academic entrepreneurs are birds of the same feather. Expanding the unit of analysis to also include academics not participating in commercial activities could provide insights for the development of AEB. An in-depth qualitative analysis of 30 life science academics in Australia indicates the presence of four distinctive categories of AEB: non-entrepreneurial, semi-entrepreneurial, pre-entrepreneurial and entrepreneurial. More interestingly, the same academic can exhibit different AEB in relation to different research project(s) and depending on the available support mechanisms (particularly financial). Our findings suggest that AEB is not necessarily driven by opportunity recognition, and research on the topic must consider other factors beyond the individual academic, such as the project and funding mechanisms.     

The importance of surrogate entrepreneurship for incubated Swedish technology ventures

Universities and incubators that are more experienced in venture creation have been found to appoint surrogate entrepreneurs as one way to improve entrepreneurial team formation. However, it is not known how such intervention into the core of a venture affects performance. This article investigates the impact of surrogate entrepreneurs on technology ventures stemming from leading Swedish university incubators. From a total of 170 ventures incorporated 1995–2005, belonging to 16 incubators, 59 ventures (35%) have received incubator help to recruit a surrogate entrepreneur. Swedish surrogate ventures perform significantly better in terms of growth and revenue compared to non-surrogates. Significantly higher performance of surrogates is also found in the subgroup academic technology ventures as well as the largest technology subgroup of information and communication technology (ICT) ventures. These findings in combination with a case study of the most productive incubation environment are used to propose future research and policy regarding university incubators intervening into entrepreneurial team formation in different ways.     

Role model influences on entrepreneurial intentions: A comparison between USA and Mexico

Most research and popular writing includes entrepreneurial role models as an important factor in the decision to start a business. Few, if any, studies compare the influence of business owner role models between two different countries. Further, studies cite the importance of role models for potential entrepreneurs but ignore how the role model process actually works. This study looks at activities that role models might engage in and compares their influence on respondents in the US and Mexico. This is the first study that examines differences in role model influence between two countries. Ten of the variables are significantly different between respondents in the two countries. Nine of the differences were rated as being significantly more influential among Mexican students than US students while only one variable was rated as being significantly less influential. Results of the study, especially as related to the specific influence of role models on career intentions, may be relevant in designing entrepreneurship programs. The results may also be appropriate in courses that discuss entrepreneurship in different countries (e.g., international entrepreneurship). The results may also be relevant in family businesses where eventual continuity of family ownership through succession is desired.     

A longitudinal study of the characteristics, business creation process and outcome differences of Canadian female vs. male nascent entrepreneurs

This paper concerns a longitudinal study, of a random sample of nascent entrepreneurs in Canada (based on an initial screening sample of 49,763 households). We study gender differences, including number and type of gestational activities, the characteristics of the business created, and the status of the start-up effort after the 4th year of data collection. Logistic regression is used to predict the creation of an operating business from gender and other variables. Four of nine gender difference hypotheses were supported. Findings show that women who are members of a start-up team are six times more likely to achieve an operating business.

Opportunities for disruption

In view of the importance of Disruptive Innovations (DIs) in both emerging and advanced economies, a better understanding of how to cultivate opportunities for DIs is called for. We provide case study exemplars that illustrate how entrepreneurs have deliberately undertaken DIs for customers of low-end and new markets. Our findings show how the entrepreneurial opportunities embedded in these DIs are purposefully discovered and created. By extending research on the generation of entrepreneurial opportunities into the arena of disruptive innovations, the paper aims to contribute to understanding of both DI and the nature of opportunity generation and to provide a basis for guidance to practitioners.     

Migrant human and political capitals value in entrepreneur enterprise performance. A comparative study of four emerging markets

This paper investigates the impact of human and political capitals of entrepreneurs on enterprise performance in four emerging nations.The rent generation potential of these capitals is a well established fact, however, much less is known concerning the contingent nature of their value creation prowess. In this work, we draw on institutional theory and dynamic managerial capabilities perspective to examine the interactive effect of country of origin economic developement level and the international experience of entrepreurs, on the capitals, with respect to a set of financial indicators. Employing a quantitative methodology, our findings reveal that the relationship between the capitals and enterprise performance are indeeed contingent with the capitals of home-grown entrepreneurs, rather than those of returnee migrant entrepreneurs, exhibiting a greater propensity to influence enterprise performance. We conclude with implications for theory and practice.

     

Random monitoring in financing relationships

This paper examines a financier’s optimal monitoring intensity in a multi-period financing relationship. We identify conditions under which the financier should sometimes misidentify the quality of an entrepreneur. Such an imperfect evaluation technology affects action choices by bad entrepreneurs. We first characterize the optimal monitoring intensity and show that it is one in which the investor monitors entrepreneurs randomly. Random monitoring in the first stage of a relationship induces bad entrepreneurs to reveal their intrinsic types. Second, because random monitoring reduces the share of bad entrepreneurs in the subsequent periods, we show that the financier can therefore realize substantial gains.     

Credit-rationing and entrepreneurial experience: Evidence from a resource deficit context

This study explores the following novel research question: Do attributes relating to the resources and signals of lead entrepreneurs, particularly prior business ownership experience quality signals, reduce the probability that entrepreneurs will be chronic credit-rationed entrepreneurs in a developing economy context with resource deficiencies? Guided by insights from signalling, resource-based view of the firm and human capital theory, profiles of credit-rationed entrepreneurs (i.e. debt finance obtained but below the amount requested) are highlighted. The length of the debt finance gap was considered with regard to temporary (over one year), major (over two years) and chronic (over three years) finance gaps. We find support for our hypotheses relating to entrepreneurs whose firms are more innovative being more likely to be chronically credit-rationed, whilst firms with partners, entrepreneurs with longer prior business ownership experience and habitual entrepreneurs are less likely to be credit-rationed. The interaction with serial or portfolio entrepreneur reduces the chronic credit-rationing problem faced by innovative firms. A case for developing linkages between inexperienced novice entrepreneurs and habitual entrepreneurs, particularly successful portfolio entrepreneurs, is made. Notably, we suggest that building upon the experienced entrepreneurs who do exist may be particularly beneficial in resource deficit contexts such as Ghana     

Beyond necessity versus opportunity entrepreneurship: some lessons from English deprived urban neighbourhoods

When discussing the motivations of entrepreneurs, it has become commonplace to represent them dichotomously as either necessity or opportunity driven. This paper evaluates critically this dualistic depiction of entrepreneurs’ motives through an examination of the rationales of entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs living in a deprived urban neighbourhood of an English city, a group of entrepreneurs who have been conventionally depicted as largely driven by necessity into entrepreneurship in the absence of alternative means of livelihood. Reporting the results of a face-to-face questionnaire conducted in 2008 with 459 respondents and a further 18 follow-up in-depth interviews, the finding is that forcing individual entrepreneurs’ motives into one or other of these categories grossly over-simplifies their rationales which in lived practice are not only a mixture of both opportunity and necessity but also temporally fluid shifting most often from more necessity- to more opportunity-oriented rationales. The outcome is to reveal that the opportunity versus necessity dichotomy, which uses the perceptions of an entrepreneur’s originating condition as the defining feature of their motivations, is a misleading way of categorising types of entrepreneurship not only because motivations change over time but also because entrepreneurs are frequently driven by both necessity as well as opportunity factors. The result is a call to move beyond the conventional either/or depiction of opportunity versus necessity entrepreneurship and towards a richer, more nuanced and dynamic appreciation of entrepreneurs’ motivations.