A longitudinal analysis of the influence of career motivations on entrepreneurial intention and action

The impact of career motivations on entrepreneurial intention and action remains in need of being investigated conjointly. Using a large sample and follow‐up data collected five years later, we investigate their influence on the entrepreneurial involvement of young adults, from the expression of an intention to entrepreneurial action. We show that only the search for job security seems to have a persistent effect throughout the process. In addition, autonomy is associated with the formation of intention, while wanting to manage full processes is related to actual start‐up participation. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications. © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How entrepreneurial intentions influence entrepreneurial career choices: The moderating influence of social context

In this paper, we build on social cognitive career theory to examine the relation between entrepreneurial intention and new venture creation (i.e., the entrepreneurial career choice). We model how contextual influences at different levels may favor or inhibit the translation of entrepreneurial intention into new venture creation. Using unique longitudinal data from almost the entire population of Italian university graduates, we are able to assess how the immediate (i.e., the influence of relevant others) and larger context (i.e., organizational and environmental influences) affect new venture creation. Our research contributes to the emerging literature of the intention–behavior link in entrepreneurship.     

Additive omnichannel atmospheric cues: The mediating effects of cognitive and affective responses on purchase intention

In today's channel-centric retail ecosystem the right mix and orchestration of online and offline stimulus is paramount towards providing an optimal store atmosphere and shopping experience. Applying the S-O-R framework, this research explores additive omnichannel atmospheric cues stimuli, in order to discover their impact on affective (i.e., pleasure, arousal and dominance) and cognitive (i.e., store environmental quality perception) states and their consequential effect on consumer responses in the form of purchase intention. Employing a four-condition repeated measures experimental design in a physical store, utilizing mobile, IoT and social media channels (Study 1), as well as a between-subjects online lab experiment (Study 2), this research sheds light into the affective and cognition-mediated causal mechanisms that influence shopping outcomes. This work reveals that combining stimulus from all retail channels within the physical store (i.e., omnichannel atmospheric cues) increases consumers' pleasure, arousal and the quality of the environment as a whole, which in turn positively influences purchase intention. However, the impact of dominance is only prominent at the more controlled, laboratory setting, in which purchase intention increases while dominance attenuates.     

The entrepreneurial ladder, gender, and regional development

Gender differences at five levels of entrepreneurial engagement are explained using country effects while controlling for individual-level variables. We distinguish between individuals who have never considered starting up a business, those who are thinking about it, and nascent, young, and established entrepreneurs. We use a large international dataset that includes respondents from 32 European countries, three Asian countries, and the United States. Findings show that cross-country gender differences are largest in the first and final transitions of the entrepreneurial process. In particular, some European transition economies are characterized by relatively low propensities of women to convert start-up considerations into start-up activities and low survival rates of businesses started by women.     

Entrepreneurial intention and career choices: the role of volition

Developing entrepreneurship among students and helping them to build their career plans and improving their employability is the core of public policy in many countries in Europe (Branchet et al. in J Small Bus Enterp Dev 18(2):384–402, 2011). Following some empirical researches (Boissin et al. in J Small Bus Entrep 22(2):101–122, 2009), we know some predictive factors for the emergence of an entrepreneurial project. But another question remains largely unexplored: What are the psychological mechanisms that may interplay in entrepreneurial intention and career choices? Our research aims to demonstrate that entrepreneurship is an objective which relies entirely on willingness, and, therefore, is much more dependent on interpersonal features than on economic and environmental constraints. In particular, we wish to highlight the personal dynamics in shaping, maturing, and implementing a choice of entrepreneurial career in order to extract volitional characteristics of this career choice. The hypotheses are tested using data from interviews conducted with French students in business schools, engineering schools, and universities. Our dynamic approach to study the psychosocial processes involved in the definition of an entrepreneurial career helps to understand the interest of young people in the entrepreneurial process. This research has demonstrated that volition has a key role in binding an individual commitment to an ambitious career objective.     

The character of innovative places: entrepreneurial strategy,economic development,and prosperity

Why do investments in certain places yield jobs, growth, and prosperity while similar investments made in seemingly identical places fail to produce the desired results? Starting with the observation that innovation clusters spatially across a broad spectrum of industries, my work seeks to understand the mechanisms and institutions that promote the creation of useful knowledge. In my conceptualization, entrepreneurs, as the agents who recognize opportunity, mobilize resources, and create value, are key to the creation of institutions and the building of capacity that will sustain regional economic development. Entrepreneurs benefit from location. But entrepreneurs are also pivotal as agents of change that can transform local communities. The initial event or entrepreneurial spark that gives rise to prosperous regions is not deterministic nor do they automatically set in motion path dependencies that automatically yield successful places. What matters most is human agency—the building of institutions and the myriad public and private decisions that determine what I call the character of place—a spirit of authenticity, engagement, and common purpose.     

The effects of institutional development and national culture on cross-national differences in corporate reputation

Corporate reputation is becoming more important to managers and scholars around the world. However, little is known about how much or why reputation differs across countries. We use institutional theory to fill this gap. We focus on institutional development, reflecting the expansion of formal institutions, and national culture, an important informal institution. We find that reputation is negatively related to institutional development and masculinity and positively related to power distance in a sample of 401 corporations from 25 countries. We recommend that institutional theory complement signaling theory in cross-national studies of corporate reputation.     

The internationalization of entrepreneurial firms from emerging economies: The roles of institutional transitions and market opportunities

This paper examines the influence of institutional transitions and market opportunities in emerging economies on the internationalization of entrepreneurial firms from these economies. We conceptualize and examine a three-stage model of institutional transition in emerging economies, and their effects on the internationalization strategies of new venture firms. Propositions are developed in examining how the different stages of the institutional transition can influence the strategic choices for the internationalization of new venture firms. In responding to the calls for more research on institutions and international entrepreneurship, this paper is an attempt extending the linkages between the two to the context of emerging economies. The paper also has managerial implications for entrepreneurs and the associated policy implications in international entrepreneurship.     

The interplay of entrepreneurship education and national cultures in entrepreneurial activity: a social cognitive perspective

Does entrepreneurship education result in entrepreneurial activities across national cultures? For the most part, prior research has examined the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial activity, using country-specific samples. However, many of these results are inconsistent. One reason for such inconsistent results may be a limitation of country-specific samples, given that they are valid in a domestic context but not generalizable. Our study addresses this limitation by using a cross-national sample of 24,457 respondents from 38 countries to examine the role of diverse national cultures. Building on the social cognitive theory, our results show that entrepreneurship education is more seminal for entrepreneurial activities that take place in countries with greater individualism, less uncertainty avoidance, and a high level of masculinity. This research presents a more complete picture of how entrepreneurship education may affect international entrepreneurship contingent upon national culture, and has implications for researchers, educators, and policy makers.     

Negative emotions of an entrepreneurial career: Self-employment and regulatory coping behaviors

Although we know a great deal about the relationship between self-employment and the experience of positive emotions such as passion, excitement, happiness, satisfaction, and flow, there is some research that suggests that the self-employed may be more susceptible than employees to negative emotions such as stress, fear of failure, loneliness, mental strain, and grief. We draw on the literature on role requirements to develop a model of career pursuit based on individuals' willingness and abilities to regulate these emotions. Using a nation-wide survey of more than 2700 US citizens we show that over and above the effects of positive emotions, the self-employed experienced fewer negative emotions than those who are employed, contingent on their regulatory coping behaviors. We discuss implications of these results for the literature on entrepreneurial emotions.     

The effects of embeddedness on the entrepreneurial process

This paper uses Giddens' theory of structuration to develop the conception of entrepreneurship as an embedded socio-economic process. The qualitative examination of the actions of rural entrepreneurs finds that embeddedness plays a key role in shaping and sustaining business. Being embedded in the social structure creates opportunity and improves performance. Embedding enabled the entrepreneurs to use the specifics of the environment. Thus, both recognition and realisation of opportunity are conditioned by the entrepreneurs' role in the social structure.     

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.     

Industrial clusters,entrepreneurial culture and the social environment: The effects on FDI distribution

Using balance sheet data from a sample of 3498 foreign firms in the manufacturing industry we analyse the distribution of foreign direct investments (FDI) in Italy at a very detailed geographical level, i.e. the provincial level, a region which comprises an urban area and the limited geographical area surrounding it. In this paper, we test the impact that agglomeration economies, entrepreneurial culture and social capital have on the distribution of foreign investments. While the findings regarding the social variables are mixed, the important role played by agglomeration economies is confirmed. Our analysis shows that investments by multinationals are attracted by those areas that combine industrial cluster characteristics with an agglomeration of foreign firms and that have a high level of entrepreneurial culture. The role that this last variable plays is fundamental and suggests the idea that multinational corporations (MNCs) invest in regions with entrepreneurial resources.     

Exploring country-level institutional arrangements on the rate and type of entrepreneurial activity

This study introduces a novel multidimensional measure of the entrepreneurial environment that reveals how differences in institutional arrangements influence both the rate and the type of entrepreneurial activity in a country. Drawing from institutional theory, the measure examines the regulatory, normative, and cognitive dimensions of entrepreneurial activity, and introduces a novel conducive dimension that measures a country's capability to support high-impact entrepreneurship. Our findings suggest that differences in institutional arrangements are associated with variance in both the rate and type of entrepreneurial activity across countries. For the formation of innovative, high-growth new ventures, the regulative environment matters very little. For high-impact entrepreneurship an institutional environment filled with new opportunities created by knowledge spillovers and the capital necessary for high-impact entrepreneurship matter most.     

Toward a theory of sustainable entrepreneurship: Reducing environmental degradation through entrepreneurial action

This article explains how entrepreneurship can help resolve the environmental problems of global socio-economic systems. Environmental economics concludes that environmental degradation results from the failure of markets, whereas the entrepreneurship literature argues that opportunities are inherent in market failure. A synthesis of these literatures suggests that environmentally relevant market failures represent opportunities for achieving profitability while simultaneously reducing environmentally degrading economic behaviors. It also implies conceptualizations of sustainable and environmental entrepreneurship which detail how entrepreneurs seize the opportunities that are inherent in environmentally relevant market failures. Finally, the article examines the ability of the proposed theoretical framework to transcend its environmental context and provide insight into expanding the domain of the study of entrepreneurship.     

Stop or go: Reflections of women managers on factors influencing their career development

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how women managers themselves interpret the factors that constrain and those that facilitate management careers for women. We will do this by first reviewing some of the interpretations that have been put forward in the academic literature to explain the relatively small number of women managers and particularly the small number of very senior women managers. In the light of these interpretations, we will examine the opinions of a sample of intermediate and senior women managers in the public and private sectors in Ontario and Québec. More specifically we will look at their answers to questions about what blocks and what facilitates management careers for women generally and what obstacles they themselves have met. We will then compare their interpretations of their own career development with the interpretations that exist in the literature.Caroline Andrew, Cécile Coderre and Ann Denis teach at the University of Ottawa; Caroline Andrew in the Department of Political Science, Cécile Coderre and Ann Denis in the Department of Sociology. All three are actively involved in the Women's Studies Programme at the University of Ottawa.We wish to acknowledge with thanks the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and of the University of Ottawa for this study.     

A structural model of the effects of entrepreneurial characteristics on venture performance

Venture capitalists, “angel” investors, and experienced, successful entrepreneurs, when asked to identify the most important determinant of new venture performance, will undoubtedly answer “the entrepreneur.” Likewise, prominent academic scholars responsible for the accelerating development of entrepreneurship theory and research would almost always agree. Unfortunately, empirical and theoretical understanding of the influence of the entrepreneur on new venture performance (NVP) has long been stymied. Studies of entrepreneurial characteristics have failed to demonstrate convincing links with entrepreneurial states of being or with NVP, though studies of the former have shown more promise than have those of the latter. In an attempt to explain the failure to link entrepreneurial characteristics with performance and thus to stimulate and modify research agendas, this paper derives a structural, causal model of the relationships between entrepreneurial characteristics and performance. This derivation draws upon current psychological, management, economic, and entrepreneurship theory.Though there is considerable controversy in the field of psychology concerning the ability of personality traits to explain behavior, it is accepted by many that such traits do exist, that they are stable over time, and that they explain behaviors if the level of aggregation is wide enough. In 1988, Hollenbeck and Whitener noted that one of the problems in using personality traits to explain job performance was that such traits are mediated by motivation and moderated by abilities in their causal connection to performance. Thus personality traits are somewhat removed from performance in the causal chain of events. Applied to the study of the entrepreneur, this research suggests that an initial model of the “entrepreneurial characteristics → NVP” relationship must include the mediating role of motivation and the moderating role of entrepreneurial management abilities.This paper further redefines this emerging model of “entrepreneurial characteristics → NVP” by drawing upon other literature from the field of psychology. This literature suggests that “entrepreneurial behavior” and the context in which it is performed both intervene between motivation and ability in their relation to NVP. The paper concludes this section with a psychology-based model of the “characteristics → NVP” relationship that is more comprehensive and realistic than prior models in the entrepreneurship literature.The paper next draws from strategic management, entrepreneurship, and economics literature along with Sandberg's (1986) model of NVP [NVP = f(E,IS,S)] to show that any model of the connection between entrepreneurial characteristics and NVP must further recognize the relationship between strategy and NVP as well as industry structure and NVP. The resultant model suggests strategy and industry structure are “context” variables that interdependently interact with entrepreneurial behaviors to influence NVP. This adaptation of the model is reinforced and expanded by reviewing the management literature on matching managers to situations which in turn implies that the effects of entrepreneurial behaviors on NVP are contingent upon strategy and industry structure. Thus strategy and industry structure, though ultimately determined by entrepreneurial behavior, are themselves important inputs to the behavioral context of entrepreneurship.The last part of the paper examines decision-making, skills, aptitudes, and training as components helping to refine our understanding of the role of motivation as a mediator and ability as a moderator in a model of the “entrepreneurial characteristics → NVP” relationship. The intent here is to identify specific variables that can be studied or acted upon [in an applied sense] to improve the NVP impact of entrepreneurial behaviors.It is hoped that explication of this model will encourage future entrepreneurship research that seeks to examine causes of NVP to reintroduce “the entrepreneur” as the focus or a focus of the research. Hopefully a more fully developed model that includes motivations, abilities, skills, aptitudes, and training as elements in “modeling” entrepreneurial behavior along with the need for strategy and industry structure contexts provides a more compelling and risk-worthy starting point for such research. This should provide an impetus to put the entrepreneur back. into a central position in entrepreneurship research, where both theory and practitioners say he/she belongs.     

The effects of app-related factors on app stickiness: The role of cognitive and emotional app relationship quality

Prior research tends to examine the effect of a narrow set of app-related factors on the construct of app relationship quality holistically. However, it is well-established that app relationship quality consists of cognitive and emotional aspects. To address these two issues, our study takes a more nuanced approach by examining a comprehensive set of app-related factors, including functional, offerings, experiential and relational factors, and their differential impacts on two distinct components of app relationship quality, namely cognitive app relationship quality (CARQ) and emotional app relationship quality (EARQ). It also examines the differential impact of CARQ and EARQ on app stickiness, which has long been considered as a managerial challenge. A ‘modular design approach’ was used to collect the data from an online UK consumer panel. 605 responses were analyzed using AMOS 24. The results indicated that functional and offering factors produced greater effects on CARQ than on EARQ. In contrast, experiential and relational factors were found to have stronger effects on EARQ than on CARQ. Further, CARQ was found to have a stronger effect on app stickiness compared to EARQ. The current study offers a detailed understanding of the factors that contribute to each component of app relationship quality and empirically demonstrates the differential effects of the cognitive and emotional aspects on app sickness. Such results are expected to help e-retailers to develop a strong digital presence, build future readiness for their brands, and design app-focused strategies using a consumer-centric approach.