Applying Person‐Environment Fit Theory to Identify Personality Differences between Prospective Social and Commercial Entrepreneurs: An Explorative Study

Research has started to investigate personality traits of social entrepreneurs because such traits in commercial entrepreneurs have been found to affect new venture creation/success. In this exploratory study, we apply the person‐environment fit theory and analyze specific social entrepreneurial personality dimensions (i.e., altruism, empathic concern, personal distress, compassion), and classical entrepreneurial personality dimensions (i.e., need for achievement (nAch), entrepreneurial self‐efficacy (ESE), general self‐efficacy, risk‐taking propensity) to identify differences between prospective social and commercial entrepreneurs. Using a sample of 85 prospective entrepreneurs, results show that prospective social entrepreneurs differ from prospective commercial entrepreneurs in the personality dimensions of personal distress, nAch, ESE, and risk‐taking propensity.     

The relationship of antecedents of search and self‐esteem to adolescent search effort and perceived product knowledge

This article reviews pertinent research related to the antecedents of search and discusses a research study involving teenagers. For the low‐esteem group, “enjoyment of shopping” (intrinsic motivation) and “benefit of search” (extrinsic motivation) were the significant predictors of search effort and perceived product knowledge, whereas for the high self‐esteem group, only enjoyment of shopping (intrinsic motivation) was a significant predictor. The results are explained in terms of an intrinsic‐extrinsic motivation model. For the high–self‐esteem group, the intrinsic enjoyment of shopping leads to search effort, which in turn leads to perceived product knowledge. In contrast, for the low–self‐esteem group, the intrinsic enjoyment of shopping and the extrinsic benefit of search together lead to greater perceived product knowledge as a result of search effort. Thus, the intrinsic motivation model prevails for the high–self‐esteem group, whereas a hybrid intrinsic–extrinsic motivation model prevails for the low–self‐esteem group. The article concludes with directions for future research. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Small and Medium‐Sized Enterprise's Entrepreneurial versus Market Orientation and the Creation of Tacit Knowledge

The ability to create tacit knowledge is important to the competitive advantage of firms in general but is critical to the survival and growth of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Consequently, SME strategic orientations that facilitate tacit knowledge creation, especially in hostile environments, are important factors that can enhance SME competitiveness. This paper shows that while an entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and environmental hostility are positively related to an SME's cultivation of tacit knowledge, market orientation (MO) is negatively related to SME's tacit knowledge. Additionally, we find that in benign environments, the relationship between an SME's MO and tacit knowledge becomes more strongly negative than in hostile environments.     

Network Characteristics and Firm Performance: An Examination of the Relationships in the Context of a Cluster

The study examined the impact of spatial relationships on firm performance. It also assessed the impacts of network structural and relational characteristics on performance, as well as the moderating effects of these variables on the spatial relationship to performance linkages. The sample comprised 252 firms located in a mold industry cluster in the Zhejiang province of China. Both in‐cluster ties and extra‐cluster ties positively impacted performance. However, the effects of distant ties were more pronounced. Tie stability had a positive effect whereas tie quality had a negative effect on performance. Network centrality, tie strength, and tie stability strengthened the relationship between in‐cluster ties and performance. By contrast, all network tie characteristics weakened and changed the form of the relationship between extra‐cluster ties and performance. The findings suggest the need for cluster firms to consciously cultivate distant linkages in their network ties in order to neutralize the tendencies for lock‐in and to arrest entropic deterioration in their respective clusters.     

Brand Ownership As a Central Component of Adolescent Self‐esteem: The Development of a New Self‐esteem Scale

This article outlines the development of a new scale to measure adolescent self‐esteem. The new scale addresses weaknesses in existing measures that have failed to consider the growth of the consumer society in the Western world and the impact of this on the formation of adolescent self‐esteem. The development of this scale includes extensive qualitative research with over 100 high school pupils, which led to a series of quantitative data collection and analysis processes to develop the scale. In the final stage, data were collected from 889 pupils and analyzed to confirm the validity and reliability of the new measure. The result of this work is a 21‐item self‐esteem scale comprising of four distinct, yet interrelated factors: self‐evaluation, social ability, social comparison effects, and notably, brand ownership. The findings provide an updated and upgraded measure of self‐esteem that takes into consideration the specific audience of adolescents living in a consumer culture. The scale development process demonstrates that when considering the formation of self‐esteem, the influence of the use and possession of commercial brands is as relevant as the traditional factors/components such as academic achievement or sporting prowess.     

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

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

Costly Ties: Social Capital as a Retardant of Network‐Level Entrepreneurial Orientation

Challenging social capital research, we argue that network top management teams (TMTs) established to support entrepreneurship in strategic multipartner networks should be careful in developing ties to outside organizations and networks. We suggest that such ties limit the network TMT's ability to engage in the strategy‐making processes needed to facilitate entrepreneurial orientation on a network level. Based on five‐year panel data from 53 formalized networks of small and medium‐sized enterprises, we demonstrate that homogenous and highly educated network TMTs can compensate the negative effects of TMT ties to other organizations, but not the negative effects of interlocking directorates.     

Problem‐Solving Orientations,Financial Self‐Efficacy,and Student‐Loan Repayment Stress

Using data acquired from a four‐time longitudinal survey, we tested a model linking two measures of self‐agency, i.e., problem‐solving orientations and financial self‐efficacy, to student‐loan repayment stress. Of those participants who responded at Wave 4 (N = 855) of a longitudinal study, 396 who had acquired student loans were included in our structural equation model's Mplus analysis. After we controlled for gender, college financial education, ethnicity, and participant annual income, we found that both financial self‐efficacy and negative problem‐solving orientation were related to perceived difficulty. More specifically, those participants with a greater financial self‐efficacy at Wave 4 perceived less difficulty in paying off their loans, while those with a more negative problem‐solving orientation perceived more difficulty in paying off their loans. We also found perceived difficulty to be directly related to the actual difficulty of repaying a loan, and this perceived difficulty was, in turn, associated with loan‐specific stress. We provide implications for financial education.     

The relative importance of specific self‐efficacy sources in pretraining self‐efficacy beliefs

Self‐efficacy is clearly important for learning. Research identifying the most important sources of self‐efficacy beliefs, however, has been somewhat limited to date in that different disciplines focus largely on different sources of self‐efficacy. Whereas education researchers focus on Bandura's original sources of enactive mastery, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion and negative emotional arousal, organizational researchers focus on learning, performance prove and performance avoid achievement goal orientations. To date, however, little research has examined the importance of a specific set of self‐efficacy sources after fully accounting for the influence of other sources. Data were obtained from 278 adult trainees who completed online Microsoft Excel training. Results suggest that once accounting for achievement goal orientation, Bandura's sources of vicarious experience and negative emotional arousal are still important contributors to pretraining self‐efficacy beliefs. As such, organizations seeking to maximize training effectiveness may wish to consider pretraining interventions simultaneously targeting achievement goal orientation, vicarious experience and negative emotional arousal.     

From desire to help to taking action: Effects of personal traits and social media on market mavens’ diffusion of information

While extant research has studied traits of market mavens and the link from mavenism to market helping behavior, there is a need for more research to understand personal and contextual factors that influence actual recommendations of products and differences among market mavens with different traits in that respect. In this study, we took research in the area of market mavenism one step further and investigated the role of personal traits such as self‐esteem and susceptibility to normative interpersonal influence, and the contextual factor of social media, in the frequency of recommendations. We hypothesize that while market mavens with lower self‐esteem are likely to engage in less frequent recommendations, negative effect of their lower self‐esteem is attenuated when they use social media platforms as their medium of choice. Our findings lend support to our hypotheses, including the triple interaction effect between self‐esteem, choice of social media, and market mavenism on market recommendations.     

Strategic Capabilities and Performance in Women‐Owned Businesses in Mexico

The dire economic situation in Mexico, with its high rate of unemployment, makes it necessary for many women to find some form of economic activity to provide income for their families. Although such conditions could encourage the creation of new firms, the results of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2006 Report show a gap between the number of women involved in nascent and young entrepreneurship initiatives and the number who owns established firms. This gap may indicate that the firms created need to improve their competitiveness and their ability to survive. The model proposed adopts the resource‐based view of the firm as a theoretical framework from which to study how entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, and learning orientation, as well as the interactions between them, influence the achievement of competitive advantage and superior performance in businesses owned by women. Our investigation analyzes businesses established and managed by women in Mexico and registered with the Asociación Mexicana de Mujeres Empresarias A.C. (Mexican Association of Business Women) and the Red de Empresarias del Instituto Nacional de Mujeres (Women Entrepreneurs Network of the National Women's Institute). To gather the information needed, the study used a questionnaire as a measuring instrument. The results are based on the 90 complete answers received from the questionnaires distributed. The results show that all of relationships in our model are positive except the hypothesis that learning orientation mediates in the relationship between market orientation and performance. The results suggest that entrepreneurial orientation reinforces the effect of two capabilities, market orientation and learning orientation, on firm performance. They also reaffirm that the three capabilities assessed may lead an organization to differentiate itself from its competitors by improving its performance. In addition to contributing to the literature on female entrepreneurship, the results have important implications for management. Understanding the relationships between capabilities and the performance of women‐owned businesses in Mexico can permit the identification of areas for improvement to promote the growth and survival of this type of firm.     

Overcoming the illusion of will and self‐fabrication: Going beyond naïve subjective personal introspection to an unconscious/conscious theory of behavior explanation

Naïve subjective personal introspection includes the failure to recognize the confirmability of one's own attitudes and personal meanings learned explicitly from self‐examining such topics and explaining one's own behavior. Unconscious/conscious theory of behavior explanation follows from unifying the research on unintended thought–behavior with folk explanations of behavior. This article describes advances in research confirming own attitudes and personal meaning and suggests the need for applying multiple methods to overcome the fundamental attribution error, inherent cultural prejudices, and the general bias toward self‐fabrication. The discussion is valuable for achieving a deep understanding of how customers think, advancing from subjective to confirmatory personal introspection, and understanding the need to apply research tools useful for enlightening knowledge and overcoming the inherent bias within subjective personal introspection. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Entrepreneurial orientation,entrepreneurial competencies,innovation, and performances in SMEs of Pakistan: Moderating role of social ties

The current study examines the mediating role of innovation and entrepreneurial competencies in entrepreneurial orientation’s relationship with financial, social, and environmental performance. This research also determines the role of social ties in strengthening the association between innovation and entrepreneurial competencies with social, financial, and environmental performance. Using multi-source and time-lagged studies, the data was collected from 297 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan, and structural equation modeling was used to test direct, indirect, and moderating hypotheses. The findings show that entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial competencies, and innovation positively correlate with all the types of performance under investigation and confirm the mediating role of innovation and entrepreneurial competencies. Additionally, social network ties strengthen innovation—financial performance, and entrepreneurial competencies—social performance relationship. This research proposes significant theoretical and managerial implications by determining the impact of entrepreneurial orientation on SMEs in Pakistan.     

I Know,but I Would Rather Be Beautiful: The Impact of Self‐Esteem,Narcissism, and Knowledge on Addictive Tanning Behavior in Millennials

This research examines consumers' current level of sun protection knowledge and prevention, tanning motivation, and behavior. This baseline information provides a clearer understanding of actual consumer behavior and can be used to determine what knowledge deficits exist so that future research, educational materials, and communication efforts can be tailored to address those more directly. Additionally, the relationships between knowledge, self‐esteem, and narcissism are explored. Results show that knowledge has no impact on addictive tanning behavior, self‐esteem is negatively correlated, and narcissism is fully mediated by appearance motivation. Implications, potential regulatory, and communication efforts are discussed.     

Corporate responsibility perceptions in change: Finnish managers' views on stakeholder issues from 1994 to 2004

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the changes in Finnish managers' corporate responsibility perceptions from 1994 to 2004. Following earlier research, the concept of corporate responsibility is operationalised using the stakeholder approach. Empirically, we ask how managers' views on stakeholder issues have changed during the 10‐year research period, and how managers' stakeholder orientation compares with their economic orientation. The data were collected using a survey research instrument in the years 1994, 1999 and 2004. The research results show a positive change in managers' corporate responsibility perceptions during this time period. In addition, managers' stakeholder orientation seems to be in balance with their economic orientation. However, the economic context – in terms of both their own company's economic position and the general economic situation – has an effect on managers' stakeholder orientation.     

The effects of body image and self‐esteem on frequency of closet cleaning

The purpose of this study was to examine divestment of clothing and its relationship to psychological characteristics (body image and self‐esteem) and demographic characteristics (gender and age) of the consumer. The relationship between frequencies in closet cleaning to categories selected for body image (Appearance Orientation, Appearance Evaluation, Body Areas Satisfaction, Subjective Weight, and Weight Preoccupation) were calculated using Pearson's Correlation and Analysis of Variance. Frequencies in closet cleaning were also compared to the overall score from responses to the Rosenberg Self‐Esteem Scale. The relationship between disposal frequency and Appearance Orientation was statistically significant for both gender groups, particularly among groups 18–25 years. Individuals with a higher Appearance Orientation tended to dispose clothing more frequently than others. When comparing men to women, body image accounted for garment disposal more among men, suggesting women have more varied reasons to dispose of clothing. Self‐esteem measures were not related to disposal frequency among all groups. The findings contribute to knowledge and have implications related to self‐concept and consumption behavior post purchasing. For example, results were similar between young men and women suggesting men may have similar clothing and appearance oriented behavior to women. In another example, those with high appearance orientation could be targeted for campaigns related to sustainable disposal strategies.     

The Long‐Term Impact of Entrepreneurial Self‐Efficacy and Entrepreneurial Orientation on Venture Performance

We collected multi‐wave survey data to assess the lagged effects of entrepreneurial self‐efficacy (ESE) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on firm performance over a five‐year period. The results of our study indicate that ESE and EO are both positively associated with firm performance but in different, and interesting, ways. Entrepreneurially self‐efficacious founder/managers may help improve the performance of very young firms but such benefits dissipate over time. An EO, on the other hand, does not appear to be particularly beneficial to very young firms. However, our results suggest an EO may play an increasingly valuable role as new firms mature.     

Extrinsic and Intrinsic Contingent Self‐Esteem and Materialism: A Correlational and Experimental Investigation

While there is substantial evidence regarding the role of generalized self‐esteem and identity deficits as potential antecedents of materialism, the exact nature of the domains from which such self‐esteem deficits (that breeds materialism) emanate has remained unexplored. Moreover, there is scant research attention on intrinsically oriented contingent self‐esteem and how it relates to materialism. The present study investigated contingent self‐esteem in extrinsic domains as antecedents of materialism. It was shown that extrinsic and intrinsic forms of contingent self‐esteem relate differently with materialism such that intrinsically contingent self‐esteem is incompatible with materialistic attitudes. Study 1 (N = 231 Singaporean adults) furnished cross‐sectional evidence that extrinsically oriented contingent self‐esteem positively predicts materialism. Study 2 (N = 206 undergraduates from a public university in Singapore) found that intrinsically oriented contingent self‐esteem is negatively related to materialism. Study 3 (N = 105 Singaporean undergraduates) showed that experimental induction of extrinsic and intrinsic contingent self‐esteem leads to higher or lower materialism among participants respectively. The findings advance understanding on the self‐esteem‐materialism link by showing how the domain‐specific view of self‐esteem has the potential to promote or discourage materialism based on whether self‐esteem is anchored to external or internal domains. Recommendations for intervention researchers and practitioners are proposed.     

The Role of Entrepreneurial Passion and Creativity in Developing Entrepreneurial Intentions: Insights from American Homebrewers

The study investigates the role of entrepreneurial passion and creativity as antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions, applying social cognitive theory as an underpinning framework. Specifically, this research focuses on American homebrewing, seen as a potential incubator for entrepreneurs. Results demonstrate entrepreneurial passion having a strong positive relationship with entrepreneurial intentions, even when entrepreneurial self‐efficacy is introduced as a mediator. Conversely, the relationship between creativity and entrepreneurial intentions is mediated by entrepreneurial self‐efficacy, confirming that individuals also need to feel self‐efficacious enough to pursue entrepreneurial career. The findings advance the understanding of nascent entrepreneurship phenomenon within a particular hobby context.     

Entrepreneurial capacities as antecedents of business performance in Brazilian firms

We investigate the relationship between entrepreneurial capacities and firm performance. More specifically, we investigate the effects of radical innovation and learning orientation on business performance. We test the effects of entrepreneurial orientation on learning orientation and radical innovation. The results suggest that radical product innovation and companies' orientation to learn have a positive effect on organizational performance. Additionally, we find that entrepreneurial orientation positively influences a firm's capability to learn and innovate. Our findings also show a direct effect of learning orientation on radical innovation, which means that companies with a higher proclivity to learn are more likely to create products and processes, representing a major departure from the state of current knowledge. Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.