Entrepreneurship: The Role of Clusters Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Evidence from Germany

This paper is about the impact of clusters on entrepreneurship at the regional level. Defining entrepreneurship as the creation of new organisations and clusters as a geographically proximate group of interconnected firms and associated institutions in related industries, this paper aims to answer three research questions : first, do clusters matter to entrepreneurship at the regional level? Second, if clusters are associated with different levels of entrepreneurship, what explains those differences? Third, what do the answers to the previous questions imply for academics and policy makers? To answer these questions, this paper distinguishes between clusters and industrial agglomerations and advances a theoretical model and empirical research to explain the impact of clusters on entrepreneurship at the regional level. This paper uses the 97 German planning regions as units of analysis to test the hypotheses. Using hypotheses testing and OLS fixed-effects model, this paper finds that clusters do have an impact on entrepreneurship at the regional level, but industrial agglomerations do not. Implications for academics and policy makers and suggestions for future research are given in the concluding section.     

To formalize or not to formalize: Entrepreneurship and pro-market institutions

In this paper, we examine the effects of pro-market institutions on both formal and informal entrepreneurship. While formal entrepreneurship has long been studied in economic literature, informal entrepreneurship has been less frequently discussed. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is not only to examine the impact of pro-market institutions, but also to foster a better understanding of, and introduce a method to measure, informal entrepreneurship. For the purpose of this paper, pro-market institutions are broken into their two main components: economic liberalization and governance levels. The arguments posit that economic liberalization positively impacts both formal and informal entrepreneurship while governance levels have a positive impact on formal entrepreneurship but a negative effect on informal entrepreneurship. Furthermore, governance levels reduce informal entrepreneurship to a greater extent than they increase formal entrepreneurship, resulting in a net reduction in entrepreneurial activity. The analyses of a panel covering 51 countries from 2002–2009 provide robust support for these arguments.     

Conceptualizing knowledge-based entrepreneurship networks: perspectives from the literature

Efforts to promote and support knowledge-based entrepreneurship as a vehicle for economic development are increasingly focused on the importance of networks to entrepreneurial success. This article reviews the extant empirical literature and finds a striking consensus among multiple disciplinary perspectives: not only are networks important, network characteristics also mediate resources important to entrepreneurial performance. Unfortunately, current conceptual frameworks do not adequately account for the unique nature of knowledge spillovers and their role in innovation and economic dynamism. The article suggests that scholars embrace the nascent knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship to guide future empirical research on entrepreneurship networks and focus intently on their impact on entrepreneurial performance—and therefore economic growth.     

Incubators: Tool for Entrepreneurship?

One of the biggest barriers for the development of incubators in Europe is the lack of entrepreneurship and the underdevelopment of seed financing and business angel networks. While incubation is increasingly being used as a tool for promoting entrepreneurship and start-ups, leading to new policy incentives, the content of the concept is becoming more and more polysemic. Completely different approaches tend to be associated with the incubator concept, which hence becomes more of an umbrella concept. This paper aims to combine a conceptual analysis with an analysis of economic reality, both in the U.S.A. and in Europe. It warns against non-accurate evaluations of the impact of incubators if one does not take into account the different types of incubators. The paper focuses on the dynamic process of incubatio and concludes by underlining the importance of close links between incubators and business angels networks.     

Gender factors and female entrepreneurship: International evidence and policy implications

Nowadays, the transformations taking place in female entrepreneurship at the national and international levels and the importance of such entrepreneurship for economic growth and poverty alleviation underscore the need for more global and diversified analysis of female entrepreneurial activities. The literature however regarding international comparisons of female entrepreneurship practices remains limited and becomes even more limited when exploring such practices beyond the developed countries context. To this end, this paper examined the impact of five gender-related variables on the extent of female entrepreneurial activities in 44 developed and developing countries. Among its five focused variables, the paper found female education, extent of female economic activities, female earnings ratio, and fertility rate to be significant in all estimations with two different dependent variables representing female entrepreneurial activities. The remaining focus variable related to gender empowerment was found to be significant with one of the two dependent variables. Among its contributions, the paper explored gender entrepreneurship from an international perspective and extended the analysis of the topic beyond the main stream Anglo-Saxon context. It also highlighted the variations in results with regards to developed and developing countries environment. Understanding factors that could influence the development of female entrepreneurial activities and exploring their potential variability across stages of economic development could also be useful for policy makers exploring effective incentive structure to promote gender entrepreneurship in their respective countries.     

高管团队内情感冲突、企业家精神与公司成长性绩效关系的实证研究

根据对企业高层管理者访谈和163份有效问卷,重点分析高管团队内情感冲突、高管团队企业家精神和公司成长性绩效间的关系。实证研究发现:高管团队内情感冲突和公司成长性绩效显著负相关,高管团队内情感冲突与高管团队企业家精神显著负相关,高管团队企业家精神与公司成长性绩效显著正相关。并且,高管团队企业家精神在高管团队情感冲突对公司成长性绩效的影响过程中起着中介作用。     

家庭财富与城镇居民创业行为研究

企业家创业活动在经济和社会发展中发挥着重要作用,本文从家庭财富的视角研究我国城镇居民的创业问题。利用CHIPS2008年数据研究发现:家庭财富越多,城镇居民选择创业的概率越高,即创业过程中存在流动性约束。通过选取更为外生的财富衡量指标以及引入工具变量两种方法缓解潜在的内生性问题后,研究结论依旧稳健。进一步区分财富对不同类型创业活动的异质性影响发现,财富显著提高了城镇居民选择“自雇型”创业的概率,但对选择“雇主型”创业影响较小或不存在显著的影响。考虑到截面数据对财富与创业行为关系的识别可能存在一定的局限性,本文进一步引入CFPS面板数据,利用面板固定效应模型对两者之间的关系进行稳健性检验。本文的研究结论可为政府优化金融环境,缓解信贷约束,促进居民创业行为提供依据。     

Corporate social responsibility and employee attitudes: The moderating role of employee age

This study examines the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employee engagement and job satisfaction. Using 322 responses from employees of selected companies in Ghana, and employing hierarchical regression analysis, the study examines the direct impact of economic, legal, ethical and discretionary CSR practices on employee satisfaction and engagement in organisations. The study further explores the moderating role of employee age on the relationship between CSR and employee engagement and satisfaction. The results provide evidence that economic, legal, ethical and discretionary CSR practices influence higher employee engagement and satisfaction levels at work. However, the study finds no evidence of employee age moderating the association between each of the four CSR dimensions and employee job attitudes (engagement and satisfaction). These findings are insightful and provide a response to calls for research on these issues. The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that ethical CSR practices strongly influence employees' satisfaction and engagement levels; legal and discretionary CSR activities also have an influence, though to a lesser extent; and the economic dimension of CSR activities has the least impact. The managerial, practical and further research implications of these findings are discussed.     

Entrepreneurship capital and its impact on knowledge diffusion and economic performance

In this paper, we develop two hypotheses: First, regional innovation efforts have a positive impact on regional knowledge based entrepreneurial activity. Second, knowledge based entrepreneurship positively affects regional economic performance. We test these hypotheses using county level data from West Germany, employing a structural equation model to analyze the relationships between latent variables. Our empirical analysis provides evidence supporting both hypotheses. In particular, our results suggest that innovation efforts have an indirect effect on economic performance via entrepreneurship. This indirect effect is neglected in existing empirical studies focusing on the direct effect of innovation on economic performance.     

Social entrepreneurship research: A source of explanation,prediction, and delight

Social entrepreneurship, as a practice and a field for scholarly investigation, provides a unique opportunity to challenge, question, and rethink concepts and assumptions from different fields of management and business research. This article puts forward a view of social entrepreneurship as a process that catalyzes social change and addresses important social needs in a way that is not dominated by direct financial benefits for the entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurship is seen as differing from other forms of entrepreneurship in the relatively higher priority given to promoting social value and development versus capturing economic value. To stimulate future research the authors introduce the concept of embeddedness as a nexus between theoretical perspectives for the study of social entrepreneurship.     

Promoting entrepreneurship to alleviate poverty in India: An overview of government schemes,private‐sector programs,and initiatives in the citizens' sector

In recent years, entrepreneurship has achieved significance as a driver of economic growth and poverty alleviation. This article focuses on various initiatives and entities that promote capacity building and entrepreneurship development among the poor in India and pays special attention to examining the ways in which these entities can better coordinate their efforts. The article first reviews the general literature on entrepreneurship and poverty eradication followed by a conceptual framework that models the efforts of the Indian government, the private sector, and the citizens' sector in promoting entrepreneurship and capacity building. This conceptual framework is utilized to discuss efforts of social entrepreneurs and self‐help groups (SHGs) in India as well as to present a general sectoral assessment of the poverty‐alleviation schemes in the subcontinent. The article's conclusions emphasize that neither markets alone nor governments alone are enough to eradicate poverty, especially in the Indian context. Instead, a trisectoral approach that recognizes the complementarities between the government, the private sector, and the citizens' sector and encourages these sectors to collaborate may be vital to the common goal of capacity building among India's poor. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Private label usage and store loyalty: The moderating impact of shopping value

This study endeavours to develop and analyze a conceptual model that sheds light on the moderating impact of utilitarian and hedonic shopping values in determining the relationship between private label usage and store loyalty. In a test with data collected from 267 consumers, conceptual framework was analyzed by using structural equation modeling. The findings reveal that a negative relationship was observed between private label usage and store loyalty. However, utilitarian shopping value converts this existing negative relationship between private label usage and store loyalty into a strong positive association. This study offers such interesting implications for managers that developing marketing strategies oriented to create utilitarian shopping value during the shopping experience may enable retailers to enhance their store loyalty in a positive way in the long run. Prior research has not approached the private label product phenomenon from a shopping value perspective. Hence, this study attempts to measure the moderating impact of shopping value on the linkage between private label usage and store loyalty for the first time.     

A conceptual framework for entrepreneurship education policy: Meeting government and economic purposes

There is an increasing tendency for government policy to promote entrepreneurship for its apparent economic benefit. Accordingly, governments seek to employ entrepreneurship education as a means to stimulate increased levels of economic activity. However, the economic benefit of entrepreneurship education has proven difficult to substantiate. It is perceived that the problem is partly due to the multi-definitional perspectives of entrepreneurship. What stems from this is a lack of a theoretically sound conceptual grounding that will assist policy-makers and educators to locate a program within specific objectives. This article sets out an argument, extending from economic theory, to provide purpose for entrepreneurship education and proposes a policy framework supported by analysis of the Australian government policy context.     

Immigrant entrepreneurship: Scrutinizing a promising type of business venture

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

基于扎根理论的产业集群嵌入对创业的影响研究

产业集群对创业活动具有明显的促进,但现有研究并没有揭示产业集群对创业活动的影响机制。使用嵌入理论可以将产业集群这种宏观抽象的环境因素对创业的影响分解为创业者及其新创企业与集群内其他机构主体的嵌入关系。采用扎根理论方法研究发现,产业集群对创业绩效的影响,即产业集群嵌入,可以分解成三种不同层次的嵌入:制度嵌入、网络嵌入和个人关系嵌入。     

Nascent Entrepreneurship and the Level of Economic Development

Based upon two strands of literature, this paper hypothesizes a U-shaped relationship between a country’s rate of entrepreneurial dynamics and its level of economic development. This would imply a different scope for entrepreneurship policy across subsequent stages of development. Regressing global entrepreneurship (GEM) 2002 data for nascent entrepreneurship in 36 countries on the level of economic development as measured either by per capita income or by an index for innovative capacity, we find support for a U-shaped relationship. The results suggest that a ‘natural rate’ of nascent entrepreneurship is to some extent governed by ‘laws’ related to the level of economic development. For the most advanced nations, improving incentive structures for business start-ups and promoting the commercial exploitation of scientific findings offer the most promising approach for public policy. Developing nations, however, may be better off pursuing the exploitation of scale economies, fostering foreign direct investment and promoting management education. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Social Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics: Does Social Equal Ethical?

This editorial to the special issue addresses the often overlooked question of the ethical nature of social enterprises. The emerging social entrepreneurship literature has previously been dominated by enthusiasts who fail to critique the social enterprise, focusing instead on its distinction from economic entrepreneurship and potential in solving social problems. In this respect, we have found through the work presented herein that the relation between social entrepreneurship and ethics needs to be problematized. Further, we find that a range of conceptual lenses and methodological approaches is valuable as the social entrepreneurship field matures.     

Cognitive mechanisms in entrepreneurship: Why and when enterpreneurs think differently than other people

Because of their importance in creating wealth—both personal and societal—entrepreneurs have long been the subject of intensive study. Past research has focused on important issues such as: Why do some people, but not others, recognize or create new opportunities? Why do some, but not others, try to convert their ideas and dreams into business ventures? And why, ultimately, are some entrepreneurs successful and others not?Efforts to answer these questions in terms of the personal characteristics of entrepreneurs generally yielded disappointing results: contrary to what informal observation suggests, entrepreneurs do not appear to differ greatly from nonentrepreneurs with respect to various aspects of personality. As a result, a growing number of researchers have recently adopted a different approach—one emphasizing the role of cognitive processes in entrepreneurship. This perspective suggests that valuable insights into the questions posed above may be obtained through careful comparison of the cognitive processes of entrepreneurs and other persons.Whereas informative research has already been conducted within this framework, the present study seeks to expand this developing perspective by building additional conceptual bridges between entrepreneurship research and the large, extant literature on human cognition. Basic research on human cognition suggests that our cognitive processes are far from totally rational; in fact, our thinking is often influenced by a number of sources of potential bias and error. It is suggested here that entrepreneurs often work in situations and under conditions that would be expected to maximize the impact of such factors. Specifically, they face situations that tend to overload their information-processing capacity and are characterized by high levels of uncertainty, novelty, emotion, and time pressure. Together, these factors may increase entrepreneurs’ susceptibility to a number of cognitive biases.Several cognitive mechanisms that may exert such effects and that have not previously been considered in detail in the literature on entrepreneurship are examined. These include: counterfactual thinking—the effects of imagining what might have been; affect infusion—the influence of current affective states on decisions and judgments; attributional style—tendencies by individuals to attribute various outcomes to either internal or external causes; the planning fallacy—strong tendencies to underestimate the amount of time needed to complete a given project or the amount of work that can be achieved in a given time; and self-justification—the tendency to justify previous decisions even if they result in negative outcomes. Each mechanism is described, and specific hypotheses concerning its potential impact on the thinking of entrepreneurs are proposed.A final section of the article touches briefly on methods for testing hypotheses concerning these mechanisms and explores the implications of this cognitive perspective for future entrepreneurship research. This section emphasizes the fact that a cognitive perspective can provide researchers in the field with several new conceptual tools and may also facilitate the development of practical procedures for assisting entrepreneurs.     

An Investigation into the Formal Institutional Constraints that Restrict Entrepreneurship and SME Growth in Russia

The impact of institutions on the ease of doing business in transition economies has attracted considerable interest in recent years. The literature suggests that institutional quality is crucial in determining levels of entrepreneurship and SME development in such countries. Our research explores the perceptions of Russian SME owners regarding the quality of the institutional environment that they face making use of semi-structured interviews for data gathering purposes. We identify the political, economic and regulatory barriers that restrict entrepreneurship and SME growth in contemporary Russia, together with entrepreneurs’ views as to what reforms are needed for greater business growth in future.