Entrepreneurship: Psion and Europe

This article is drawn from the first of the 1998 Stockton Lectures which focus on the subject of entrepreneurship. Here, David Potter, the founder of Psion, uses his own experience to identify the challenges facing business in Europe in a world of rapid and continuing change. For him, the key equation is Risk=Opportunity.     

Wages and skills utilization: effect of broad skills and generic skills on wages in Singapore

Many people go for training to upgrade their skills which is hoped to pave the way for better pay. But what are the kinds of skills that really affect wages? Employers have emphasized the value of generic skills such as interpersonal and communication skills, teamwork and problem solving. Does possession of these skills translate to at least the same or better wages as compared with having broad skills represented by educational qualifications and job‐related training? This paper, arising from the research project on the Skills Utilisation in Singapore, aims to answer which skills can have more influence on wages and which job‐related training in terms of training duration can have more impact on wages. Using ordinal logistic regression, our findings show that educational qualification and initial training time can influence wages as well as utilization of leadership, planning and problem‐solving skills.     

Nascent Entrepreneurship Research: Achievements and Opportunities

This paper provides an overview of the articles contained in this issue, all of which were presented at a major research conference on nascent entrepreneurship hosted by the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Durham University UK in September 2005. It also sets the papers in their broader research context and identifies some of the achievements made and challenges faced by researchers in this relatively new field.     

Entrepreneurship and Ethics: A Literature Review

During the past twenty years, there has been an explosion of new interest in entrepreneurs and their activities. Yet only recently has serious research attention been devoted to the ethical problems encountered by entrepreneurs and their organizations. Entrepreneurs face uniquely complex moral problems related to basic fairness, personnel and customer relationships, distribution dilemmas, and other challenges. This essay surveys contemporary research in entrepreneurial ethics, examines the kinds of ethical dilemmas entrepreneurs confront, identifies major research topics and methodological approaches, and discusses possible directions for future research.     

Entrepreneurship: A Personal View

Entrepreneurship studies is a booming area of research, but, as previous commentators have noted, the literature has become pluralistic and diffuse. There is a profusion of concepts, many of them ill defined. Theory and empiricism are only weakly linked. There is a distinct lack of historical perspective. It is proposed that entrepreneurship studies get “back to basics” and develop the theoretical tradition established by the early literature. This will involve greater use of formal models and greater attention to cognition and information processing. It will lead to a more rigorous and relevant body of theory and to more meaningful empirical research.     

Entrepreneurship and Growth: Creative and Equilibrating Events

This paper investigates the constraints on the growth of creative and equilibrating entrepreneurial events. The empirical material is drawn from the Greek economy. It was observed that the two different levels of entrepreneurial events involve constraints of different kinds. This paper analyses those constraints and their significance for entrepreneurial growth.     

Entrepreneurship and welfare

Here, I examine returns to entrepreneurship using a standard measure of welfare, the per-capita consumption expenditure. This analysis, using quantile regressions, reveals the existence of a welfare hierarchy in occupations. The results suggest that, across the welfare distribution, entrepreneurs who employ others have the highest returns in terms of consumption, while those entrepreneurs who work for themselves, that is, self-employed individuals, have slightly lower returns than the salaried employees. However, self-employment entails higher returns than casual labor and a relative escape from poverty.     

稻作与创业:中国企业家精神南北差异的文化起源

中国的企业家精神呈现南盛于北的特征.基于2017年全国流动人口卫生计生动态监测调查和266个地级及以上城市数据,本文以1957年和1995年水稻播种面积占比衡量稻作方式,利用流行病学研究方法检验其对家庭创业选择和创业企业后续发展的影响.研究表明,水稻种植方式有利于推动家庭从事创业活动,但对企业雇员规模及其成长性的消极影响并不确定,其中的作用机制是,稻作有利于强化基于亲缘和地缘形成的熟人社会关系,为创业者提供物质资源、市场信息和情感支持,从而推动家庭开展创业活动.这意味着大众创业、万众创新政策落实过程中,应该考虑南北地域的差异性,实现地域文化与政策激励的良性耦合,同时应健全和完善法律法规等正式制度保障,推动创业企业向现代企业转型.     

Entrepreneurship and small business: The Hungarian trajectory

In Hungary the superiority and the rationality of the centrally planned system had already been questioned in the mid-1950s and in lower or louder voice ever since. After the suppressed revolution and initiated systemic changes of 1956, the comprehensive economic reform of 1968 was an attempt to combine plan and market keeping basic characteristics of the system as dominance of state ownership, high centralization, the power of the single party, etc. Despite several new initiatives, this experiment failed.From these initiatives, four will be dealt with: the birth and flourishing of the second economy, the rise and fall of the intrapreneurial groups, the turn from toleration to promotion of private small business, and the start of the divestiture privatization. The four junctions of the special Hungarian “reform trajectory” nolens-volens prepared the fundamental systemic changes: the transition to a proper market economy—partly by introducing basic constitutents of the new system, and partly by contributing to the erosion and disintegration of the former system.The analysis of these historical lessons helps to understand the present situation of the Eastern European economies and in particular of Hungary. It facilitates the identification of the major tasks to stop stagnation and decline, to start revitalization of these economies, and instead of the use of routine International Monetary Fund and World Bank schemes, to elaborate adequate forms and methods of aid.In the European market economies, the share of small business in employment (measured by firms up to 100 employees) might be around 50%, in Hungary, about 20%, in Poland about 15%, and less in the other Eastern European countries. The development of entrepreneurship and small business is one of the major prerequisites of the transformation of these economies. The knowledge, however, about the actual situation, the conditions needed to increase the number of start ups, the rate of survival, and the growth potential of small and medium-sized enterprises is rather scarce.From the findings of the questionnaire survey, the following conclusions can be derived:1. The increase of the share of the SMEs should be based on their better competitiveness in domestic and export markets; this is overshadowed now by the quantitative ambitions.2. SMEs have advantages vis-à-vis the large enterprises as well as disadvantages. To counterbalance them, an accelerated development of the infrastructure for banking, training, consultancy, and information; preferential treatment (credits, taxation) in some cases, networking, and more services of the trade associations are needed.3. In a declining, depressed economy, one cannot expect the renaissance of entrepreneurship and small business. Fighting high inflation, loosening restrictions, and a better management of the country's debt service should create a healthier economic environment—for small, medium, and larger enterprises equally.     

Entrepreneurship and innovation in Ghana: enterprising Africa

This study adopts a multi-level theoretical framework to examine data from 496 entrepreneurs in Ghana. Seven types of innovation activity are analysed against three categories of variables: the characteristics of the entrepreneur, the internal competencies of the firm, and firm location. Across all respondents, the incidence of incremental innovation was far greater than novel innovation. The extent of innovation was related to the education level of the entrepreneur. Firm size and involvement in exporting were positively related to innovation, but firm growth is less systematically so. Innovation was greater in firms located in conurbations compared to firms located in large and small towns. We conclude with suggestions for policy to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in Ghana.      

Entrepreneurship and Development: The Role of Clusters

Defining entrepreneurship as the creation of new organisations,this paper explores,from a literature review standpoint,the moderating effect of clusters on the impact of entrepreneurship on development. To identify potential causes of this moderating effect, the paper focuses on three different impacts: entrepreneurship on development, clusters on development,and clusters on entrepreneurship. The findings of the paper are threefold.First,entrepreneurship is positively associated with economic growth.Given the importance of entrepreneurship in changing the economic and social structure of the economy,more research on the impact of entrepreneurship on development - i.e. focus on capabilities rather than on output - is needed. Second,it is difficult to reach empirical generalisations on the impact of clusters on development and entrepreneurship given conceptual and methodological constraints. Both positive results and caveats are found at different levels of analysis and at different stages of development of a cluster. Finally, given the previous finding, it is difficult to generalise on the impact of clusters on the association between entrepreneurship and development. Consensus on and validity between conceptual and operational definitions of clusters; consideration of context as well as process and, therefore, quantitative and qualitative methods; and differentiation between levels of analysis controlling for cluster stage and strength are the main criteria for future studies to consider to disentangle the impact of clusters on entrepreneurship, development and the association between entrepreneurship and development.     

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.     

Entrepreneurship: From motivation to start-up

The goal of this article is to reveal the origins of entrepreneurial motivation and to identify the logics of action (entrepreneurial projects) associated with each dimension of this attitude. The study looks to answer the following questions: What needs are at the beginning of a business, what are their intensities, and to what extent does entrepreneurial motivation influence projects? Using questionnaires answered by entrepreneurs who have just created their business, we evaluate the characteristics of entrepreneurial motivation (needs and their intensities), identify the antecedents liked to this attitude, and isolate the entrepreneur logics of action (imitation, innovation–adventure, reproduction, and innovation–valorisation). This study is supported by a theoretical framework that is the result of research on motivation and entrepreneurship. A series of causal relations are isolated and then tested. Analysis enables an ensemble of conclusions to be drawn on entrepreneurial motivation. Pathways of motivation lead to logics of action linked to innovative projects and explain the phenomenon of reproduction (or imitation) found in some entrepreneurs. Development objectives and a need for personal independence are identified at the beginning stages of entrepreneurial planning. Creators hope that their business will bring tangible financial and material results. Entrepreneurs are conscious that they must make a commitment across a range of dimensions for their organisation (managerial, commercial, etc.). In their quest for valorisation, entrepreneurs take risks, exploiting advantageous business contexts, thanks to their competences, and show a need for creativity. These two dimensions (competences and creativity) are associated with the objective of independence. The logic of reproduction is characterised by self-confidence (locus of control) and responds to the objective of business development.     

创业绩效结构模型:基于创业绩效测量理论的修正

创业在实践中的回归引起了学术界的极大关注,但是创业绩效的内涵却依旧模糊。本文紧紧围绕"创业绩效是什么"这一创业领域的核心问题,在修正了基于合约的创业绩效理论的基础上,构建了由生存、成长、声誉等三个维度组成的创业绩效结构模型,其有效性在实证研究中通过验证性因素分析得到了验证。     

Entrepreneurship and Risk Premium

This article deals with the measurement and determination of entrepreneurship. It utilises the issue of the absence of the entrepreneur from neoclassical theory and uses the theory of portfolio management to establish a model connecting risk premium with the entrepreneurship premium. It shows that the non-systematic risk may be a satisfactory proxy of the level of entrepreneurial activity. The development of successful entrepreneurial activity proxy contributes towards the development of a theorisation of entrepreneurship and an assessment of its contribution to growth.     

Entrepreneurship and Risk Aversion

Evans and Jovanovic (1989, Journal of Political Economy 97(4), 808–827) find that wealth is an important determinant of business startups due to liquidity constraints. However, Cressy (2000, Economic Letters 66, 235–240) argues that if risk aversion is a negative function of wealth, Evans and Jovanovic’s empirical results could be spurious and the positive effect of wealth could be due to the omission of risk aversion in the regression equation. In other words, according to Cressy, one’s wealth does not have any effect on business startups once the degree of risk aversion is accounted for. This paper attempts to investigate the validity of Cressy’s conjecture. We empirically examine the effect of wealth on the transition into self-employment, while allowing for the effect of risk aversion. Our empirical findings show that Evans and Jovanovic’s (1989) results are robust, i.e., wealth has a positive effect on business startups even allowing for the confounding effects of risk aversion.