Using Mind Maps to Distinguish Cultural Norms between French and United States Entrepreneurship Students

The globalization of entrepreneurship education requires instructors to understand, and adjust the curriculum for, cultural disparities. This study investigates the impact of cultural norms on the attitudes of university entrepreneurship students in France and the United States—regions with contrasting Hofstede and Global Entrepreneurship Monitor indices. It uses mind maps from students as culturally agnostic open‐ended measures of their attitudes. Two mind maps were collected from each student, one on the appeal of entrepreneurship and one on the apprehension toward entrepreneurship, for a total of 1,213 concepts that were then scored using the Moore–Bygrave staged model of entrepreneurship to measure student likes and dislikes toward innovation, the decision to launch a start‐up, new venture implementation, and venture growth. The Shannon entropy of a mind map was used as a measure of student fixation; lower entropy indicates the student is motivated or deterred by a subset of the curriculum, whereas higher entropy indicates that attitudinal components are more balanced across the curriculum. Participating students were enrolled in similar entrepreneurship courses, and exhibited attitudes with similar entropy. However, French students found the growth stage to be the most appealing and were most apprehensive about innovation, whereas U.S. students found innovation to be the most appealing stage and were most apprehensive about the growth stage, thus revealing different contextual drivers of learning and engagement with the educational materials. This research contributes to the advancement of entrepreneurship education in two ways. First, by using mind maps and differential model‐based semantic scoring, it distinguishes between motivation and deterrence, and accounts for both cognitive and affective components of attitudes toward entrepreneurship. Second, it presents a formative assessment technique with which educators can measure students' cultural disposition to the different topics of an entrepreneurship course, and can then tailor the syllabus to this disposition. This technique can potentially improve the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education in multicultural settings, such as those involving educators, students, or course material from different regions and cultures.     

Linking international entrepreneurship to uncertainty,opportunity discovery,and cognition

In this paper, we suggest a model of international entrepreneurship that links cognition, noticing opportunities, absorbing uncertainty, and bearing uncertainty, to international entrepreneurial action, which is important because of the increased interest in international entrepreneurship. The ways in which cognition affects opportunity identification are discussed to show how international entrepreneurs’ cognitive processes work in terms of identifying opportunities. We also explore the role of cultural differences, with respect to tolerance for bearing uncertainty, on international entrepreneurship. Finally, the model is used to identify areas for future international entrepreneurship research.     

Theory building in the entrepreneurship paradigm

Ever since Newton's Principia set mathematical models at the pinnacle of a scientific paradigm, scientists in all disciplines—not just the physical sciences—have striven to express their theories mathematically. In the social sciences, mathematical models are more often than not a little more than a Laplacian fantasy. Nevertheless, mathematics is being used more and more extensively by social scientists—none more so than economists and business researchers. This paper focuses on one area of social science, entrepreneurship, and examines the difficulties of trying to use mathematics to model entrepreneurship processes.The entrepreneurial process is a dynamic, discontinuous change of state. It involves numerous antecedent variables. It is extremely sensitive to initial conditions. To build an algorithm for a physical system with those characteristics would be daunting to the most gifted applied mathematician. But when you add the requirement that the entrepreneurial process is initiated by the volition of a unique human being, mathematical modeling may be impossible, because there is “an essential non-algorithmic aspect to conscious human action.” This article argues that today's most prominent mathematical representation of entrepreneurship, population ecology, falls far short of Penrose's specification for a “useful theory.”Some observers believe that the answer to entrepreneurship theory may be found in the chaos theory—a relatively new science that was popularized by Gleick in his book Chaos: Making a New Science. This article explores the chaotic zones of several algorithms that provide alluringly simple representations for the entrepreneurial process. One of them is the fundamental equation for population ecology theory. It shows how under some conditions that equation exhibits some wild, chaotic behavior that gives an observer the feel of entrepreneurship. But it is no more than a mathematical metaphor because the accuracy of the measurements that are needed to observe true scientific chaos in the entrepreneurial process are unattainable in practice.     

中美两国创业教育模式比较研究

当今世界创业教育备受关注,在中国高等教育研究中更是新兴领域。美国的创业教育的理论研究以及实践中都有诸多值得借鉴的地方。对中美两国创业教育模式的比较和分析,借鉴美国创业教育的成功经验,有助于促进我国创业教育进一步发展创新。     

Predictors and financial outcomes of corporate entrepreneurship: An exploratory study

Today, there is considerable scholarly and managerial interest in corporate entrepreneurship; that is, those activities that enhance a company's ability to innovate, take risk, and seize opportunities in its markets. Corporate entrepreneurship centers on creating new business by penetrating new markets, pursuing new business, or both.Despite the growing recognition and use of corporate entrepreneurship, little empirical research has been done on its antecedents and potential association with company financial performance. To fill this gap in the literature, this study proposes a model that identifies potential environmental, strategic, and organizational factors that may spur or stifle corporate entrepreneurship. The model also highlights the potential associations between corporate entrepreneurship and corporate financial performance.Building on the existing literature, the study advances five hypotheses that operationalize the model. The hypotheses are tested using data from 119 of the Fortune 500 industrial firms, covering the period 1986 to 1989. This exploratory study's results indicate that: (1) environmental dynamism, hostility, and heterogeneity (multiplicity and complexity of environmental components) intensify corporate entrepreneurship; (2) growth-oriented strategies are associated with increased corporate entrepreneurship, whereas a strategy of stability is not conducive to corporate entrepreneurship; (3) the scanning, formal communication, and integration components of formal organizational structure are positively related to corporate entrepreneurship—increased differentiation and extensive controls stifle corporate entrepreneurship; (4) clearly defined organizational values, whether relating to competitors or employees, are positively associated with corporate entrepreneurship; and (5) corporate entrepreneurship activities are associated with company financial performance and reduced systematic risk.     

A systematic review of women's entrepreneurship and internationalization literature

There has been an increased interest in women's entrepreneurship research due to the changing sociocultural conditions in the global marketplace. Despite this trend, there is still a lack of understanding about the role women entrepreneurs play in the internationalization process of firms. The aim of this article is to systematically review the literature on women's entrepreneurship and internationalization by examining the trends in the research. A bibliometric analysis is conducted on articles in the Web of Science databases to understand which researchers are publishing the most and how they are related to other researchers in the field. In addition, a content analysis of the articles from the bibliometric analysis is conducted that reveals three main clusters from the research: (a) epistemological position and gender, (b) cultural and social reasons for the creation of businesses, and (c) motivations, business characteristics, and performance. From the bibliometric and content analysis, implications for policy makers and future research directions for women's entrepreneurship and internationalization patterns are stated.     

Culture, entrepreneurial orientation, and global competitiveness

Based on Lumpkin and Dess’s conceptualization of entrepreneurial orientation (EO), this paper presents a cultural model of entrepreneurship. We propose that a society’s propensity to generate autonomous, risk-taking, innovative, competitively aggressive and proactive entrepreneurs and firms will depend on its cultural foundation. The role of economic, political/legal, and social factors as moderators of the relationship between culture and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) are also considered. Overall, it is proposed that only those countries with specific cultural tendencies will engender a strong EO, hence experiencing more entrepreneurship and global competitiveness. Specific country examples are discussed.     

文化传承与创业实践育人的研究

大学生在新的经济形势下，充满了对创业的向往。但是大学生创业面临多种困境，很多创业计划仅是一个创意，这种创意又缺乏立足于市场的特点，缺乏中国特色，不能将中国古典文化融入创业。高校教师应在古典文化传承的基础上指导大学生进行创业实践，这样才能不断提高大学生创业的能力，提高大学生创业成功率。     

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.     

A metacultural approach to predicting self-employment across the globe

Drawing from neo-institutional theory, we examine the relationship between preference for entrepreneurship and actual entrepreneurship behavior across multiple countries and cultures. We elucidate how multiple societal-level cultural models, namely Hofstede, Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE), and Schwartz affect the individual-level process connecting expressed preference for self-employment and actual behavior. Our hypotheses were tested using a multilevel technique on a sample of 20,755 individuals across 24 countries. The findings indicate that the moderating effect of predominant cultural cognition is partially supported. Contributions and implications for theory and practice are also discussed.     

A new perspective on entrepreneurial regions: linking cultural identity with latent and manifest entrepreneurship

What are the entrepreneurial places in the USA? Although seminal theorizing on the determinants of entrepreneurship gives culture a unique and important role, systematic empirical evidence linking the distinct cultural identity of regions to their local entrepreneurial spirit and vitality is still scarce. This study offers a first, systematic overview on the nexus between regional cultural identity and latent and manifest entrepreneurship across the USA. To directly assess regional cultural identity, we apply the American Nations and Patchwork Community Types approaches and explore in which way these distinct spatially based cultural regions are reflected by significant differences in entrepreneurial activity and underlying biologically based propensities. We combine annual entrepreneurship rates at the county level with personality data collected in a large-scale, Internet-based study of 3,457,270 US residents. The findings suggest that entrepreneurship culture reflects the dynamic interplay between the region’s cultural identity and its latent and manifest entrepreneurship.     

Task Conflict,Narcissism and Entrepreneurial Capability in Teams Planning a Business: A Moderated Moderation Approach to Explaining Business Planning Performance

Drawing on the dynamic self‐regulatory processing model of narcissism, we hypothesize that in teams planning a business, task conflict relates positively to business planning performance and that this link is reinforced by the team's narcissism. By integrating aspects of human capital theory, this brighter side of narcissism is amplified where the narcissism is aligned with entrepreneurial capability and the team members' belief in their entrepreneurial capability. The findings of the moderated moderation analysis examining 66 teams of entrepreneurship students support the study's assumptions and provide meaningful implications for social psychology and personality researchers in entrepreneurship.     

Macro-level determinants of formal entrepreneurship versus informal entrepreneurship

Based on the eclectic theory of entrepreneurship, this article analyzes macro-level determinants of national rates of formal versus informal entrepreneurship. Our evaluation of the factors identified in this theory reveals a set of empirically-testable, higher-order determinants: economic opportunities, quality of governance, macro-level resources and abilities, performance-based culture and socially-supportive culture. The results of our analysis obtained through the PLS (partial least squares) approach to structural equation modeling contribute to the entrepreneurship literature by providing an empirically-supported model that shows how formal and informal entrepreneurship are driven differently. This model clarifies the conflicting findings in previous research about the effects of socioeconomic, institutional, and cultural factors on entrepreneurship rates across countries. Finally, by showing the effect of each determinant on formal and informal entrepreneurship, this study has important implications for policymakers as well as businesses.     

Sitting on the fence - Untangling the role of uncertainty in entrepreneurship and paid employment for hybrid entry

Prior research agrees that uncertainty in entrepreneurship shapes individuals' decision between hybrid and full-time entry, but largely neglects the role of uncertainty in paid employment. By theorizing that hybrid entrepreneurship is a portfolio of real options in entrepreneurship and paid employment, we argue that both uncertainty in entrepreneurship and paid employment as well as their interplay determine individuals' decisions regarding their mode of entry into entrepreneurship. We validate our theory using data from the Current Population Survey and the Study of Income and Program Participation and contribute to the hybrid entrepreneurship literature and research on uncertainty in entrepreneurship.     

我国专业化创业服务平台发展现状、问题及对策建议

当前,我国创新创业面临高质量发展的要求,创业服务平台建设进入了向专业化转型升级的关键时期。完善专业化创业服务平台建设,有助于提升与创新创业需求相匹配的专业服务能力,亟须进一步推动专业化创业服务平台建设。本文分析当前专业化创业服务平台发展现状、总结发展经验、剖析存在问题,并围绕推动专业化创业服务平台的发展提出对策建议。     

Role Models and Women Entrepreneurs: Entrepreneurial Superwoman Has Her Say

It is suggested that more “role model” women entrepreneurs are needed. However, the gender gap in entrepreneurship remains. This study analyses the narratives of 51 role model women entrepreneurs to explore how they represent women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. We found that in accordance with the contemporary pressure for women to succeed and perform personally and professionally, the voice of the (super)woman doing “individualized entrepreneurial femininity” dominates. The role models narratives obscure race, class, and age barriers; reproduce prevailing gender stereotypes; normalize discriminatory workplace treatment and depict entrepreneurship as an appropriate alternative for working mothers. Implications for policy makers are presented.     

Business accomplishments,gender and entrepreneurial self-image

Drawing on Bem's psychological theory of self-perception, this paper presents and tests a model that examines the impact of business accomplishments and gender on entrepreneurial self-image and explores the definition of entrepreneurship according to Vesper's entrepreneurial typology. Regression techniques are used to identify those business accomplishments that university alumni associate with self-perceptions of entrepreneurship. Experience as a small business person (founding, running, and/or owning a small business) most clearly predicts entrepreneurial self-image. Results also support predictions of both direct and indirect effects of gender as well as direct effects of education and business degree. Results of a separate expert panel study are used to rank business accomplishments according to degree of entrepreneurship. Results of both studies reveal stark contrasts in the implied definition of entrepreneurship between entrepreneurship experts (academic and practitioner alike) and the general business community (as represented by the alumni). This raises questions about the meaning of the term “entrepreneurship”, what the word “entrepreneur”, in particular, conveys to the general public, and the implications for practice and future research.     

Corporate entrepreneurship,customer-oriented selling,absorptive capacity,and international sales performance in the international B2B setting: Conceptual framework and research propositions

In the international business-to-business (B2B) setting, a firm's salespeople often have more direct, prolonged, and intimate contact with the customer and market environments than any other employees of the firm. In fact, for customers in many B2B markets, the salesperson is the face of the firm. The sales function can be characterized as an inherently entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship is founded on knowing or seeing something others do not see, and the sales force has long been recognized as an important source of knowledge about a firm's customers and environment. However, there has been relatively little work linking entrepreneurship to international sales performance, especially in the B2B context.This paper focuses on the intelligence-gathering role of salespeople to firms practicing corporate entrepreneurship in the international B2B setting. More specifically, drawing on the theories of corporate entrepreneurship and the knowledge-based view of the firm, the authors develop a conceptual model that proposes international sales performance for firms practicing corporate entrepreneurship will be enhanced when salespeople practice customer-oriented selling and the firm's absorptive capacity is stronger. Recommended methodology for testing the proposed model is a single-informant survey of sales managers with firms in the domain of interest, using structural equation modeling with moderator tests. The paper concludes with implications and directions for future research.