Gender Characterizations in Entrepreneurship: A Multi‐Level Investigation of Sex‐Role Stereotypes about High‐Growth,Commercial, and Social Entrepreneurs

The purpose of this study is to cast new light on possible gender biases in implicit theories people hold about various forms of entrepreneurial activity. Using social role theory, we delve into sex‐role stereotypes associated with high‐ and low‐growth entrepreneurship and commercial and social entrepreneurship. Predictions were tested with an experimental design using both a between‐subject design to capture group‐level stereotypes and a within‐subject design to capture individual‐level stereotypes. Findings reveal that commercial and high‐growth entrepreneurs are perceived as more similar to men than to women and higher on agency than communality. Conversely, low‐growth entrepreneurs are perceived as more similar to women than men, and higher on communality than agency. Social entrepreneurs are uniquely perceived as similar to both men and women, though they are also considered higher on agency than communality. Interestingly, female, but not male respondents, perceive some overlap between the feminine gender role and high‐growth and commercial entrepreneurship. Notably, those higher on modern sexism perceive less overlap between entrepreneurship and femininity. Taken together, our results suggest that commercial high‐growth entrepreneurship is most strongly male‐typed, which is likely to be problematic for women (and non‐traditional men) wanting to start growth‐oriented ventures. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Trends in the market for entrepreneurship faculty, 1989–1998

The last decade has seen a dramatic rise in the number and status of entrepreneurship programs in schools of business and management. The popularity of entrepreneurship courses has increased dramatically among both graduate and undergraduate students. Alumni and external constituencies of schools of business have generally been supportive of the development of entrepreneurship programs, and in fact in many instances it has been the demands of these constituencies that have led to the creation or expansion of entrepreneurship programs within these schools. The growth in entrepreneurship programs has been fostered by an increase in the popularity of entrepreneurship, an increase in the status accorded entrepreneurs, as well as an increase in the recognition by the business press of the importance of entrepreneurship in the larger economy. Despite the increase in popularity within the field, there has also been considerable resistance from within the faculties of many institutions to the expansion of entrepreneurship programs. Faculty outside the field have been, and many remain, very skeptical about the validity of entrepreneurship as an academic field, the quality and rigor of entrepreneurship research and the need to hire academic faculty to teach and research in the field. The last decade has seen the confluence of these opposing forces.This disparity has created the question of whether the external forces supporting entrepreneurship are overcoming the inertia inherent in academic institutions and succeeding in institutionalizing the study of entrepreneurship within schools of business and management. This study hopes to shed some light on which of these forces is winning by addressing the question of whether the field of entrepreneurship is moving toward or has been institutionalized as part of the curriculum and research within schools of business and management. It also examines the institutionalization of the field by analyzing the change in the number and level of entrepreneurship positions, the quality of the recruiting institutions as well as the number, level and training of entrepreneurship candidates during the years 1989–1998. Data was obtained from the Academy of Management Placement Roster and The Chronicle of Higher Education for the years 1989–1998. Previous entrepreneurship education researchers have examined the number of endowed chairs and professorships, conferences, journals, programs and various centers for entrepreneurial education, however sparse research, if any, has been performed on the trends and characteristics of candidates and positions in the field of entrepreneurship.The results of this study are very encouraging. Both the demand for and the supply of entrepreneurship faculty have increased spectacularly during the last nine years. Between 1989/90 and 1997/98 the number of entrepreneurship positions increased 253% while the number of candidates increased by 94%. During this period the number of positions that list entrepreneurship as the primary field has increased ten-fold from 5 to 50 and the number of candidates that list entrepreneurship as their primary field has increased four-fold from 5 to 20. During the same period the number of secondary and tertiary positions have increased 116% and 78%, respectively, and the number of secondary and tertiary candidates have increased by 67% and 53%. The percentage of entrepreneurship positions listing entrepreneurship as the primary field has increased from 19% in 89/90 to 54% in 1997/98. Overall, the growth in the number of primary entrepreneurship positions is very encouraging.In the end, the results of this study are very encouraging. Both the demand and the supply of entrepreneurship faculty have increased spectacularly during the last nine years. The field has clearly made significant progress toward being institutionalized. However, it is still too soon to conclude that the commitment to entrepreneurship by schools of business and management is irreversible. One clear indication of the tenuous status is that, unlike strategy and international business, there has been no mandate from the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business that entrepreneurship be incorporated into the curriculum of all accredited schools. Entrepreneurship remains an elective subject in most schools and therefore depends on student interest. The field has made great strides during the 1990s, but a couple of hurdles remain.     

Business education and entrepreneurial skills: Evidence from Arab universities

The authors aimed to investigate business undergraduates’ cognition toward entrepreneurship; in particular, they examined four entrepreneurship skills. Data consist of questionnaire responses obtained from 668 undergraduates attending universities in two different Arab countries. The study used a logistic regression to gauge the effect of delivering four entrepreneurial skills on entrepreneurship cognition. The results reveal that business students perceive the four entrepreneurial skills as key elements for starting their own business.     

“Who Done It?” Attributions by Entrepreneurs and Experts of the Factors that Cause and Impede Small Business Success

Attribution theory deals with how individuals infer causality between events and has been used to explain various social psychological phenomena such as achievement, sex stereotyping, and the impact of reward on behavior. But the direct application of the theory to entrepreneurship has been made only recently. The present study tests for the existence of a self-serving attribution bias among entrepreneurs when they enumerate the factors that contribute to or impede their business success as well as for the presence of an actor–observer attribution bias. Three samples are compared. Two are samples of entrepreneurs: one of independent pharmacists and the other a broadly based sample of business owners. A third sample is of experts. The presence of a self-serving attribution bias is shown in the two business owners' samples. In addition, clear differences are shown between the entrepreneurs and the experts, confirming the expectation of an actor–observer attribution bias.     

The theoretical side of teaching entrepreneurship

There is an on-going debate in the entrepreneurship academy about whether we can actually teach students to be entrepreneurs. Its resolution is inextricably connected with our theoretical assumptions because they affect how and what we teach. This article is the first in a set of two contained in this issue that argues that we should develop more refined, cumulative theory and teach it to students in a way that emphasizes learning by doing, which should accelerate student mastery. This first article treats the theoretical side of teaching entrepreneurship, whereas the second addresses the pedagogical side of entrepreneurship theory.Those who advocate that entrepreneurship can be understood and taught to students assume that researchers will eventually develop a more general theory of entrepreneurship. Theory is an essential part of what we teach because we do not know any other way to help students anticipate the future, which is a key to entrepreneurial success, unless we counsel them to rely on luck or intuition. The limitation of luck and intuition is that we do not know how to teach either of them. If students could accurately anticipate the future, they could allocate their resources in the most productive manner, which would ensure their survival, satisfaction and prosperity. Despite the current limitations of our theorizing, theory still offers the most promise as course content for students.This article sides with Kuhn (1970) who argued that theory is the most practical thing that we can teach to students. Its purpose is to comment on the progress to date in developing entrepreneurship theory. It begins by analyzing the contents of 18 syllabi provided by participants at a retreat for entrepreneurship scholars. It notes a wide divergence in topics, and possible causes for this divergence, which seem to be characteristic of a developing academic discipline. It appeals for more theory in our courses and suggests questions to which entrepreneurship scholars can provide distinctive answers when compared with those offered by scholars from other disciplines.One way to add more theoretical content to entrepreneurship courses is to teach students what they ought to do, which is coded language for theory. In addition, instructors should not merely describe what entrepreneurs do, particularly in light of the observation that most of them fail and accordingly have been described as ill-fated fools. Finally, assuming that scholars can offer a more general theory of entrepreneurship, they would be able to emphasize more deductive approaches as opposed to inductive ones.These appeals for more theoretical content depend on several assumptions, which include: (1) the improbability that students can encounter circumstances that would be similar to anecdotal lessons learned in entrepreneurship school; (2) the existence of a process that can be explained theoretically; (3) studying ideal types can be discouraging to aspiring entrepreneurs if they do not fit a special profile; (4) the high failure rate among entrepreneurs makes suggesting to students that they ought to pattern their activities after them seem illogical; (5) studying average profiles, anecdotal recommendations, rules of thumb or war stories can only lead to average returns, given semi-strong information efficiency; and (6) leveraging the motivational benefits of studying successful entrepreneurs may have detrimental, unintended consequences, among others.This article notes possible causes of non-cumulative theory building and suggests several opportunities to build cumulative theory. Although it acknowledges that the field of entrepreneurship currently lacks cumulative theory, it offers a contingency approach for teaching entrepreneurship, which is actually very similar to the scientific method used by scholars to develop hypotheses about the future.     

“Seize the Deal,or Return It Losing Your Free Gift”: The Effect of a Gift‐With‐Purchase Promotion on Product Return Intention

The current article sheds light on an important issue in marketing: how marketers can prevent consumers from returning previously purchased goods. This research examines the relationship between a gift‐with‐purchase promotion and consumer product returns, hypothesizing that consumers who purchase products that come with a free gift will be less likely to return the products. Evidence shows that a gift‐with‐purchase promotion reduces consumer product returns and that this relationship is mediated by perceived loss in returning a product. Then, the results indicate that the choice of free gifts reduces product return intention and that this relationship is serially mediated by perceived ownership and perceived loss. The findings further suggest that when consumers with high product involvement can select free gifts among alternatives, they tend to perceive more ownership and loss and thereby are less likely to return the promoted product. Overall, the current research proposes that consumers prefer to seize the deal rather than to return it when they get a gift‐with‐purchase, have a chance to select a free gift, and are highly involved with the product.     

The influence of people on the performance of IPO firms

Until the mid-1990s, the study of initial public offerings (IPOs) fell mainly under the purview of the finance literature. Within the last 10 years, however, management and entrepreneurship scholars have delved more into this subject area, as well. This article summarizes research examining IPO firms that has appeared in management and entrepreneurship journals, highlighting in particular the influence of individuals (namely executives and boards of directors) on IPO firm outcomes.     

International entrepreneurship in internet-enabled markets

Despite the increasing numbers of businesses that are already using the internet to pursue international opportunities, and the latent potential for such activity from rising internet adoption levels, the international entrepreneurship literature has paid limited attention to the phenomenon. To address this gap, we review past research in international entrepreneurship, as well as the broader fields of entrepreneurship, international business, marketing, management and management information systems, to identify firm-level resources that are associated with the successful pursuit of international opportunities in internet-enabled markets. We identify three such internet-related firm-level resources: online reputation, online technological capabilities, and online brand communities. We develop a propositional inventory of the expected relationships, identify measures expected to be useful to future scholars in this area, and present the implications of our review for future international entrepreneurship research.     

Defining a forum for entrepreneurship scholars

This study defines a forum for entrepreneurship scholars by updating [MacMillan, I.C., 1993. The emerging forum for entrepreneurship scholars. J. Bus. Venturing 8, 377–381]. A three-stage process is used in which entrepreneurship scholars identify and subjectively rate journals as publication outlets for entrepreneurship research. 25 journals were rated “appropriate” or higher, including both generalist and entrepreneurship specialist journals, both academic and practitioner journals, and journals from multiple academic disciplines. Compared to the ten-year earlier survey, there is a strong increase in the ratings of specialist journals.     

Middle managers' perception of the internal environment for corporate entrepreneurship: assessing a measurement scale

This study assesses the measurement properties of a scale that measures the key internal organizational factors that influence middle managers to initiate corporate entrepreneurship activities. In this study, corporate entrepreneurship is used in a broad sense to include the development and implementation of new ideas into the organization. Using this definition, this study describes an instrument used to empirically identify the internal conditions that influence middle manager's participation in corporate entrepreneurship activities. During the last decade, the role of the middle manager in corporate entrepreneurial activity has been recognized in the literature. The empirical research on the internal organizational factors that may foster middle manager activity has been limited, both in volume and scope. However, the literature does converge on at least five possible factors. The appropriate use of rewards: The literature stresses that an effective reward system that spurs entrepreneurial activity must consider goals, feedback, emphasis on individual responsibility, and results-based incentives. This factor, therefore, highlights middle managers' role in this regard. Gaining top management support: The willingness of senior management to facilitate and promote entrepreneurial activity in the organization, including championing innovative ideas as well as providing necessary resources, expertise or protection. This factor captures middle managers' role in this area. Resource availability: Middle managers must perceive the availability of resources for innovative activities to encourage experimentation and risk taking. Supportive organizational structure: The structure must foster the administrative mechanisms by which ideas are evaluated, chosen, and implemented. Structural boundaries tend to be a major stumbling block for middle management in corporate entrepreneurial activity. Risk taking and tolerance for failure: Middle managers must perceive an environment that encourages calculated risk taking while maintaining reasonable tolerance for failure. The literature on the internal factors was utilized to develop an assessment instrument called the Corporate Entrepreneurship Assessment Instrument (CEAI). The instrument contained 84 Likert-style questions that were believed to assess a firm's internal entrepreneurial environment. Understanding middle manager perceptions about the internal corporate environment is crucial to initiating and nurturing any entrepreneurial process. A scale such as the CEAI, therefore, could be very useful for companies that wish to embark on a strategic transformation through corporate entrepreneurship. The measurement properties of the CEAI, including a factor analysis and reliability assessment, were determined. Results confirmed that five distinct internal organizational factors, similar to those suggested in the literature, do exist. Based on how the items loaded on each factor, the factors were entitled management support, work discretion, organizational boundaries, rewards/reinforcement, and time availability. The reliability of each of these factors also met acceptable measurement standards. From a managerial perspective, the results indicate that CEAI can be a useful tool in diagnosing a firm's environment for corporate entrepreneurship, identifying areas where middle managers can make a significant difference, and develop strategies that can positively spur and sustain corporate entrepreneurship efforts. The results of such diagnosis can be useful in designing effective training programs for middle managers.     

‘I send the wife to the doctor’– Men's behaviour as health consumers

This paper explores men's behaviour and attitudes in relation to health matters. While there has been some practical and research progress in engaging with users of health services, there is less development in the area of engaging non‐users. In effect, all members of the society can be the consumers/users of health promotion, though not all are. This paper reports on the first stage of a wider project aimed at increasing the effectiveness of skin cancer awareness messages aimed at men. The project focuses on men over 50 from an area of socio‐economic disadvantage, since these men tend to have the lowest life expectancies in general, and the highest incidences of mortality for skin cancer both at a national and international level. The research was conducted through community‐based focus groups and while the sample was relatively, small it produced some interesting outcomes in terms of how this cohort audited and responded to public health promotion campaigns; how they perceive cancer and health issues in general; how they respond to health issues; and how they view both the public health service in Ireland and the ways health professionals relate to them. It confirms many theories about how men view their health and how they respond to health promotion campaigns. Among other points, it raises questions about the possible mixed benefits of testimonial‐based advertising. It also indicates that there may be further layers of complexity connected to identity, fatalism, problem solving and respectful treatment that have not been sufficiently articulated in the literature. It points to the need for greater engagement by service planners and providers with the needs of their target audience, which may require a more encompassing definition of service user.     

“My Avatar and Her Beloved Possession”: Characteristics of Attachment to Virtual Objects

Given the increasing emphasis on online consumption in our digital era, the current study aimed to explore the avatar–self relationship in association with the concept of product attachment. Through constructing their own avatars and selecting certain virtual possessions for them, participants in the sample were able to represent different elements of their identities to be manifested in their embodied virtual presence. Certain attributes and emotions characterizing both the real as well as the virtual existence of participants appeared to exert important influences. Additional gender differences emerged, in that males were more likely to represent their possible and hidden self‐aspects, and focus on the functional meaning of virtual products, while females were more likely to reveal their ideal selves, and attach symbolic meaning to their virtual possessions. For female participants, the role of experimentation emerged as an important construct, with their avatars often reflecting upon their ambivalence toward perceived social norms and societal expectations. Implications for scholars and practitioners are discussed.     

“Retail is detail! Give consumers a gift rather than a bundle”: Promotion framing and consumer product returns

Retailers often use the promotion strategy of offering supplementary products (e.g., free gift, bundle) to attract consumers and increase sales. Despite the growing literature on the promotions that are differently framed but offer economically identical values, little research has examined the link between promotion framing and consumer product returns. The current article sheds light on this relationship, hypothesizing that a free gift promotion would be superior to a bundle promotion in reducing consumer product returns. The findings suggest that a gift‐framed promotion leads to a lower product return intention than an economically equivalent bundle promotion, because consumers tend to perceive more loss from giving up the gift‐framed (vs. bundle‐framed) deal. Further, this study examines a moderating role of brand familiarity (familiar vs. unfamiliar) and shows that the merits of free gift framing on product return intention via perceived loss are amplified (attenuated) when the promoted brand is familiar (unfamiliar). Overall, the investigations of this study imply that it is better to frame a promotion as a “free gift” than a “bundle” to increase perceived loss in returning the purchase and thus to decrease consumer product returns. This strategic intervention works especially when the gift is offered by familiar brands.     

The Resource‐Based View in Entrepreneurship: A Content‐Analytical Comparison of Researchers' and Entrepreneurs' Views

The resource‐based view (RBV) is one of the most influential perspectives in the organizational sciences. Although entrepreneurship researchers are increasingly leveraging the RBV's tenets, it emerged in strategic management. Despite some important similarities between entrepreneurship and strategic management, there are also important differences, raising questions as to whether and to what extent the RBV needs to be adapted for the entrepreneurship field. As a first step toward answering these questions, this study focuses on resources as the fundamental building block of the RBV and presents a content‐analytical comparison of researchers' and practicing entrepreneurs' resource conceptualizations to derive similarities and differences between established theory and entrepreneurial practice. We find that although the two conceptualizations exhibit some overlap, there are also important differences in the emphasis on different dimensions of resources and ownership requirements, as well as in the understanding of how those resources shape outcomes. These results suggest important contextual conditions when applying the RBV's tenets within the field of entrepreneurship.     

Reconceptualizing risk perception: perceiving Majority World citizens at risk from ‘Northern’ consumption

The premise of this paper is that the consumption behaviour of ‘Northern’ citizens places Majority World citizens at great risk. A theoretical evolution suggested in this paper is the extension of the notion of risky consumption to include the impact of consumption on the human security of others. Until people can envision that their consumption behaviour places others at risk of exposure to harm, they will not see the need to perceive, assess and manage the risk. The paper tenders a preliminary reconceptualization of risk perception, using the conventional consumer behaviour model constructs of personal, distribution channel and situational factors. From this new perspective, instead of judging whether the good or service is risky for a ‘Northern’ citizen to consume, risk perception scholars would examine people's perceptions of whether their consumption places fellow citizens at risk, the people labouring and producing the goods and services.     

Advertising “like a girl”: Toward a better understanding of “femvertising” and its effects

This paper investigates the impact of femvertising (female empowerment advertising). More specifically, it hypothesizes that femvertising (vs. traditional portrayals of females in advertising) will reduce ad reactance among a female target audience, and that this in turn will enhance ad and brand attitudes. The results of three experimental studies indicate that this is indeed the case, and that the results hold across print and digital media, for five different product categories, and for femvertising focusing on challenging female stereotypes in terms of physical characteristics as well as the roles and occupations used to portray women in advertising. Although previous studies of the effects of female portrayals tend to focus on social comparison and self‐identity, the current paper considers the role of psychological reactance to (more or less) stereotypical portrayals in explaining these effects. The results suggest that marketers have much to gain from adapting a more proactive and mindful approach to the female portrayals they use in their ads.     

Money talks – a program to improve financial literacy of teens

Many researchers have studied and documented the financial literacy of youth. Even more have developed educational programs or curricula to teach financial and consumer issues to youth; however, few have actually evaluated the effectiveness of their programs. The Money Talks: Should I be Listening? curriculum, developed by a University of California Cooperative Extension team, was created to appeal to teenagers as it increased their financial literacy. In order to develop a program that young people would readily use, and from which they would learn, teenagers were surveyed prior to program development to determine the topics that were relevant to them, the educational format that appealed to them, and when and where they preferred to receive the information (Varcoe, Peterson, Garrett, Martin, Rene, & Costello, 2001). This paper discusses the effectiveness of The Money Talks: Should I be Listening? curriculum on the financial knowledge and behaviour of participants using the series. The curriculum was designed for use as a part of school curriculum as well as for presentation in other venues. The findings indicate that using the curriculum did improve the financial literacy of high school students with significant positive changes in both knowledge and behaviour. They have a better understanding of the value of savings and have changed behaviours. It is interesting to note that the males demonstrated a significantly greater increase in knowledge from pre‐test to post‐test than females. Perhaps the females have more interest in or knowledge of financial issues prior to participation in this project? Overall the results of this study are consistent with the findings of others. Research based curricula in personal finance seem to yield results. This age group has specific requirements for method of delivery and location of the seminars suggesting that it is important to keep the materials interactive. To address this issue, a web‐site http:www.moneytalks.ucr.edu was added to the program. Included on the web‐site are interactive games and a video on the importance of saving. The teens are naturally more interested in learning about the consumer and financial issues they perceive as salient in their lives at that particular time. Educators should identify topics of interest to the teens and develop, or use existing, interactive methodology to present the information.     

Management practices in U.S. affiliates of foreign-owned firms: Are “they” just like “Us”?

Despite considerable debate about foreign direct investment in the United States, little research has examined the inner workings of U.S. affiliates of foreign-owned firms. This study examines the management practices in 249 U.S. affiliates of foreign-owned firms. Findings show that practices in marketing, human resource management, and manufacturing tend to more closely resemble the practices of local competitors than those of the foreign parent, whereas for practices in financial control the dominant resemblance is to the parent. Furthermore, findings reveal that affiliates are comprised overwhelmingly of Americans, not only at lower levels of the organization but also in key executive positions, although affiliates of Japanese firms stand apart in their greater reliance on expatriates. Foreign affiliates of multinational firms are revealed as differentiated sets of practices, shaped by the interplay of local responsiveness and internal consistency. The findings also make plain that U.S. affiliates of foreign-owned firms are in many ways very much like American firms. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Toward a cross‐cultural theory of “exemplary organizations”: Evidence from Cuba

Management interest in “good companies to work for,” or “exemplary organizations,” has attracted the interest of researchers in the United States and Europe. We contribute to the literature on exemplary organizations by studying the representation of “exemplary organizations” in an unusual context, Cuba, and by inviting scholars to explore the cross‐cultural differences between what in different countries is viewed as an exemplary organization. Until now, studies on the best companies to work for have focused on companies operating in capitalistic economies. We aim to develop a better understanding of the representation of what a good place might be in an economic and ideological context that is in sharp contrast with the contexts in which this theme has been studied previously. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A wakeup call for the field of entrepreneurship and its evaluators

In this editorial, I seek to inform administrators and members of promotion and tenure committees about significant developments in the field of entrepreneurship. Using both objective and subjective data, I present a case for why entrepreneurship journals should be considered on par with other, premier management journals, which are widely considered to be unequivocal “A” journals used to assess scholarly contribution and productivity. I entertain and address common objections to equal treatment for entrepreneurship journals, and conclude with a call to action for both entrepreneurship scholars and the field's evaluators.