Determinants of job satisfaction: a European comparison of self-employed and paid employees

The job satisfaction of self-employed and paid-employed workers is analyzed using the European Community Household Panel for the EU-15 covering the years 1994–2001. We distinguish between two types of job satisfaction: job satisfaction in terms of type of work and job satisfaction in terms of job security. Findings from our generalized ordered logit regressions indicate that self-employed individuals as compared to paid employees are more likely to be satisfied with their present jobs in terms of type of work and less likely to be satisfied in terms of job security. The findings also provide many insights into the determinants of the two types of job satisfaction for both self-employed and paid-employed workers.     

The effect of self-leadership training on detached concern and the proactivity of human service professionals

This paper describes a field experiment with a self-leadership training aimed at helping human service professionals to improve their detached concern and proactivity. Whereas detached concern refers to a state in which human service professionals blend compassion with emotional distance in their interaction with clients, proactivity refers to self-starting and change-oriented behaviour to enhance personal or organizational effectiveness. Based on self-leadership theory, we hypothesized that self-leadership training can enhance detached concern and proactivity. Moreover, based on behavioural plasticity theory, we hypothesized that training participants who are low in occupational self-efficacy are more susceptible to the external influence of self-leadership training, than individuals with higher levels of occupational self-efficacy. We conducted a field experiment with a sample of 223 human service professionals who were either assigned to a training group (n = 94), or a wait-list control group (n = 129). In a 3-month follow-up study, we found that self-leadership training had a positive effect on detached concern and that the intervention was especially effective for participants with low to medium initial levels of pretraining occupational self-efficacy. However, the intervention did not affect participants' level of proactivity. This study adds to the literature on workplace learning by demonstrating the potential of a self-leadership training for the transfer maintenance of newly developed soft skills (i.e., detached concern and proactive behaviour) to the workplace and by pinpointing occupational self-efficacy as an individual predisposition that influences training success.     

Life satisfaction and self-employment in different types of occupations

In this research, we investigate whether a positive relationship between life satisfaction and self-employment (versus paid employment) exists while simultaneously considering two occupational dimensions: white-collar versus blue-collar work and high-skilled versus low-skilled work. Using Eurobarometer data for a large number of European countries (2008–2012), our findings confirm that self-employed workers are more satisfied with their lives than paid employees are. A life satisfaction premium is also found when the self-employed and paid employees are compared within similar occupations in terms of collar type and skill level. Finally, self-employment can help to overcome low life satisfaction scores associated with blue-collar and low-skilled work.     

Entrepreneurial aspirations, motivations, and their drivers

Several drivers of entrepreneurial aspirations and entrepreneurial motivations are investigated using country-level data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) for the years 2005 and 2006. We estimate a two-equation model explaining aspirations using motivations and socioeconomic variables, and explaining motivations using socioeconomic variables. We find that countries with a higher incidence of increase-wealth-motivated entrepreneurs tend to have a higher prevalence of high-job-growth and export-oriented entrepreneurship and that a country’s level of social security relates negatively to the prevalence of innovative, high-job-growth, and export-oriented entrepreneurship. We also find that the increase-wealth motive mediates the relationship between socioeconomic variables and entrepreneurial aspirations.

THE INTERSECTION OF THE FIELDS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS: A REVIEW TOWARDS A NEW VIEW

Despite the popularity of promoting entrepreneurship and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for economic development, there is little scientific basis on which policy makers can lean. The scholarly fields of entrepreneurship economics and development economics have been elaborated in isolation and only recently started to intersect. This growing intersection is, however, still fragmented, ad hoc, not based on a unifying theoretical approach and suffering from lack of proper measurement. Better policy making will hence benefit from the extension and deepening of the intersection of these fields. We contribute in this regard by providing a conceptual basis for the eventual elaboration of such a unified theoretical approach. We do so by providing an up‐to‐date review of the intersection of the two fields by noting the progress and gaps; by delineating the externalities associated with entrepreneurship in development and by proposing a synthesis definition of entrepreneurship.     

Entrepreneurial exit and entrepreneurial engagement

This paper investigates whether and how a recent entrepreneurial exit relates to subsequent engagement. We discriminate between six levels of engagement including none, potential, intentional, nascent, young and established entrepreneurship. We use individual-level data for 24 countries that participated in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor during 2004, 2005 and 2006 (some 350,000 observations). Our findings indeed show that a recent exit decreases the probability of undertaking no entrepreneurial activity, whereas it substantially increases the probabilities of being involved in all other engagement levels. Investigating the conditions under which an exit increases engagement in entrepreneurial activities, we find that the probability of entrepreneurial engagement after exit is higher for males, for persons who know an entrepreneur and for persons with a low fear of failure. Educational attainment does not seem to be relevant. Moreover, there exists large cross-country variation in the probability of entrepreneurial engagement after exit.     

Resource dependency and institutional theory perspectives on direct and indirect export choices

This article develops and tests resource dependency and institutional theory arguments to explain two choices facing SME owner/managers: (1) the decision whether to export or not and (2) if the firm exports, the choice between a direct (to customers abroad) and an indirect (using another firm as intermediary) export mode. Binomial logistic regressions on our sample of 871 Dutch SMEs suggest that institutional theory perspectives (owner/managers’ perception of the increased international presence of their domestic competitors, customers' and suppliers' and perceptions of increased use of foreign suppliers) explain the decision to export, while resource dependency theory arguments (owner/managers’ perception of the favorability of access to knowledge and technology, of production costs and of access to capital in the home market) guide the choice between direct and indirect export modes.     

To Work Oneself out of Poverty: The Dutch Experience 1989–96

This paper investigates the effect of finding work by one of the household members on the probability of escaping from poverty in the Netherlands. For households with non-active heads, finding work by the head of the household is the most important (investigated) event connected with exiting poverty, nearly a third of all poverty endings. However, finding a job by the head of the household does not guarantee one leaving poverty. In practice, the success rate yields 25 percent. A multivariate analysis shows that finding a job by the head of the household increases the chance of leaving poverty with 22 percent points. So, some exits from poverty are a result of other factors or are due to selectivity of the job-finders. This difference is much larger when partners or (adult) children find jobs.     

Drivers of entrepreneurial aspirations at the country level: the role of start-up motivations and social security

This paper investigates whether various start-up motivations and a country’s level of social security can explain the prevalence of entrepreneurial aspirations. For entrepreneurial aspirations and motivations we use country-level data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) for the year 2005. We distinguish between the necessity motive, independence motive and increase wealth motive and between aspirations in terms of innovativeness, job growth and export orientation. Our findings indicate that social security negatively affects a country’s supply of ambitious entrepreneurship. Our results also suggest that entrepreneurial aspirations in terms of job growth and export relate positively to the increase wealth motive.