International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research最新文献

Purpose

This study takes an “entrepreneurship as emancipation” perspective to study entrepreneurs defined as “others” on multiple categories: women entrepreneurs whose ventures are necessity-based, bootstrapped and located in economically impoverished areas (neighborhoods) in two Latin-American countries: Chile and Peru.

Design/methodology/approach

The study takes an interpretivist research approach and analyses inductively interviews with women entrepreneurs.

Findings

The findings reveal how everyday practices in pursuit of emancipation – while conducted within the existing patriarchal social structure – push the boundaries and contribute to changes in the social system via a variety of outcomes such as intergenerational social mobility, personal fulfilment and strengthening the communities in which the women entrepreneurs operate. Furthermore, while the authors find that in the particular Latin-American context under study, entrepreneuring activities become an emancipatory possibility for the everyday women entrepreneurs, they also highlight a “dark side” of their emancipatory projects.

Originality/value

The study contributes to recent critical studies in entrepreneurship by demonstrating the diversity and importance of the “mundane” activities undertaken by “necessity-based” entrepreneurs, and the significant – yet underappreciated – reach of their ventures’ impact on issues well beyond economic considerations.

Purpose

This study investigates the impact of internal expectations, such as fantasy of success and fear of failure and external factors, such as social environment and past experiences, on entrepreneurial choice.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on achievement motivation and social cognitive theories, the authors construct hypotheses and use secondary data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) database and Economic Freedom Index report to empirically test the hypotheses. The authors also use propensity score matching to solve the endogeneity issue and test the robustness.

Findings

Internal expectations (fantasy of success and fear of failure) on business outcomes inversely affect entrepreneurial choices, with a vibrant business environment amplifying and past failure experience mitigating these effects.

Originality/value

Due to the economic recession, governments encourage small businesses. Thus, the complexity of individual entrepreneurial motivations and influencing factors necessitate deeper exploration. This study is one of the first research offering insights into entrepreneurial motivations from combined dimensions and providing theoretical support for strategies promoting public entrepreneurship.

Purpose

Past research is mixed on family small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) use of external advisors and the limited empirical evidence is confined to developed markets. Drawing on the knowledge-based view of the firm, this research focuses on the “familiness” characteristic of SMEs and their use of external accountants as advisors in an emerging marketplace. Using internal resources for basic tasks is proposed to strengthen this relationship from a managerial cognition lens. Focusing also on SME internalization, this research probes the performance ramifications of using external accountants as advisors.

Design/methodology/approach

Hierarchical regression is used to test the hypotheses. The mediation hypothesis is tested by bootstrapping the indirect effect. The interaction hypothesis is visualized with simple slope analysis.

Findings

The results indicate that the familiness of SMEs is positively associated with the use of external advisors, and thereby, with high performance. SMEs with higher international exposure also use these external advisors to a greater degree. Family SMEs that have a focused use of internal resources for basic tasks benefit more from the use of external accountants for advising tasks.

Originality/value

This research sheds light on how family involvement in management influences firm performance, showing the moderating role of the use of internal advisors for basic tasks and the mediating role of the use of external accountants for advising. We add to the knowledge-based view by describing how family SMEs can utilize internal and external knowledge resources simultaneously.

Purpose

Entrepreneurial exit research has overlooked the unique context of exits at retirement age when an exit marks the end of an entrepreneurial career (i.e. retirement). To better understand retirement exit decisions and transitions, this study introduces the concept of work ability (i.e. an individual’s ability to meet work demands) into the entrepreneurial exit literature and, based on role theory, hypothesises its effect and interaction with general life satisfaction in explaining the entrepreneurial exits to retirement. The study clarifies the dynamics between the voluntary and non-voluntary aspects behind exit to retirement.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use mixed-effects ordinal logistic regression with four-wave panel data on 198 Finnish small business entrepreneurs who intend to retire to test hypotheses on the relationship between work ability, general life satisfaction and entrepreneurial exit to retirement.

Findings

The study provides partial support for the hypothesis that work ability negatively impacts entrepreneurial exit to retirement and strong support for the idea that this effect is affected by general life satisfaction. Entrepreneurs who experience higher life satisfaction are likely to retire on their own terms, whereas those less satisfied continue working until declining work ability forces them to retire.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the entrepreneurial exit literature by showing how the exit dynamics unfold in the unique context of entrepreneurial exit to retirement. The theoretical discussion opens up the potential psychological mechanisms behind such dynamics.

Purpose

This study draws on the conservation of resources logic to theorize the role of firm resilience in explaining variations in entrepreneurial well-being under varying conditions of supply chain disruption and dependency ratio.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses ex-post survey data from 373 women entrepreneurs in diverse agricultural supply chains in Ghana, a sub-Saharan African country. Moderated regression analysis is employed to test the research hypotheses.

Findings

The results indicate that firm resilience has both positive and negative relationships with economic and subjective well-being, depending on the level of supply chain disruption and dependency ratio women entrepreneurs face. Notably, the findings suggest that firm resilience contributes more to economic and subjective well-being of women entrepreneurs when dependency ratio is low and supply chain disruption is high.

Originality/value

The study integrates firm resilience research and entrepreneurial well-being literature to provide new insights into theorizing and analyzing the benefit of firm resilience for women entrepreneurs’ well-being.

Purpose

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have led to significant transformations across industries and society, including the field of education. The integration of AI in educational settings has the potential to improve students' learning experience and support their individual competencies when paired with non-AI methods. Despite the growing importance of AI in modern education, there remains a noticeable research gap regarding its use in entrepreneurship education and the effects of Chatbots on students' entrepreneurial competencies. To address this gap, an exploratory study was conducted on undergraduate students who were tasked with using ChatGPT to improve their business model canvas.

Design/methodology/approach

The chosen methodology aligned with the research purpose, aiming to explore the relationship between Generative AI and competencies. Due to the novel nature of the research problem, an exploratory study was conducted using a mixed methods approach. A survey with open- and closed-ended questions was designed, and statistical and text analyses were performed to interpret data and test identified propositions.

Findings

The findings of this study indicate that ChatGPT can enhance the types of students' entrepreneurial competencies considered in this study: spotting opportunities, creativity, vision, valuing ideas and ethical and sustainable thinking. The results show that ChatGPT can be particularly helpful to improve the ability of students of valuing ideas.

Originality/value

Overall, this study highlights the potential of adopting ChatGPT in experiential learning methodologies for enhancing students' entrepreneurial competencies and improving their learning outcomes.

Purpose

The paper follows Jason Cope's (2011) vision of a holistic perspective on the failure-based learning process. By analyzing the research since Cope's first attempt, which is often fragmentary in nature, and providing novel empirical insights, the paper aims to draw a new comprehensive picture of all five phases of entrepreneurial learning and their interplay.

Design/methodology/approach

The study features an interpretative phenomenological analysis of in-depth interviews with 18 failed entrepreneurs. Findings are presented and discussed in line with experiential learning theory and Cope's conceptual framework of five interrelated learning timeframes spanning from the descent into failure until re-emergence.

Findings

The study reveals different patterns of how entrepreneurs experience failure, ranging from abrupt to gradual descent paths, different management and coping behaviors, and varying learning effects depending on the new professional setting (entrepreneurial vs non-entrepreneurial). Analyzing the entrepreneurs' experiences throughout the process shows different paths and connections between individual phases. Findings indicate that the learning timeframes may overlap, appear in different orders, loop, or (partly) stay absent, indicating that the individual learning process is even more dynamic and heterogeneous than hitherto known.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the field of entrepreneurial learning from failure, advancing Cope's seminal work on the learning process and -contents by providing novel empirical insights and discussing them in the light of recent scientific findings. Since entrepreneurial learning from failure is a complex and dynamic process, using a holistic lens in the analysis contributes to a better understanding of this phenomenon as an integrated whole.

Purpose

Extant studies in entrepreneurship have explored factors that influence the birth and growth of start-up firms; however, there appears to be a dearth of studies examining the influence of founders' ambidextrous orientation on start-ups' success, especially their speed of attaining the coveted status of a “unicorn start-up” – which is considered a mega success in practice. This study examines whether and how founding teams’ collective ambidextrous orientation influences their respective start-ups’ pace of becoming a “unicorn”.

Design/methodology/approach

This study empirically analyses 220 interviews by the founders of 83 Indian unicorns in examining the influence of the founding teams’ collective exploration-exploitation capability on their firms' speed to achieve the “unicorn” status. The Cox Hazard model was used to test the hypothesized relationships, and linear ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was used to test the robustness of the results.

Findings

The authors find a strong positive relationship between founding teams’ ambidextrous skills and the speed of becoming a unicorn. The study results suggest that the founding teams’ collective exploratory skills may be more influential in their start-up’s speed to unicorn status vis-à-vis their exploitative skills.

Originality/value

This study finds that the founding teams’ ambidextrous orientation and exploratory skills accelerate their start-up’s speed to becoming a unicorn, contributing to the academic discourse on the “unicorn” phenomenon, which is widely acknowledged as a grand success status for start-ups—especially technology and venture capital funded start-ups—among the practitioners. This study contributes to the academic discourse on firm capabilities and founding-team-related antecedents of start-up success by raising a new dimension of the founding team’s ambidextrous orientation.

Purpose

How does the interplay between entrepreneurship policies and both formal and informal gender equality affect women’s inclination towards self-employment in contrast to men?

Design/methodology/approach

This study introduces and validates a comprehensive multi-level model underpinned by symbolic interactionism, institutional theory, and the nuances of gendered institutions. Employing innovative analytical techniques and leveraging data from 66 countries, we scrutinize how formal and informal gendered institutional arrangements either inhibit or facilitate an environment favorable to women’s entrepreneurial activities.

Findings

Significantly, our research delves into the nuanced effects of specific entrepreneurship policies across diverse nations. While these policies can bridge the gendered resource gap, a profound understanding of broader gender dynamics is crucial for fostering an inclusive entrepreneurial landscape.

Originality/value

Our insights advocate for a more integrated approach to bolster women’s participation in entrepreneurship, thus furthering their socio-economic progression.

Purpose

Previous studies investigating the effects of using social media in the innovation processes of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) yield mixed results, and the conditions for achieving innovation benefits from social media are unclear. The present study seeks to contribute to the understanding of this topic.

Design/methodology/approach

With a basis in the literature on open innovation and SMEs, this study develops a model that explains the role of social media in product innovation processes where technological focus and abilities are converted into product innovations. The model is tested through a survey of 305 Danish manufacturing SMEs.

Findings

Findings show that SMEs with higher technological orientation (TO) are more inclined to use social media in their product innovation processes and that social media use explains 22.4 percent of the relationship between TO and product innovation performance. On the other hand, the data did not support the assumption that SMEs with high TO achieve higher product innovation benefits than low TO SMEs for similar levels of social media use.

Practical implications

The results suggest that SMEs with lower levels of TO could increase their product innovation performance through increased use of social media in their innovation processes.

Originality/value

The study provides new knowledge on the role of social media in SMEs’ product innovation processes. As the level of TO increases, the use of social media in the innovation process becomes an increasingly important mechanism for deriving the full innovation potential from technological focus and abilities.