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This paper aims to investigate the effect of decision-making, in terms of the effectuation and causation orientation of small business owners, on the growth of their small businesses in an uncertain environment: Burundi.

On the basis of primary data from a pre-study of 29 expert interviews, a questionnaire was developed and was filled in by 154 small business owners in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura. Subsequently, correlation analyses, a factor analysis and regression analyses were performed to test the hypotheses.

While, on the one hand, the findings show that small business owners who perceive the environment as uncertain are more effectuation-oriented than causation-oriented; on the other hand, the findings show that effectuation and causation orientations do not influence later small business growth. Therefore, other determinants for small business growth in an uncertain environment should be further explored.

This paper fills the research gap of decision-making in relation to small business growth from the entrepreneurs who are among the billion people who live in absolute poverty. On the basis of Western studies, effectuation might be more present in contexts of dealing with many uncertainties of future phenomena, and that it is often positively correlated with firm growth. In contrast, this paper shows that neither an effectuation orientation nor a causation orientation significantly affects small business growth in a context that can be assumed as highly uncertain.

The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of discovery and creation behaviour in opportunity identification on firm performance in a developing country context. By doing so, the study adds new knowledge and insights in researching the entrepreneurial behaviour types at the start-up phase and their eventual effects on firm performance.

The study was conducted amongst Ethiopian tour operators (n = 118), which are formally established small tourism firms. A survey questionnaire, which is the main data gathering tool in this study, was prepared based on a distinction between discovery and creation behaviour with regard to the seven entrepreneurial actions described by Alvarez and Barney (2007). Hence, 14 multiple-item measurement scales were derived to define the entrepreneurial behaviour types. Firm performance was measured using four indicators. A regression analysis was conducted to predict the effect of entrepreneurial behaviour at the start-up phase on firm performance.

The findings of this study provide consistent support for the hypothesis that tour-operating firms in Ethiopia founded through creation behaviour instead of discovery behaviour are performing better in terms of sales, employment, profit and asset size change.

The theoretical contribution of this study is two-fold. First, it provides a scale for measuring the extent to which discovery and/or creation opportunity identification played a role in the start-up phase of the business. Second, the study assesses the effects of discovery behaviour and creation behaviour in opportunity identification on firm performance in a developing country context.

The entrepreneurs' behaviour through which they identify and pursue new opportunities may have a considerable effect on the subsequent performance of their newly established firms. It is, therefore, important to understand effects, which result from differences in entrepreneurs' behaviour at the start-up phase, in terms of outcomes such as firm performance among small businesses. Nonetheless, there is little empirical research conducted in this regard, particularly in the context of developing countries. This study contributes to the literature of entrepreneurship by applying entrepreneurial behaviour types, i.e. discovery and creation, as determinants of small firms' performance in a developing country context. Furthermore, it is one of the few studies concentrating on formal instead of informal operations in an African context.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implications of causation and effectuation behaviour of Ethiopian entrepreneurs on the eventual performance of their newly established small firms. It adds new knowledge and insights to advance the theory of effectuation by extending its scope into the domain of entrepreneurial behaviour and firm performance and by testing one of the operationalized scales in an African context.

This empirical research is conducted amongst Ethiopian tour operators (n=118) based on primary data from the field. The scales are based on Chandler et al. (2011), which are adapted to fit to the tourism sector and validated in an African context using a two-stage exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Hierarchical multiple regression is used to assess the ability of entrepreneurs’ behaviour (i.e. causation and effectuation) at the startup phase to predict the eventual performance of their newly established firms (self-reported changes in employment size, sales, profit and assets) over three years (January 2012-2015).

The findings reveal a varied effect of causation and effectuation on financial and non-financial measures. Causation is positively related to an increase in employment size, whereas the overall effect of effectuation is positively related to financial performance measures, although its dimensions vary in their effects on sales, profit and assets increase. The paper concludes that causation and effectuation have varied implications on firm performance. In other words, unlike the findings of other research in Western contexts, a strong empirical support is not found to claim that effectuation is superior to causation in outcomes such as firm performance in Ethiopian context.

While this paper provides a new data set for entrepreneurship literature, its findings may lack generalisability. Not only it is industry specific (tourism sector), but also it is conducted in a single African country (Ethiopia). Despite its limitations, the paper adds new knowledge and insights for empirical studies in entrepreneurship field on the effects of entrepreneurs’ behaviour, such as causation and effectuation; on firm performance. Future research should focus on other economic sectors and in different African countries before making generalisations about the effect of causation and effectuation behaviour of African entrepreneurs on firm performance.

The findings of this paper can be used in other hospitality and tourism sectors like hotels and souvenir shops since tour operating business includes a broad range of service activities such as sightseeing, accommodation, transportation, recreational activities and shopping. Besides, these results have practical implications to prepare and provide business and management training tools to enhance entrepreneurial and managerial skills of owners of small tourism firms in Ethiopia. The findings of the study can also be applied in other African countries with similar culture and business environments to promote tourism development and success in Africa.

There have been hardly any empirical studies that are undertaken on the implications of entrepreneurial behaviour such as causation and effectuation on the performance of small tourism firms, particularly in an African context. The paper addresses this research gap in entrepreneurship literature in drawing on empirical evidence from small tourism firms (tour operators) in Ethiopia.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between entrepreneurs’ personal values and corporate social responsibility (CSR) orientations among small- and medium-sized enterprises in a developing country, Zambia.

Data were collected through questionnaires. Two linear regression models were used to test the hypotheses.

Self-transcendence values have a significant positive influence on socially oriented CSR but do not influence environmentally oriented CSR. Self-enhancement values do not affect social and environmental CSR orientations. Conservation values have a marginally positive influence on environmentally oriented CSR but no influence on socially oriented CSR. Finally, openness to change has a significant positive influence on environmentally orientated CSR but no influence on socially oriented CSR.

The limitations of this study relates to the sector from which the sample was drawn, other predictors of CSR orientations, use of cross-sectional data, and the replication of this study to validate its findings.

The findings inform policy-makers, scholars, educators, and regulators on the importance of aligning personal values with environmental and social concerns, thereby influencing entrepreneurs’ CSR orientations for the well-being of society and the natural environment.

This paper shows the influence of personal values on CSR orientations among entrepreneurs in a hardly researched Sub-Saharan Africa country.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which performance and environmental sustainability orientations (ESOs) are developed, as well as their association, in a typical impoverished community: the informal economy of an African least developed country (LDC).

Based on a literature review and a pre-study on the spot, a questionnaire was developed before being completed by 140 informal food vendors – that is, “subsistence entrepreneurs” – in Tanzania. t-Tests, correlation analyses and regression analyses were carried out to approach the formulated hypotheses.

The results showed that a significant distinction can be made between basic and advanced performance. In addition, the respondents showed significantly higher levels of awareness of ESO practices that are intangible and are not fully within their control than the so-called personal tangible ESO practices. However, performance was minimally affected by ESOs.

While firm performance and environmental sustainability have been shortlisted on agendas outside academia (e.g. international development organisations) as a means to develop LDCs, the scientific community is lagging behind with regard to these two. This paper is one step forward in unravelling how performance and ESOs occur in LDCs.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the phenomenon of ethnic female entrepreneurship in urban economic life. The focus of the research is on the attitudes and behaviour of Turkish female entrepreneurs in Amsterdam. The main question we pose is: Are ethnic female entrepreneurs special ethnic entrepreneurs or special female entrepreneurs? This paper provides an answer to this question on the basis of field surveys. The results of the case study research on Turkish female entrepreneurs in Amsterdam show that the “ethnic female profile” is a “special female profile” and that Turkish female entrepreneurs are “special female entrepreneurs”, particularly in terms of their personal and business characteristics, and their driving forces and motivations. They appear to combine their ethnic opportunities with their personal characteristics (and other opportunities) in the urban market, and to perform successfully. This is also due to the fact that they have become service providers for not only their own ethnic groups, but also for other groups in the city.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurial motivation and small business growth in one of the poorest emerging countries: the African least developed country (LDC), Rwanda.

On the basis of theoretical resources and a pre-study of interviews with local experts in Rwanda, the authors developed a survey for this study. Based on primary data from 133 Rwandan small business owners, the authors conducted an exploratory factorial analysis to uncover the underlying factors. Subsequently, the authors conducted regression analyses to test the hypotheses.

The analyses show that the predictors for the growth of small businesses can be divided into three factors: one factor with a mix of motivations related to family background, necessity and opportunity motivations; one factor with items predominantly related to opportunity motivation; and one factor with items related to necessity motivation. The first factor has the strongest positive effect on small business growth followed by the second factor. The factor concerning necessity motivation was irrelevant for further inclusion in the regression model, due to insufficient reliability.

The study contributes to the debate in the literature about which entrepreneurial motivations affect the growth of small businesses in LDCs.

The results reported in this study also have implications for how small business growth in LDCs can be supported and stimulated by policy-making practice.

This study shows that entrepreneurial motivation is not a clear distinction between necessity and opportunity, but that a mix of motivations is important to assess the growth of small businesses in an LDC, which is an understudied context.

This paper explores corporate social responsibility in family businesses. In particular, the research investigates family businesses in relation to a wide variety of constituent or stakeholder groups. It reports the preliminary results of focused interviews with 42 small and medium‐sized Dutch family businesses. The data obtained from content analysis suggest that a mix of corporate social responsibility perspectives, help to explain the nature of relationships with, and behaviors toward, various constituency groups. The family character of the business most frequently impacts employee, client, and supplier relationships. Statistically significant interaction effects are reported for the following moderator variables: generation of the owner; company tenure in the community; community size; company size; and inclusion of the family surname in the business name. Interaction effects were also tested for industry type and gender. The paper also outlines some practical implications of the findings and suggests directions for future research.

This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the motives of individuals in Tanzania to start their own businesses on the one hand and the growth of their firms on the other hand.

A survey method was used to gather data from 300 small business owners and managers located in selected cities in Tanzania. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to analyse the relationship between the motivation to start an own business on the one hand and firm growth on the other hand. Three indicators for growth, namely, employment, sales and assets, were used to measure growth.

The results suggest that that pull factors are more important to start the businesses than push factors. This contradicts the common opinion and previous research that push factors are more important than pull factors in developing countries. Furthermore, the study found that pull factors are positively related to firm, whereas push factors are negatively related to firm growth.

It should be noted that while this paper makes a number of contributions, there are some limitations that should be considered when interpreting the results. For instance, the data for this study were collected from only one type of business, i.e. the furniture industry (in Tanzania). Accordingly, we do not know the applicability of these findings to other businesses in other sectors. Therefore, future research should include businesses in other sectors to ascertain if the present findings are specific to the furniture business only or are applicable to other businesses as well.

Our findings indicate that there are differences in motivations among owner-managers in starting the business and subsequent firm performance. Therefore, individuals need different forms of support depending on the level of development of their business, as well as their motivation. For example, we have seen that the presence of role models has a significant effect on business growth. Therefore, the government might consider using the media and other mechanisms to feature stories about successful entrepreneurs.

The authors extend the findings of previous studies that investigate the owner-manager motives and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) growth in developed economy settings, but neglected emerging economies. The study also contradicts the common opinion and previous research that push factors are more important than pull factors in developing countries.

This article is premised on the idea that social networks represent an important, but often overlooked, unit of analysis in management and entrepreneurship studies. The concept of embeddedness, emphasizing the significance of social relationships, is of particular relevance as more and more frequently minorities and immigrants engage in small businessownership. This article borrows from the ethnicity and social network traditions, and offers that an analysis of the ethnic homogeneity of an entrepreneur's strong and weak social ties would be fruitful in gauging entrepreneurial success.