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Entrepreneurial action under uncertainty has captured the interest of scholars and practitioners alike. However, this growing body of research has yet to connect entrepreneurial action with actual actions of entrepreneurs. We combine insights from effectuation theory and the psychology of entrepreneurship to investigate drivers of entrepreneurial actions involved in starting and running ventures, particularly optimism, self-efficacy and the use of causal and effectual logics.

The study employs a unique mixed-method approach combining a survey with experience sampling data. After measuring demographics, preference for effectual or causal logics and psychological variables, the 197 US entrepreneurs sampled entrepreneurs logged their daily actions in the form of asks during 60 consecutive days.

Results suggest that self-efficacy and causal logics are key drivers of entrepreneurial actions, while optimism serves as a deterrent. Interestingly, the impact of self-efficacy on actions is moderated by the entrepreneur’s experience level, measured both in years and past asking experience.

The potential of the ask as the basic mechanism for entrepreneurial actions is explored. Based on the findings, the authors offer new and fertile insights by linking psychological traits to entrepreneurial actions, causal and effectual logics and entrepreneurial expertise development.

There is a paucity of studies on factors influencing social entrepreneurial behaviours or actions. Against this background, this study aims to explore factors and challenges affecting Enactus members’ social entrepreneurial actions in Nigeria.

This study adopted a qualitative approach, and data were gathered through three focus group discussions involving 25 people (18 Enactus members, 4 faculty advisors and 3 business advisory board members). The study adopted a content analysis technique for data analysis.

The findings reveal that social mission orientation, desire to create social impact and social problems influence Enactus members’ social entrepreneurial actions. Other influencing factors include social entrepreneurial passion, moral obligation, social empathy and social support. In addition, the study finds that financial and time constraints affect Enactus members’ social entrepreneurial actions.

The findings have implications for social entrepreneurs/enterprises, governments/policymakers and Enactus members.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first qualitative study that provides insights into the factors influencing a group of people towards social entrepreneurial actions.

This study aims to investigate how social entrepreneurial role models influence social entrepreneurial self-efficacy, social entrepreneurial intent and social entrepreneurial action, with moral obligation as a moderator.

A cross-sectional survey of 261 pupils in the South African province of the Eastern Cape was used in the research study. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses.

The research revealed that having social entrepreneurial role models has a positive impact on both social entrepreneurial self-efficacy and social entrepreneurial intent. In addition, a connection was found between social entrepreneurial intent and entrepreneurial action. The influence of moral obligation was found to be a positive and a significant moderator. Moreover, the association between social entrepreneurial role models and social entrepreneurial intent was mediated by social entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

The findings are not generalizable to nonstudent samples because students constituted the sample for gathering data. Future study therefore requires considering nonstudents to generalize the outcomes. This research should be replicated in other South African provinces and other developing countries for comparative outcomes.

Since social entrepreneurial role models have been practically linked to social entrepreneurship intent and entrepreneurial efficacy, understanding the factors that influence student’s decision to start a social enterprise is critical in South Africa to develop targeted interventions aimed at encouraging young people to start new businesses. Policymakers, society and entrepreneurial education will all benefit from the findings.

This study contributes to bridging the knowledge gap as it investigates how social entrepreneurial role models influence social entrepreneurial self-efficacy, social entrepreneurial intent and social entrepreneurial action, with moral obligation as a moderator. Encouraging social entrepreneurship among South African youth would also help address societal issues. This is a pioneering study in the context of an emerging economy such as South Africa, where social entrepreneurship is so integral.

The purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap between entrepreneurial implementation intention and subsequent actions, addressing the isotropic issue under uncertain entrepreneurship.

The authors conducted two rounds surveys, a total of 2,350 individuals are surveyed, and 240 of whom expressed entrepreneurial intention but had yet to start a business comprised the sample.

This research finds that entrepreneurial implementation intention has a significant positive relationship with subsequent actions, affordable loss mediates the effect of implementation intention on subsequent actions, environmental uncertainty negatively moderates the relationship between affordable loss and subsequent actions, and the indirect effect of entrepreneurial implementation intention on entrepreneurial action can be enhanced at the low level of environmental uncertainty.

This study contributes new insights to the literature on Rubicon model of action phases in entrepreneurship field by using affordable loss and uncertainty. It also contributes to the literature on affordable loss by examining how environmental uncertainty conditions the effect of affordable loss on entrepreneurial action. Additionally, the negatively moderating role of environmental uncertainty offers a new possibility to explain entrepreneurial uncertainty.

The link between entrepreneurial intention and positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship for established and nascent entrepreneurs has been well documented in the extant literature, with the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) viewing entrepreneurial intention as a pre-requisite for entrepreneurial pursuit. Whilst scholars generally agree on these insights, little empirical evidence exists on how marginalised social groups can convert their intentions into action. This study aims to understand to what extent the elements of TPB, the attitudes towards entrepreneurship, self-efficacy and subjective norms, help explain the emergence of entrepreneurial activity amongst marginalised demographic groups.

This research focuses on unemployed women residing in social housing located in a deprived urban area of the United Kingdom to empirically examine how multiple layers of disadvantage faced by this group shape their motivations and intentions for entrepreneurial pursuit. A multi-source qualitative methodology was adopted, drawing upon inductive storytelling narratives and extensive fieldwork on a sample of unemployed ethnic minority women residing in social housing in a deprived urban area of the United Kingdom. Community organisation representatives and housing association employees within the social housing system were included to assess the interpretive capacity of TPB.

The findings display that TPB illuminates why and how marginalised groups engage in entrepreneurship. Critically, women’s entrepreneurial intentions emerge as a result of their experiences of multiple layers of disadvantage, their positionality and the specificity of few resources they can activate from their disadvantageous position for entrepreneurial activity.

By illuminating the linkages between marginalised women’s positionality and their associated access to the limited pool of resources using the TPB lens, this study contributes to emerging works on disadvantaged populations and entrepreneurial intention-action debate. This work posits that despite facing significant additional challenges through their positionality and reduced ability to mobilise resources, women in social housing can defy the odds and develop ways to overcome limited capacity and structural disadvantage.

Based on action regulation theory (ART), this study aims to test the impact of individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) training on small business owner career success (financial attainment, satisfaction and achievement). Moreover, this relationship was unpacked through a dual mediation model of IEO behaviour and career resilience.

A four-wave, longitudinal randomized controlled field experiment was conducted in which 527 small business owners participated from Lahore, Pakistan (training group = 256, control group = 271). The data analysis was done via ANCOVAs (group comparison) and PROCESS Model 6 (for serial mediation).

The results demonstrated that after getting IEO training, the small business owners had increased IEO behaviour, career resilience and career success as compared to their counterparts in the control group. In addition, the effect of IEO training on career success was attributed to the underlying role of IEO behaviour and career resilience development.

This is one of the few studies that have demonstrated the impact of IEO training on the career-related outcomes based on the action regulation perspective.

The combination of action and process has remained the attention of the psychology of entrepreneurship research. Moreover, special attention has also been paid to the whens and hows of entrepreneurial psychological training. Keeping this in view the current study has tested the impact of individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) training on small business entrepreneurial career resilience. Using action regulation theory (ART), a serial mediation model of IEO behaviour and entrepreneurial career adaptability is hypothesised.

This study used a longitudinal randomised controlled field experiment in which the data were collected at four points. A total of 546 small business owners from Lahore, Pakistan, participated in this research (training group = 265, control group = 281). The data were analysed using ANCOVAs and PROCESS Model 6.

The research has found that IEO training impacts the entrepreneurial career resilience of small business owners through the development of IEO behaviour and career adaptability.

This experimental inquiry is a novel attempt to extend the career-related outcomes of IEO training (career resilience) based on ART through the mediating role of IEO behaviour and career adaptability. In addition, it has tested the IEO training in the developing country of Pakistan, which is a relevant context for enhancing its socio-economic growth.

Having a varied set of skills is essential for becoming and succeeding in entrepreneurship, and developing students’ entrepreneurial skills is a key objective of entrepreneurship education programs at universities worldwide. Moreover, measuring the learning outcomes of education is essential for designing effective training. This review provides a framework of the variety of skills measured in the entrepreneurship education literature.

We reviewed the entrepreneurship education literature and identified 79 studies that used skill-related measures. We identified, grouped, and operationalized entrepreneurial skills related to the entrepreneurial tasks of sensing, acting, and mobilizing under uncertain conditions.

We synthesized the current knowledge related to developing various entrepreneurial skills and provided a framework of ten types of entrepreneurship-related skills measured in prior studies of entrepreneurship education initiatives. We showed that entrepreneurship education develops various skills relevant to entrepreneurship and other concepts, indicating the value of entrepreneurship education for increasing students’ general skill level.

Our framework provides a valuable tool for discussing what skills-related training should be included in entrepreneurship education curricula and how the learning outcomes from entrepreneurship education can be measured. Focusing on students’ entrepreneurial skills is closer to entrepreneurial action than intentions or mindsets, and skills are a more realis-tic and inclusive outcome of entrepreneurship education than start-up rates and self-employment. Thus, entrepreneurial skills are a useful concept for clarifying and measuring the specific learning outcomes of entrepreneurship education.

By focusing on the contextual conditions of South African digital entrepreneurs and the affordances of digital technologies, we understand how connective affordances of digital technologies enable a collective approach to digital entrepreneurship.

We do so through an interpretive field study of South African digital entrepreneurs operating in resource-constrained settings.

The findings highlight how entrepreneurs appropriate digital technologies in collectives to achieve connective actions and cooperate and compete simultaneously, giving rise to what we call coopetitive affordance, reflecting a fresh perspective on coopetition in increasingly digital and resource-constrained realities.

This paper extends the connective affordance perspective by illustrating how the concept of coopetitive affordance brings to light how contextual conditions create a humanitarian bond between entrepreneurs and a digital bond created by their appropriation of digital technologies in collectives.

This study investigates the factors influencing the intention to use Islamic Debt Financing (IDF) among owners-managers of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Morocco.

We developed and validated a comprehensive model that examines the key behavioral elements affecting attitude towards IDF, entrepreneurial achievement motivation, and IDF usage intention. Entrepreneurial achievement motivation was assessed as a mediator in the relationship between attitude towards IDF and usage intention. Gender and Islamic religiosity were examined as moderators through Multi-Group analysis. Utilizing data from 266 Moroccan MSMEs, we applied structural equation modeling for empirical evaluation.

Results revealed direct relationships with financial literacy, risk perception, and cost perception negatively affecting attitude toward IDF. Financial suitability is inversely related to attitude toward IDF. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy and subjective norms positively influenced entrepreneurial achievement motivation. Attitude toward IDF positively impacted entrepreneurial achievement motivation, and both attitude toward IDF and entrepreneurial achievement motivation were linked to the intention to use IDF. Empirical findings indicated that entrepreneurial achievement motivation partially mediates the relationship between attitude towards IDF and usage intention. Multi-group analysis revealed a significant moderating effect of Islamic religiosity on three out of nine structural relationships.

This study is primarily limited by the absence of a longitudinal examination tracking real usage behavior. Moreover, data collection focused on analyzing the behavioral intention to use Islamic debt-based financing products, excluding equity-based financing instruments. Finally, our proposed model concentrates on establishing usage intention solely based on demand-side factors without explicitly integrating supply-side consideration.

Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of IDF adoption behavior and have the potential to support the development of more effective public policies, targeted promotional campaigns, and impactful financial education programs for MSMEs in similar markets.

This paper represents the first attempt to address MSMEs’ apprehensions regarding Islamic debt-based financing products in the MENA region.