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1 – 10 of over 2000
Article
Publication date: 9 August 2011

Mizan Rahman and Nafeez Fatima

The purpose of this paper is to look at various dimensions of entrepreneurship and the empirical models that try to explain the relationship between entrepreneurship and growth in…

2830

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to look at various dimensions of entrepreneurship and the empirical models that try to explain the relationship between entrepreneurship and growth in cities for both developed (USA and Europe) and developing countries.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper provides an in‐depth and extensive review of the existing literature on entrepreneurship and economic growth in cities. In most empirical studies, the growth rate of employment or unemployment rate is used as the dependent variable to analyze the effect of entrepreneurship on development. The important independent variables other than entrepreneurship (new start‐ups) are localization, urbanization, level of education, age, industry structure (specialization vs competition), monopoly or competition. The economic units considered for cities are labor market areas (LMAs), standard metropolitan areas (SMAs) and consolidated metropolitan statistical areas (CMSAs). The majority of studies have utilized discrete dependent variable models such as Tobit or Probit to calculate the probability of the effect of entrepreneurship on economic growth. Other studies have applied ordinary least squares estimation to find the cross‐sectional variation of employment growth that accounts for entrepreneurial activities. Panel data are employed in a number of models to control for region‐specific and country‐specific fixed effects.

Findings

In this paper, four important dimensions of entrepreneurship are identified. First, for entrepreneurial studies on economic growth, cities are considered to be appropriate economic units rather than states or countries. Second, there are several definitions and measurements of entrepreneurship available in the literature. Hence, empirical models and their results may vary depending on the model specification. Third, the relationship between employment growth (a proxy for economic growth) and innovative activity is dynamic in nature and thus the problem of endogeneity needs to be addressed. And, finally, entrepreneurship has a spatial dimension and that characteristic must be incorporated into the urban and regional models of entrepreneurship. Three different types of urban models are chosen to reflect these four central dimensions of entrepreneurship. All three urban models confirm the hypothesis that there exists a statistically significant and positive relationship between entrepreneurship and growth in cities. However, the causality of the relationship is not well established.

Originality/value

A critical and in‐depth summary of existing quantitative work on entrepreneurship and economic growth in different cities is the original contribution of the paper.

Article
Publication date: 7 March 2024

Kassa Woldesenbet Beta, Natasha Katuta Mwila and Olapeju Ogunmokun

This paper seeks to systematically review and synthesise existing research knowledge on African women entrepreneurship to identify gaps for future studies.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to systematically review and synthesise existing research knowledge on African women entrepreneurship to identify gaps for future studies.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper conducted a systematic literature review of published studies from 1990 to 2020 on women entrepreneurship in Africa using a 5M gender aware framework of Brush et al. (2009).

Findings

The systematic literature review of published studies found the fragmentation, descriptive and prescriptive orientation of studies on Africa women entrepreneurship and devoid of theoretical focus. Further, women entrepreneurship studies tended to be underpinned from various disciplines, less from the entrepreneurship lens, mostly quantitative, and at its infancy stage of development. With a primary focus on development, enterprise performance and livelihood, studies rarely attended to issues of motherhood and the nuanced understanding of women entrepreneurship’s embeddedness in family and institutional contexts of Africa.

Research limitations/implications

The paper questions the view that women entrepreneurship is a “panacea” and unravels how family context, customary practices, poverty and, rural-urban and formal/informal divide, significantly shape and interact with African women entrepreneurs’ enterprising experience and firm performance.

Practical implications

The findings and analyses indicate that any initiatives to support women empowerment via entrepreneurship should consider the socially constructed nature of women entrepreneurship and the subtle interplay of the African institutional contexts’ intricacies, spatial and locational differences which significantly influence women entrepreneurs’ choices, motivations and goals for enterprising.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to a holistic understanding of women entrepreneurship in Africa by using a 5M framework to review the research knowledge. In addition, the paper not only identifies unexplored/or less examined issues but also questions the taken-for-granted assumptions of existing knowledge and suggest adoption of context- and gender-sensitive theories and methods.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 March 2018

Alex Bignotti and Ingrid le Roux

Entrepreneurship is considered as a possible solution to youth unemployment, and the number of initiatives fostering youth entrepreneurship has multiplied accordingly, also in…

Abstract

Purpose

Entrepreneurship is considered as a possible solution to youth unemployment, and the number of initiatives fostering youth entrepreneurship has multiplied accordingly, also in Africa. However, the effectiveness of such initiatives also lies in whether young people display personality and contextual dimensions conducive to starting and running businesses. The purpose of this paper is to examine the composition of young South Africans’ “entrepreneurial endowment”, represented by personality traits and contextual variables commonly associated with entrepreneurship.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper surveyed secondary students using a questionnaire constructed from validated measurement instruments, obtaining 827 valid responses. It employed exploratory factor analysis to investigate the composition of respondents’ entrepreneurial endowment. It also compared respondents’ entrepreneurial endowment across demographic variables by means of t-tests and ANOVA.

Findings

The results reveal the existence of an entrepreneurial endowment composed of: need for achievement, locus of control, community support, two role models sub-constructs and two family support sub-constructs. Significant differences from the perspective of gender, cultural background and entrepreneurship education also emerged.

Practical implications

The findings confirm that young South Africans have the entrepreneurial endowment needed to be the recipients of entrepreneurship support and highlight relevant differences across demographic variables.

Originality/value

From a theoretical perspective, this paper unveils the structure of young South Africans’ entrepreneurial endowment, composed of four unique dimensions not found in previous research. The insights gained from comparing entrepreneurial endowment results across different groups offer practical implications.

Details

African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, vol. 9 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-0705

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2024

Jason Scott Entsminger and Lucy McGowan

This paper aims to investigate associations between firm resources and reliance on entrepreneurial marketing (EM) channels among agrofood ventures. It accounts for agropreneur…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate associations between firm resources and reliance on entrepreneurial marketing (EM) channels among agrofood ventures. It accounts for agropreneur gender and racial/ethnic status in the context of marketing channel portfolio composition. The authors examine the established assumption that resource limitations drive EM and whether socially disadvantaged status of agropreneurs is associated with marketing strategy beyond standard resourcing measures.

Design/methodology/approach

Using 2015 Local Foods Marketing Practices Survey data, the authors apply linear regression to investigate differences in the use of EM channels, accounting for resources, social status and other factors.

Findings

Limited-resource ventures rely more on consumer-oriented channels that require EM practices. Socially disadvantaged entrepreneurs favor these channels, even when accounting for resources. Notably, ventures headed by men of color rely more on the most customer-centric local foods marketing channel.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should investigate how social and human capital influences the use of EM.

Practical implications

Entrepreneurial support policy and practice for agropreneurs should be cautious about the “double-burden” folk theorem of intersectional disadvantage and review how to best direct resources on EM to groups most likely to benefit.

Originality/value

This paper uses a unique, restricted, nation-wide, federal data set to examine relationships between resource endowments, social status and the composition of agrofood enterprises’ marketing channel portfolios. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first to include racial- and ethnic-minority status of agropreneurs and to account for intersectionality with gender.

Details

Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1471-5201

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 September 2021

Michele Pinelli, Christian Lechner, Sascha Kraus and Eric Liguori

This paper proposes an Exchange-Based View of the value creation process. The Borrowing from marketing literature, the EBV advances that entrepreneurs and stakeholders are tied by…

3885

Abstract

Purpose

This paper proposes an Exchange-Based View of the value creation process. The Borrowing from marketing literature, the EBV advances that entrepreneurs and stakeholders are tied by exchange relationships, through which they co-create value by reciprocally making and realizing promises of value.

Design/methodology/approach

Propositions are developed and offered to advance the role of exchange in the entrepreneurial value creation process.

Findings

The authors conceptualize the enterprise as a system of exchange relationships between entrepreneurs and their stakeholders, thus proposing an exchange-based view of entrepreneurship.

Originality/value

Such an account of the role of entrepreneurs and of their relationship with the stakeholders has meaningful implications for our understanding of the entrepreneurial tasks of opportunity recognition and exploitation.

Details

Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, vol. 29 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1462-6004

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 March 2023

Sasha Boucher, Margaret Cullen and André Paul Calitz

Contemporary entrepreneurial ecosystem models and frameworks advocate that culture is a criterion for entrepreneurial intention and central to entrepreneurship discourse. However…

1718

Abstract

Purpose

Contemporary entrepreneurial ecosystem models and frameworks advocate that culture is a criterion for entrepreneurial intention and central to entrepreneurship discourse. However, there is limited research from resource-constrained economies, such as sub-Saharan Africa and at a sub-national level. Responding to calls for bottom-up perspectives hinged on local context and heterogeneous nature, this paper aims to provide an in-depth understanding from multiple perspectives about the effect that culture and entrepreneurial intention have on the entrepreneurship process and performance in Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa.

Design/methodology/approach

A mixed-method research design followed a sequential independent process consisting of two phases. Phase 1 included the dissemination of questionnaires to economically active participants, and 300 responses were statistically analysed. In Phase 2, 15 semi-structured interviews with influential economic development agents were conducted.

Findings

The results indicated that social legitimacy towards entrepreneurship existed and self-employment was viewed positively. However, self-employment endeavours were mainly necessity driven, and the systemic low levels of innovation, poor business competitiveness and the inability to scale were highlighted. The findings indicated that individuals venturing into business had a culture of being dependant on the government, lacking a risk appetite, fearing failure, with disparate groups suffering from a poor legacy of entrepreneurship.

Originality/value

Despite research done on the role of culture and entrepreneurial intention on entrepreneurial ecosystems, there are few case studies showing their influence at a sub-national level. This study responds to calls for studies on a sub-national level by exploring the influence that culture and entrepreneurial intention have on entrepreneurship in a resource-constrained metropole.

Details

Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2053-4604

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 April 2023

Ruling Hong, Minlu Zhan and Fuxi Wang

This study explores configurations that promote the development of collective economies in China's rural villages and reveals the multiple development pathways that otherwise…

Abstract

Purpose

This study explores configurations that promote the development of collective economies in China's rural villages and reveals the multiple development pathways that otherwise remain relatively unexamined in the literature.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors obtained first-hand representative case data from 20 villages in 12 counties in 5 provinces in East, West and Central China via fieldwork and applied fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to conduct a configurational comparative study of the development of village collective economies.

Findings

This paper identifies five factors in the current literature that affect the development of village collectives, based on an “entrepreneur–situation” analytical framework. Using the fsQCA method, this study further obtains two main configurations of conditions that culminate in the growth of rural collective economies in China. The first solution is the “top-down path”: When entrepreneurial leadership (EL), resource endowment (RE) and government assistance (GA) are present, a village collective economy will experience a high level of development, irrespective of policy support (PS) and villagers' participation (VP). The second solution is the “bottom-up path”: When EL, VP and PS are present and GA is not present, a village collective economy will experience a high level of development, irrespective of RE. In both situations, EL stands out as the core condition for the development of village collective economies, implying the need for the government to vigorously cultivate the entrepreneurial skills and aspirations of village cadres.

Originality/value

Taking a configurational perspective and using an fsQCA approach, this research constructs an “entrepreneur–situation” analytical framework to investigate the key combinations of factors and pathways involved in the high level of development of Chinese village collective economies.

Details

China Agricultural Economic Review, vol. 15 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-137X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 March 2012

Lucio Cassia and Tommaso Minola

This study seeks to focus on factors characterizing a pool of hyper‐growth firms, trying to gather insights on how the hyper‐growth firms achieve hyper‐growth.

3502

Abstract

Purpose

This study seeks to focus on factors characterizing a pool of hyper‐growth firms, trying to gather insights on how the hyper‐growth firms achieve hyper‐growth.

Design/methodology/approach

A theoretical framework is proposed, borrowing well established approaches from strategic management and entrepreneurship. Subsequently, some explorative case studies are described and help in understanding how much of a firm's hyper‐growth can be explained by the resource endowment and entrepreneurial orientation (EO). A revised framework and some propositions are eventually suggested.

Findings

Hyper‐growth seems mainly explainable by extraordinary business opportunities and extraordinary access to resources (especially knowledge‐based). Entrepreneurship appears much more as a moderating variable, rather than an explanatory variable per se of hyper‐growth.

Research limitations/implications

Although the case study approach is robustly motivated as a research step that can contribute to the process of theory building, the findings are not statistically generalizable.

Practical implications

It has long been argued that policy makers and governments, especially in Europe, should concentrate their efforts on those industries and environments where rapid growth firms are likely to be found. The paper offers a practical example on a suitable environment to facilitate such growth, where practices like mergers and acquisitions in foreign countries as well as venture capital and private equity financing play a role.

Originality/value

No research has been performed so far on the explicit link between resources, EO and hyper‐growth. Moreover, the research suggests a possible reconciliation of resource‐based view (RBV) and EO frameworks in explaining such a pattern.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 18 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 24 March 2017

Gina Dokko and Geraldine A. Wu

How does career boundary-crossing affect an entrepreneur’s new venture? When entrepreneurs cross industry or functional boundaries to lead startups, they may lack specific…

Abstract

How does career boundary-crossing affect an entrepreneur’s new venture? When entrepreneurs cross industry or functional boundaries to lead startups, they may lack specific experience needed for performance. Conversely, the diverse experiences they carry can enhance exploration and lead to the emergence of innovation in startups. We highlight important consequences of career boundary-crossing, using a multi-industry longitudinal sample of high-technology firms. We find that entrepreneurs who cross functional boundaries are more likely to lead their startups into new product areas. We also find that entrepreneurs’ industry boundary-crossing is associated with startup failure, but it also increases the probability of an IPO.

Details

Emergence
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-915-5

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 May 2018

Zhenzhong Ma, Jinwei Zhu, Yong Meng and Ying Teng

Entrepreneurship research clearly documents the importance of human and social capital and stresses the way in which entrepreneurs take advantage of their own social affiliations…

1440

Abstract

Purpose

Entrepreneurship research clearly documents the importance of human and social capital and stresses the way in which entrepreneurs take advantage of their own social affiliations and network strategies in pursuit of their entrepreneurial goals, yet the research on returnee entrepreneurs’ human and social capital is not sufficiently studied in the international context, in particular when returnees’ overseas human capital and social capital may be a misfit with local business environment. Using the data from Chinese returnee entrepreneurs’ venture activities in China, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of returnee entrepreneurs’ overseas capital (human and social) and domestic capital (human and social) on their venture performance in China, and further explore the interaction effect of different social and human capital with China’s entrepreneurial environment.

Design/methodology/approach

This study surveyed 500 start-up businesses created by returnee entrepreneurs in China to collect data. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data on their demographic information, the information about the human and social capital of these returnee entrepreneurs, including domestic and overseas capital, various performance measures, and other control variables ending up with 226 usable questionnaires.

Findings

The results show that Chinese returnee entrepreneurs’ overseas human capital and social capital, as well as their domestic social capital, but not domestic human capital, have a significant impact on their venture performance. In addition, while domestic entrepreneurial environment does not affect the impact of overseas human and social capital on venture performance, it does provide an important contextual setting for domestic capital to improve returnee entrepreneurs’ venture performance.

Originality/value

The findings help enrich the understanding of the dynamic interplays among Chinese returnee entrepreneurs’ domestic human capital and social capital, overseas human capital, and social capital, as well as the entrepreneurial environment for returnee entrepreneurs’ success, which makes an important contribution to the international entrepreneurship theory by showing that overseas human capital and social capital are not a misfit with local markets. It also provides empirical support for the mediating effect of entrepreneurial opportunity identification. The important role of entrepreneurial opportunity is empirically supported in an international context: entrepreneurship is all about the discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities and exploitation of this opportunity to create viable business entities for new products and services, even in the Chinese context, a culture which is very different from the ones where the entrepreneurship theory was developed.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 25 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

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