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This study investigates a mediational model between legitimated elements, financial resource mobilisation and subsequent early firm growth among New Technology-Based Firms (NTBFs) using conformity and control perspectives of legitimacy.

To test the hypotheses, a longitudinal database of 303 NTBFs from Sweden, Finland and France is used. The ordinary least square regression analysis method is applied, and the proposed mediation relationships are studied by employing the four-step approach developed by Baron and Kenny (1986).

This study finds that based on the conformity principle, two out of three legitimated elements (business plan and incubator relationship, but not start-up experience) have an impact on financial resource mobilisation, which in turn, is associated with early growth in NTBFs based on the control principle. Thus, financial resource mobilisation positively mediates the relationships among the two legitimated elements and early growth in NTBFs.

This study has several limitations, which also generate promising pathways for future research. Future research should study the relationship between the three legitimacy elements and financial resource mobilisation and early growth across a wider range of firms and settings. The questionnaire was also based on a single point in time and could not capture the evolving nature of the legitimacy elements and fundraising. Hence, future research can examine the multidimensionality of these processes; longitudinal qualitative studies can be a complement, allowing for a better understanding of the impact of legitimacy on NTBFs.

The findings offer implications for managers of NTBFs because developing legitimacy is critical to NTBFs early growth and development. The findings indicate that NTBFs' founders must systematically develop business plans and that incubators help enhance legitimacy through a signalling.

It is believed that the study meaningfully contributes to the collective understanding of the role of legitimacy in driving the development of NTBFs. Given the importance of NTBFs in our economies, coupled with the lack of attention given to the role of mobilisation of external resources in explaining NTBF early growth, it is believed that the study is both timely and important.

The findings meaningfully contribute to the collective understanding of NTBF growth. While there are studies that have examined the antecedents of growth and finance separately, this study proposes a novel mediational model that integrates both and tests it empirically.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, using the case of Finnish small business advisors (SBAs), it aims to clarify a controversy in entrepreneurship policy about using public funds to foster solo and micro entrepreneurship. The study reveals the SBAs’ belief systems to facilitate policy-relevant conclusions about their advisory competence, counseling tendencies and probable impact on nascent entrepreneurs and macro consequences like firm displacement. Second, methodologically, the study’s cognitive perspective and method enable researchers to assess the approach and its potential.

The SBAs’ (n=15) belief systems were elicited by interview-based causal mapping. They are summarized using aggregated causal maps and analyzed to understand the SBAs’ dominant mindset and to draw conditional inferences about their professional competence and impacts.

The SBAs have convergent belief systems about the causes and consequences of micro entrepreneurship. They are generally competent to detect and foster viable solo and small micro firms. From a policy viewpoint, however, they ignore indirect effects like firm replication and appear risk aversive, less inclined to promote their clients’ growth intentions and plans.

For entrepreneurship policy makers, the study clarifies a controversial issue. It finds clear grounds for public funding of SBA type services, but this may depend on policy goals and local conditions. For the SBAs, the study suggests proactive, income-generating services for improved financing and legitimacy. For entrepreneurship researchers, it demonstrates the potential and limits of the cognitive approach and causal mapping.

This chapter focusses on how qualitative research can capture the lived experiences of entrepreneurial individuals by exploring their subjective experiences. Traditional methods of data collection involve listening to what entrepreneurial individuals say and observing their actions, although particular attention to their feelings is often absent. To achieve data congruence and to gain a deeper understanding of their lived experiences, it is crucial to also take into consideration how they feel. This chapter will recount a confessional tale recorded during a recent field study in entrepreneurship that will shed light on the pivotal role that a researcher’s sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) trait can play during qualitative data collection in helping researchers becoming mindful of the feelings of entrepreneurial individuals, even when those feelings are not directly expressed by them. The introduction of the researcher’s SPS trait in promoting data congruence during qualitative data collection will be this chapter’s principal contribution.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether business growth intention (BGI) and entrepreneurial motivations enhance the explanatory power of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to predict environmental intention (EI) among nascent entrepreneurs.

In the context of nascent entrepreneurship, the authors collected data from 193 nascent entrepreneurs in France. To test the hypotheses, stepwise multiple regression was performed.

The results show that BGI has a positive influence on EI. This indicates that it is possible for French nascent entrepreneurs to plan the simultaneous pursuit of business growth and environmental goals. However, entrepreneurial motivations have a mixed effect on EI. If necessity motivations negatively influence EI, opportunity motivations have no significant effect on the latter.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first to extend the TBP model with additional factors, namely, BGI and necessity/opportunity motivations, to study EI. Moreover, the extended TBP model is validated in the under-research context of nascent entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of how entrepreneurial potential is developed among young people. Changes in individuals’ entrepreneurial intentions and the antecedents of intentions are investigated, as well as the impact of entrepreneurship education on the changes.

Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is applied. Longitudinal data from 197 HE students, in their first and third year of studies, is examined using path analysis.

Overall the entrepreneurial intentions of HE students decreased over time. Intentions decreased particularly for those with high initial level of intentions, whereas the group with increasing intentions rose from low to neutral level of intentions. Changes in attitudes and perceived behavioral control have a significant positive impact. Versatile entrepreneurship courses have direct effect on changes in attitudes. Changes in attitudes have a dual role, as they influence change in both intentions and perceived behavioral control. The developed model explains 19 percent of the variance among women and 28 percent among men, suggesting gender differences in development of intentions.

Only one way of developing entrepreneurial potential in young people (i.e. education) is covered. The empirical sample is limited to one university.

The results suggest versatile methods of entrepreneurship education are more effective in developing intentions than perhaps purely active modes. Gender differences should be considered when designing interventions to foster entrepreneurial potential.

The research confirms with longitudinal individual-level data the applicability of TPB on entrepreneurial intentions and demonstrates the mediated impact of versatile entrepreneurship courses on changes in intentions.

The objectives of this study are threefold: first, to analyze the development of intentions of individuals over time; second, to explore potential gender differences in intention development; and third, to analyze the relatedness of the initial level and development of the antecedents of intentions to the initial level and the development of intentions.

Ajzen's Theory of Planned behavior is applied. Longitudinal data were collected in the fall of 2010, 2011 and 2012 in seven different universities of applied sciences, with students representing seven different study fields. In our data, there are 192 individuals with all three measurement waves and 104 individuals with two measurement waves. The analysis of change on multi-wave panel data is done using latent growth curve analysis with structural equation modeling.

Our empirical results are threefold. First, entrepreneurial intentions of higher education seem to decrease during their studies. Second, there is a gender difference in the initial level of entrepreneurial intentions and how intentions develop over time. Third, the initial level of intentions does not affect the future development of intentions.

In sum, the authors believe that the paper makes an important contribution to the field of entrepreneurial education by concluding that intention development in higher educational context is not a simple matter, but a rather complicated process during which young people can realize their true potential vis-à-vis entrepreneurial opportunities. From an educators’ point of view, such realization generally means a decrease in an individual's entrepreneurial intentions, which is a phenomenon that does not provide much encouragement for educators. On the other hand, one of the aims of any entrepreneurship education is to give younger people a more realistic picture about entrepreneurship. When someone is willing to start a new business in this kind of context, the authors, as educators, can be a degree more confident that such an individual is not launching his/her venture because of idealistic dreams.

By using a longitudinal design, the paper is one of the first to provide empirical evidence about the intention development over time. Ultimately, the paper hopes to have added richness to the ongoing discussion among academics and educators alike regarding the importance of intention development in entrepreneurship education.

The current study assesses the contribution of entrepreneurship education (EE) in strengthening entrepreneurial attitudes (EAs) and entrepreneurial intentions (EIs) among engineering graduates in India.

Cross-sectional data were collected through an electronic questionnaire from 340 engineering students. Structural equation modeling was performed for hypothesis testing through SmartPLS4 software.

The findings demonstrated that EE, EA and EI are positively and significantly correlated. However, the moderation effect of gender on EE–EI linkage was found to be insignificant.

The study provides comprehensive insights to understand EE effectiveness on students' EI and further opens the path for future researchers to investigate how the inclusion of other constructs in theory of planned behavior and human capital theory can raise the EI among students. Future research should target a larger sample size comprising students from diverse educational streams.

The findings of this research offer various practical contributions for educational establishments, policymakers and the government in formulating constructive educational interventions that fully trigger the student's EIs.

This study adds to the scarce theoretical examination of EE–EI using the human capital approach in developing countries. In addition, this study is highly relevant to the scarce theoretical and empirical support for investigating the contribution of EE in HEIs in India.