Search results

The majority of emerging and young firms work under resource constraints. This has made researchers highlight the importance of resourcefulness. Perhaps the most important theoretical development in this context is the emerging, behavioral theory of entrepreneurial bricolage. However, although academic interest is increasing, research on entrepreneurial bricolage has been hampered by the lack of robust instruments that allow large-scale theory testing. The purpose is to help fill this void. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and contents of a novel measure of entrepreneurial bricolage behavior and assesses its validity. The measure is intended to be applicable in broadly based, quantitative studies.

The instrument was developed as a unidimensional, reflective measure. Standard protocols for scale development were followed. The validation uses primary, longitudinal data from four samples of nascent and young firms as well as published, cross-sectional evidence from another four samples representing different contexts and variations to the data collection procedure.

Promising results are reported concerning the reliability as well as the discriminant and nomological validity of the measure. Based on the pre-testing and validation experiences guidelines are also provided for attempts at further improvements.

This paper presents a novel measure developed by the authors, which holds promise for being a useful tool for future research on the prevalence, antecedents, and consequences of entrepreneurial bricolage. Previously, no established measure of entrepreneurial bricolage behavior existed, and the few partial measures appearing in the literature have not been comprehensively evaluated. Thus, we offer a comprehensive and elaborate presentation of a measure only briefly introduced in Davidsson (2016) and Senyard et al., (2014).

The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of entrepreneurial intention in promoting women entrepreneurship in Indian micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). This study seeks to clarify the construct of entrepreneurial intention and then reports the validation of the entrepreneurial intention instrument.

An instrument has been designed and administered on a sample of 103 respondents across India from women entrepreneurs to understand the entrepreneurial intention by using cluster and snowball sampling. The data has been streamlined and then analyzed using descriptive analysis for validity and reliability checks.

This research was aimed to determine the constructs of entrepreneurial intention. Through data analysis, it has been observed that the reliability coefficients reveal the adequacy of the sample. The Cronbach’s alpha values for all the items in the instrument were found to be greater than or equal to 0.6. Strong correlations were also found between direct and indirect measures of entrepreneurial intention and hence confirmed that all the measures in the instrument were well constructed. Analysis has also explained the relationship between various constructs of entrepreneurial intention by using Pearson’s correlation coefficients. Strong and positive values of correlation explain the existence of the convergent and discriminant validity of the instrument.

The research results obtained from the analysis of reliability and validity tests not only provides the establishment of the relationship among the various constructs but also suggests that the model provides a promising potential to measure entrepreneurial intention. This study will contribute to new knowledge of the conditions of women entrepreneurship from different perspectives by developing and validating an analytic model for promoting the women entrepreneurship in MSMEs of India.

From a government perspective, this model will help in designing training programmes for promoting women entrepreneurship in India. The obtained result also brings significant implications for practice as well as raises a broad future direction for other researchers

Extended SCCT model has recently suggested an inclusive framework of factors affecting the entrepreneurial intention, there is not much attempt made in research using this theory as background for predicting intention in the context of women entrepreneurship. This paper attempts to fill this gap by formulating a conceptual model for measuring entrepreneurial intention among women entrepreneurs by integrating and adapting the constructs of extended social cognitive career theory model and entrepreneurial potential model.

There is progress in entrepreneurship research. Important works in entrepreneurship increasingly appear in highly respected, mainstream journals (see Busenitz et al., 2003; Davidsson, Low & Wright, 2001). There is conceptual development that attracts attention (e.g. Shane & Venkataraman, 2000) and handbooks are compiled, providing the field with more of a common body of knowledge (Acs & Audretsch, 2003a; Shane, 2000a; Westhead & Wright, 2000). Further, there is evidence of methodological improvements (Chandler & Lyon, 2001) and accumulation of meaningful findings on various levels of analysis (Davidsson & Wiklund, 2001). Moreover, due to time lags in publication the reported improvements are likely to be underestimated. This author’s experience as organizer, reviewer and participant in core entrepreneurship conferences on both sides of the Atlantic (e.g. Babson; RENT) suggests that much of the lower end of the quality distribution has either disappeared from the submissions or is screened out in the review process. Much more than used to be the case a few years back we find among the presented papers research that is truly theory-driven; research on the earliest stages of business development, and research that employs methods suitable for causal inference, i.e. experiments and longitudinal designs.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how different strategic choices related to the transitions in-and-out of exporting (export entry, export persistence, export exit) impact employment growth in Romanian small- and medium-sized businesses.

Using linear regression models on a sample of 566 Romanian SMEs, The authors model employment growth as a function of three different dimensions of foreign market participation: export entry, persistence and exit.

Results indicate that exporting is positively associated with employment growth. The findings reveal that the different strategic choices linked to exporting have a differentiating impact on employment growth: while employment growth is more pronounced among new exporters which points to the presence of an impulse effect of exporting, businesses that interrupt their exporting activities report employment losses.

This study underlines the relevance of distinguishing the specific impact of the different export behaviours related to the transitions in-and-out of exporting.

The results of the study fuel the debate on the relevance of promoting policies that encourage exporting among small businesses operating in emerging economies.

This study presents an original analysis of the distinctive effect that different forms of export behaviour related to the transitions in-and-out of exporting have on employment growth. The relevance of this study not only flows from the particular empirical design that simultaneously evaluates different export choices and their specific impact on employment growth.

While the social sciences do not make “scientific discoveries” of the kind made in the natural sciences, the empirical patterns revealed in Tables 1a and b struck us as coming close to that. Consider especially the “organic as percent of total” columns. They show an astonishingly clear and strong relationship between the size class of firms and the proportion of total growth that is organic. The effect is actually so strong that large firms defined as “high growth” in terms of total employment growth actually shrink quite markedly in organic terms (cf. Davidsson, 2005, p. 153; Davidsson & Delmar, 2006).

This article provides an account of how databases can be effectively used in entrepreneurship research. Improved quality and access to large secondary databases offer paths to answer questions of great theoretical value. I present an overview of theoretical, methodological, and practical difficulties in working with database data, together with advice on how such difficulties can be overcome. Conclusions are given, together with suggestions of areas where databases might provide real and important contributions to entrepreneurship research.

How general can a “general” theory of entrepreneurship be? Abstraction is a necessity but is it possible to include venture opportunity variation in a general theory of entrepreneurship building on two contrasting perspectives such as equilibrium economics and disequilibrium economics. Two important boundaries need to be explicated. First, defining entrepreneurship as the creation of new economic activity includes both the creation of new means – ends (cf. Schumpeter, 1934) – as well as optimizing within known means – ends frameworks (cf. Kirzner, 1997). Second, such a theory includes an opportunity – actor nexus because it is the first tangible or intangible evidence of existing venture opportunities. Formal models of entrepreneurship often start with a person and at some point in time an exchange of persons with firms take place which is confusing because both levels of analysis and outcome are mixed with each other. Apparently, there is no such thing as entrepreneurship without actors, but if we want to create knowledge about the creation of economic activity, we need to frame our boundary around the nascent initiative instead of single actors and/or teams of actors because value can only be assessed in relation to the costs of services withdrawn. Analogous to this is, for example, the theory of firm and the theory of organizations with boundaries well beyond single actors or groups of actors. Another factor behind a venture-based theory of entrepreneurship comes from empirical evidence from the Swedish PSED, which suggests that approximately 16% (n=97) nascent entrepreneurs are exchanged during the start-up process. Formal models of entrepreneurship could therefore start with the nexus of venture opportunities and enterprising actors as suggested by Shane (2003) or with resources as suggested by Davidsson (2000) and progress forward in the entrepreneurial process. Entrepreneurship models built around the economic activity itself needs to be dynamic allowing different outcomes and feedback loops because resource combinations alter our perception of value and diffuses information, which may lead to additional resource combinations (Hayek, 1945).

Despite an increase in businesses started by celebrities, we have limited understanding as to how celebrity entrepreneurs benefit new ventures. Drawing on a reputational capital perspective, we develop the notion of celebrity capital and show how it can be used to uniquely differentiate the venture and to overcome liabilities of newness. We discuss how celebrity capital can negatively influence the venture when negative information about the celebrity surfaces and in terms of limiting the scope of the venture. We discuss the different strategic implications of celebrity capital for ventures using celebrity entrepreneurs versus endorsers.

Whether or not nascent entrepreneurs should spend time developing a business plan is still an issue of debate for both scholars and practitioners. This chapter contributes to a better understanding on the uses and expectations of planning among business start-ups by taking a deeper and more granular approach than previous research. The chapter examines not only if planning is used but also how it is used and how this changes over time. Contrary to current thinking, the research suggests that for most firms the issue of planning may be a question of choice more than a request from institutional pressure. The insights developed in this chapter provide a foundation for future theorizing about the antecedents and effects of business planning for start-ups.