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This study aims at developing an understanding of action pathways when adverse events force micro-enterprises to change their operations.

This qualitative study draws upon empirical data collected from entrepreneurs facing the same adverse event—the COVID-19 pandemic—to build theory on different types of actions that micro-enterprises take and what leads up to these actions.

The findings suggest three types of action pathways. The first pathway is set off by losses stretched out over time and generates open-ended actions. The second pathway is set off by immediate losses and generates survival-oriented actions. The third pathway is set off by potential long-term losses and generates developmental-oriented actions.

This study offers novel insights into action pathways in response to adverse events, heterogeneity of such actions and processes that precede the choice of actions. It also expands the existing literature by showcasing actual actions instead of desired actions, which have already been extensively studied.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of the organization-trainee relationship through a psychological contract lens, by exploring the psychological contract between the trainee and organization during and after the program and what factors may account for contract reciprocity.

Inductive qualitative study design.

Data suggested that factors accounting for contract reciprocity during the program included: trainees’ responsibilities, trainees’ personal and professional development, trainees’ commitment, trainees’ delivery, and managerial and supervisory support. Factors identified accounting for contract reciprocity after individuals completed the program were: career opportunities, future-oriented dialogue between former trainees and managers, wage-setting, job tasks, and working conditions.

This exploratory research is original in that it identifies different factors accounting for the reciprocity during and after the program, and how this may be particularly relevant when talents are recruited externally to specifically participate in the program.

The purpose of this paper is to draw on the theory of choice overload to examine how entrepreneurial tenure and involvement in entrepreneurial teams influence passion for engaging in entrepreneurship.

A survey was administered to 262 Swedish hybrid entrepreneurs, which refers to individuals who engage in entrepreneurship while also maintaining wage work; this arrangement is becoming more and more common in the Nordic economies. Hypotheses proposed associations between the entrepreneurial tenure (the length of engagement in the side business) and entrepreneurial teams (leading the business with one or more team members) with passion for entrepreneurship. Logistic regression was used to test the hypotheses.

Results from logistic regression support the hypotheses with three findings: the longer the individual has had the side business, the less likely passion to be the main motive behind entrepreneurship; passion is less likely to be the main motive behind entrepreneurship among those who are part of an entrepreneurial team; and, involvement in an entrepreneurial team strengthens the negative association between entrepreneurial tenure and passion for entrepreneurship.

The data are limited to the creative sector in Sweden and to the hybrid entrepreneurship context.

The results support the impact of choice overload and the notions that entrepreneurship passion will decrease the longer the business is up running and if the venturing occurs with another team member. In practice, this means that interventions for re-kindling passion in entrepreneurship should focus on dealing with choice overload under conditions of long-term tenure and team-funded ventures. If entrepreneurs want to maintain high levels of passion, quick and isolated entrepreneurial processes reduce the choice overload that may threaten maintaining a high passion for entrepreneurship.

This study is the first to apply choice theory to an entrepreneurship context and to find support for possible negative effects of choice overload on passion for entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the motives behind individuals’ choice to have parallel business-employment careers (hybrid entrepreneurship) with a particular focus on passion (i.e. to work with something one is passionate about) as the main motive.

A survey was administered to 262 Swedish hybrid entrepreneurs. Hypotheses proposed associations of the individual's age at business start-up and weekly hours spent on the business with passion as the main motive for the hybrid form. Logistic regression was used to test the hypotheses.

The results indicated that first, the ability to work with something one is passionate about is the top motive for combining employment with a side business; second, passion is more likely to be the main motive behind the hybrid form among individuals who are older at business start-up; third, passion is less likely to be the main motive behind the hybrid form among individuals who spend more time on the business.

The study focusses on passion as motive for hybrid entrepreneurship, and in doing so, it does not test the extent to which hybrid entrepreneurs experience passion.

The results support the popular notion that passion drives people to have parallel business-employment careers. Findings indicating that passion as a motive is more common among those who are older at start-up and less common among those who spend more time on the business suggest the importance of acknowledging hybrid entrepreneurs’ various profiles when approaching them in research and practice.

This is the first study on motives behind hybrid entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this study is to develop and test a framework describing the interplay between collective organizational identity, network behaviors and performance in strategic networks.

The study uses data from 141 firms that participated in strategic networks. Structural equation modeling is used to test the hypotheses.

This study demonstrates how a firm’s collective organizational identity directs managerial perceptions toward partner’s opportunism in strategic networks; how these views shape interactions with network partners; and how these interactions facilitate firm adaptations within strategic networks. Moreover, it demonstrates how network adaptations affect the satisfaction with strategic network performance and how this ultimately loops back to influence organizational identity.

Given the limits of quantitative research to capture the mechanisms driving network collaborations, further case-based research on the role of organizational identity for network behaviors is needed.

The results highlight the importance of collective organizational identity for network behaviors and positive performance outcomes. Firms that intend to engage in strategic networks should develop a collective organizational identity that supports implementing the network strategy. The results emphasize the importance of developing a collective organizational identity.

Organizational identity in facilitating network behaviors.

This paper aims to explore the reasons behind individuals’ motivational drivers to start social enterprises in Nigeria and their persistence in the entrepreneurial process. By presenting an emergent model, the paper aims to provide more understanding on why certain individuals devote their efforts in addressing nagging issues and tackling longstanding inefficiencies in communities and societies.

An inductive study, which draws upon qualitative data (interviews and archival data) of social entrepreneurs and people surrounding them, was conducted.

The findings show that local conditions such as widespread ignorance and unscientific beliefs together with the individual’s intentional mindset are contributing factors, which explain engagement in starting a social enterprise. It is further suggested that the combination of local conditions and intentional mindset, in turn, triggers the individuals’ passion for a cause that is facilitated by the support provided from their social network, which both seem to be important for maintaining persistence in the oftentimes challenging situation of being a social entrepreneur.

This study makes two significant contributions to the literature of social entrepreneurship. First, the study presents an emergent model that introduces specific empirically grounded reasons toward individuals’ drives and motives for starting and persisting in social entrepreneurship. Second, the study adds to the development of literature by highlighting the importance of contextual factors when studying social entrepreneurship and also provides explanations for the significant role of passion for social entrepreneurial activities.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how new technology-based firms (NTBFs) overcome established notions of scale and scope through business model innovation, leveraging the value from digitalization.

The study adopts an exploratory research design, drawing on a novel data set of 50 publicly available interviews with vertical farming (VF) industry leaders and insiders who represent 36 different organizations from North America and Europe.

The study develops a framework showing how NTBFs leverage the value from digitalization via a paradoxical approach combining both efficiency and novelty value drivers.

The study extends current theorizing on the desirability of a combined business model approach leveraging both efficiency and novelty from digitalization. Furthermore, the study is among the first to investigate the unique and highly technological context of VF.

This conceptual paper explores how the activation of the individual-level trait grit can explain variance in successor willingness to take over leadership of the family firm.

Drawing from trait activation and situation strength theories, the authors develop a framework to examine the interactions of the two dimensions of grit (passion and perseverance) on the successor's willingness to take control of the family firm.

The authors identify how the grit dimensions would interact with the situational cues present during the succession process to predict the successor's willingness to take control of the family firm and offer testable propositions to guide future empirical work.

The authors help to address the growing need for additional microfoundational family firm research by drawing insights from organizational behavior theories and personality research and apply them to the family firm succession process.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the implications of board human capital heterogeneity for company innovation by focusing on the educational and the functional background of directors. Moreover, it examines the moderating effect of the CEO expertise-overlap within the innovation domain on the relationship between board human capital heterogeneity and firm innovation.

The hypotheses are tested through a set of ordinary least squares regressions on a unique dataset of 149 Italian high-tech companies observed between 2012 and 2015.

Findings show that the educational and the functional background heterogeneity of directors increase both the innovation input and output. However, results highlight that these relationships are negatively moderated by the CEO expertise-overlap within the innovation domain.

The paper emphasizes the importance of appointing directors with different and specific educational and functional backgrounds to foster the company innovation.

The paper fills a gap in the literature as it has devoted limited attention to the performance implications of board human capital heterogeneity in the high-tech industry where knowledge and skills are the primary sources of value. Moreover, the paper integrates the research on the CEO-board interface by shedding light on how the CEO expertise within the innovation domain affects the contribution of heterogeneous boards to company innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model to analyse what personality traits impact entrepreneurial cognitive and social strategic decision-making skills, originating from the effectuation framework.

A total of 128 participants from an entrepreneurial pre-launch programme were assessed by experienced incubator and business coaches. Personality was measured by a Big Five test. Based on a confirmatory factor analysis, the relationships were analysed between personality and three core dimensions of the effectuation framework: the bird-in-hand principle, the crazy quilt principle and the pilot in the plane principle.

Specific patterns (moderation effects) as opposed to levels of personality traits proved to be relevant. The bird-in-hand and the crazy quilt principles are related to the moderating effect between sensitivity to feedback, sociability and ambition. The pilot in the plane principle was related to the whole pattern of entrepreneurial key qualities embedded in the extraversion domain. Furthermore, relationships of personality with key issues in the effectuation framework were found, examples being reflecting on a high diversity of means or on own talents, conducting a thorough risk analysis and engaging in inspirational networking. The final model revealed a direct positive influence of the capacity to conduct a thorough risk analysis on the overall capacity to apply the effectuation principles.

A limitation of this study is the exclusion of the lemonade principle from the final model. This being based on unsatisfying model fit indices. Another limitation is the cross-sectional design, as well as the chosen research context: the pre-launch entrepreneurial programme.

The research results shed a light on the impact that personality plays in adoption of effectual decision making.

The effectuation framework is widely used by individual entrepreneurs, SMEs and start-ups, to design innovative business models or implement an up-scaling strategy.

Little is known about the underlying mechanisms of the effectuation framework. Moreover, evidence-based insights are offered to entrepreneurs that intent to mobilise effectual behaviours.